Hooray D accepted! Some questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>My D was accepted EA yesterday. She is rightfully thrilled, partly because she spent enough time at MIT to know she would fit in. I have a few questions for those in the know about MIT:</p>

<li><p>How safe is it? I was there only once and was struck by the parking lots that people had to cross to get to some of the dorms and labs. Also, I went to school in a very safe time and place where people actually left wallets on library desks, and no one ever stole anything. (Obviously this level of safety doesn’t exist in an urban school or perhaps anywhere anymore.) Are students conscious of safety? Do they keep dormitory doors locked? What assurance can I have that no dangerous outsiders are lurking in the showers?</p></li>
<li><p>One of the reasons D wanted to go to MIT is that she sensed that MIT students are encouraged to try new extra curricular activities rather than just do those in which they have already excelled. Is this really true? (I hope so.)</p></li>
<li><p>Where do freshman eat dinner if they live in a dormitory without a dining hall? Do people cook for themselves often? </p></li>
<li><p>We read about some pre-orientation programs last year. When are these programs scheduled?</p></li>
<li><p>How often do students go without sleep?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks to anyone who answers.</p>

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<p>I'm sorry I can't answer any of your questions.
I just wanted to say: congratulations !!! This is a great achievement!</p>

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<p>They have a 6 billion dollar endowment - they would not let security be an issue. Plus Harvard's proximity.</p>

<p>beprepn</p>

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<p>

Lol, I'm interested in that one :) </p>

<p>Though I haven't got into MIT yet. But it doesn't hurt to ask :)</p>

5

<p>The time you spend without sleep is usually commensurate with how poor your time management skills are. :)</p>

<p>This place is safe enough. You can get nearly anywhere on campus indoors, besides.</p>

<p>Pre-orientation programs are scheduled during the week before orientation. This year, everyone had to be on campus for orientation on 8/30, so those programs were in the days before that.</p>

<p>People eat at the Student Center (LaVerdes, Anna's, Alpine, Lobdell, etc.), Pritchett, Kendall Square, Harvard Square, other places in the vicinity, or they just buy groceries and cook.</p>

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<p>Congratulations. As a parent of an MIT Freshman I know how proud and happy you are for your child right now. You should be. I am not an expert, but I can give you a parents perspective. I'll start by saying that all the questions you have will be answered by MIT through mailings, on line, or at Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) in April. If at all possible, do NOT miss CPW, it will put many of your concerns to rest. The longer my son is at MIT and the more I learn, the more I like MIT.
Safety: As you mentioned, MIT is an urban school, and as such it helps to be a bit streetwise. The campus itself feels safe enough and I can't think of any parking lots one must cross to reach any of the dorms. My son had his locked bike stolen on day three. Going back to being streetwise, it was too good a bike for Campus transportation. Would he leave his wallet on the table? Ha! He's a teenage boy and would probably leave his head on the table if it were not attached. They're smart but they're still kids. Seriously though, why chance it? Use judgement and don't take chances or tempt fate. The dorms seem secure, I don't imagine dorm security is much of a problem, and again, Campus security will have all the statistics for you at CPW. My son has never locked his private room and has had nothing stolen.
There are countless opportunities to try new things, both on campus and off in the Cambridge - Boston area. I think that just being around so many people that are looking for ways to make new friends, fit in, learn new things, will lead to a bit of exploration. My son is involved in several things that I would have bet anything he would never have tried had he not gone to MIT.
My son has pledged a fraternity (one of those things I thought he would never do) yet is required to live in the dorm this year. His dorm does not have a dining facility but he eats all his weekday dinners at the Frat house. You are never more then one building away from a dorm that has dining facilities and all the dorms that I'm aware of have cooking facilities available. There are many on campus dining options and from what I can tell nobody is starving.
Pre-orientation is just prior to the start of classes in the fall and you will learn all about that and how to register through the mail. You may be referring to CPW though, and again, GO if you can. Make hotel reservations early.
My son has not lost any sleep yet, though he is only just now completing his first semester of freshman year. I understand that the workload intensifies and that may change. I agree with the previous poster that it probably all comes down to time management.
You did not ask about booze or drugs but I will say that I am told by my son that if that's what you are looking for, you will have no trouble finding it. On the flip side, he does not see it as a pervasive part of life at MIT, and feels absolutely no pressure whatsoever to participate. I was told by Campus security that MIT does not even budget for damage repair in the dorms. THAT is unheard of on most college campuses.
With a grand total of one semester behind us I can say that there is no other school I can think of that I would rather see my son attend. I don't mean this solely from an academic point of view. The opportunities you speak of to try new things, to meet an incredibly diverse group of students, and to be around really smart people is amazing. You'll hear it again from others, but it really is true that there is a plapable sense of excitement in the air at this place, you can feel it. I can't think of anywhere else that has such opportunities. My son is happier then I had ever hoped, he is doing well in his classes and socially. Again, I congratulate you and am happy to try to answer any question you may have. Please feel free to send me a private message anytime.
Just one more thing. I have found the MIT Blogs to be a great way to get a sense of MIT. The bloggers are both Admission Staff and students, you get a real sense of their genuine concern and a good insight into the type of people your child wil be around.</p>

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<p>Congrats to your D, enfall2004! Like 56forceout (hi again! :) ), I am the parent of an MIT freshman. His answers are all good, and mine differ slightly, again from the perspective of a parent who's watched this from afar. (Since your D got her acceptance yesterday, I can safely assume you're in the greater Boston area.)</p>

<p>1. How safe is it?
It is a very safe campus, for a city campus. I've spoken with the campus security chief and was informed that the major crime on campus was theft: leaving a wallet unattended wouldn't work for long. You can peruse the federal Office of Postsecondary Education website here for recent data on almost any school; just find your way to MIT through this page and click the links at the bottom of the resulting page for crime details.</p>

<p>*2. ... extra curricular activities *
Yes, it appears to be really true. My son also has gotten involved in some activities I wouldn't have guessed, and is learning to take public transportation to get everywhere from Harvard to NYC.</p>

<p>3. Where do freshman eat dinner if they live in a dormitory without a dining hall? Do people cook for themselves often?
The student bloggers (read their blogs: start from MyMIT and you do not have to register) say more about this in their daily life blogs. My S lives in a dorm without a dining hall. He has the choice of putting $ on his cash card and using the dining halls, but in reality he never does. He <em>does</em> cook for himself in his hall kitchen some -- not as much as I would like, although he has a "Mom's Greatest Hits" cookbook and the bare necessities to enable him to do so. There are food trucks and a food court and a few palatable eating places on campus where he tends to eat (LSA has listed them), and he gets groceries from the wonderful Star Market, a short walk from campus. He, like all MIT students, seems to have really good radar for FREE FOOD anywhere on campus. </p>

<p>4. ... pre-orientation ... When are these programs scheduled?
56forceout has mentioned these -- CPW (Campus Preview Weekend, the admitted students (and parents) weekend in April) is FANTASTIC and not to be missed. As a parent, I learned more at CPW than I could ever imagine, and was very comfortable with MIT afterwards. I can't tell you about the pre-orientation trips and classes, but I'm sure someone else can. The actual details about them are not mailed to prefrosh until sometime over the summer, but CPW info will be out early in the new year: MAKE HOTEL RESERVATIONS EARLY.</p>

<p>5. How often do students go without sleep?
My S seems to get sleep, but much differently than he used to. He sleeps in little 3-hour "power naps" at various times. The reality is that he is often up until 2am or later working on problem sets or written assignments. I've heard it said that the MIT clock runs differently: it's several hours skewed from the rest of us. (I figure this will work well when he returns to the west coast for holidays: no jet lag, yay! :) ) As LSA mentioned, the "going without sleep" thing seems to be mitigated by time management skills... but not entirely. Pretty much everyone is light on sleep, from what I can tell. (Just an outside observation!)</p>

<p>Like 56forceout, I cannot think of another place my S would rather be, nor anyplace we'd rather he be. He's working hard -- REALLY hard -- but he's clearly having a fantastic time. I, too, stand ready to answer any questions you might want to pose, here or in PM or email.</p>

<p>CONGRATS!</p>

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<p>I've got some input regarding sleep, even though I don't know the exact circumstances at MIT. I've been at a residential high school since my sophmore year now, and I've had the chance to take on many, many classes/projects. Because of this, my sleep cycle has shifted from a normal 6 straight hours of sleep per night to something a bit more interesting. Depending on the workload, I may get all that sleep, but in the busiest of times, it will often turn into, as was mentioned before, 'power naps'. I may be up until 3 - 4 am finishing up a big project, or a pset equivelant, and I'll be tired the next day, but I've learned to take short, 20 minute naps. For example, many days I have a full schedule (8 am until 8 or 9 pm, depending on the day/how late a certain teacher decides to stay). Normally, on 3ish hours of sleep, this would be impossible, but if I take a 20 minute nap, say, during lunchtime (spending the other 10 eating), and a 20 minute nap during dinnertime, I can manage prettty well. Nights that I don't have classes from 7-9, I usually pass out for an hour or two also. </p>

<p>From what I've heard, MIT's sleep patterns are similar, to some extent. If your daughter goes there, I would expect it to be a (relatively gradual) change into this sleep pattern (I'm not sure it's regular enough to be called a cycle). Even though this isn't a lot of sleep, overall, it can be survived on with relative ease, and the work that can be completed in the time that's not spent sleeping is generally very much worth it.</p>

<p>Anyway, any current/past MIT students please correct any mis-assumptions of mine. :)</p>

<p>And congratz on your daughter's acceptance. (I'll be checking for mine tomorrow ;))</p>

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<p>Congratulations!</p>

<p>I also have an MIT freshman. Mootmom and Forceout have done a great job with your questions, and I don't have much to add. </p>

<ol>
<li>safety - This isn't Kansas, plus I wouldn't leave a wallet out at any college in the world. But your daughter will quickly aquire some urban smarts if she doesn't have them already. There's a service called Safe Ride so that she isn't walking long distances at night. There are probably iffy areas in and around Boston, but Cambridge definitely is not one of them.</li>
</ol>

<p>2 extracurriculars - there's a gazillion of them.My son is definitely trying out new things instead of continuing the things in which he excelled in high school.</p>

<p>3 food - my son intentionally chose a dorm w/o a dining hall because he is so picky about food. He eats at the places mentioned, or cooks in the dorm (there's a kitchen on every floor). Some kids form little groups to cook together.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>CPW (Campus Preview Week-end) is fabulous. Try to go. They really do a great job of pumping up the kids and their parents about MIT, and you'll have a chance to allay your concerns.</p></li>
<li><p>sleep - probably a very individual thing. There are kids who pull all-nighters at any school. I doubt if MIT students are any more sleep-deprived than students anywhere else.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>CONGRATS!! It's a great school, a great place to be, and my son loves it. That said, it is not necessarily the right place for everyone, and it is good that your daughter has already spent some time there.</p>

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<p>From a current MIT senior. :)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Theft does happen, although theft of really valuable articles is pretty rare. Violent crime is almost nonexistent. It's generally safe to walk campus at any hour of the night for two reasons: 1) much of campus is indoors and is well-patrolled by campus police, and 2) there are students outside walking around at any hour of the night except around 7 AM. :) Each dormitory has its own "front desk" and its own way of dealing with intruders, but dorm entrances are accessible only to dorm residents because you have to swipe your ID to get in. I've never felt unsafe in the dorms.</p></li>
<li><p>This is really true. I came to MIT with a high school background in theater, choir, and band... and joined the MIT cheerleading squad. Last year I was even the captain!</p></li>
<li><p>I live in a dorm without a dining hall, and I cook for myself almost every day. (Actually I find it vastly preferable to dorm food.) Other people cook for themselves only occasionally and make heavy use of [url=<a href="http://www.campusfood.com/restaurants.asp?campusid=68%5Dcampusfood.com%5B/url"&gt;http://www.campusfood.com/restaurants.asp?campusid=68]campusfood.com[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. Other people in my dorm still eat in the dorm dining halls -- they're not so far a walk as to be unusable.</p></li>
<li><p>Sleep! Haha, I probably get more sleep now than I did in high school. It's completely connected to time management skills. I actually keep a record of these things (don't ask), and my sleep statistics can be found [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/Public/Sleep%20Statistics.pdf%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/Public/Sleep%20Statistics.pdf]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. Let's just say I get way more sleep as a senior than I did as a freshman.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>lol, mollie's sleep statistics never cease to amaze me</p>

<p>I do go many a night without sleep, but that's because I like to do things at night, and unfortunately deadlines are during the day :D</p>

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<p>Man I've <em>got</em> to stop looking at these acceptance stories or I might just think I have a chance getting in... What a drag, how can I wait 2 more days?!</p>

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<p>Here's a link to the campus newspaper. <a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-tech.mit.edu/&lt;/a> Every issue has a police log so you can check back issues. The only "theft" my son has experienced is when someone used one of his pans and took it back to his/her room. It was missing for a few weeks, but did turn up back in the kitchen. He feels completely safe. </p>

<p>My son cooks most of his meals but does eat out occasionally. His dorm doesn't have a cafeteria. A couple of times a week he cooks a group meal. </p>

<p>He got a decent amount of sleep freshman year. He has a class this year with a group project that is taking an unbelievable amount of time (equivalent to a full time job some weeks). Maybe they're just slow. Plus he seems to take a little longer than some of his classmates working on pset's. In one 3 day stretch last week he got about 8 hours sleep. I think too the amount of homework depends on your major. Anyway, he isn't getting much sleep right now but does try to nap when possible. </p>

<p>He's taken up 2 IM sports he never played at home. He plans to start a couple of other activites next semester. </p>

<p>Even with the sleep deprivation he is a very happy camper.</p>

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<p>YAYY anecdotes:</p>

<p>1- I lost my wallet within my first week of arriving. I received an email the day after from someone who had found it sitting next to an athena station (where I'd apparently left it). He brought it by my dorm and we were reunited. There are good people here. On the other hand, my bike was stolen off the racks. Granted, idiot did leave the bike out there for about a month chained to the same rack, so yeah that's just mainly my stupidity. There are some notsogood people around these parts.</p>

<p>2- I have a dance performance with the big dance group on campus that starts in 20 min (should have been at call for a while now... shh). My previous dance experience consisted of jumping around in my pajamas to loud music before bed.</p>

<p>This is no Harvard- where my friends have revealed that you really stand no chance getting into any good extracurricular organizations unless you're some demi-god whose entire application rode on your talent in that particular area.</p>

<p>3- I eat here and there. It's good life experience.</p>

<p>4- I assume you're talking about the preorientation programs um... immediately before freshman orientation. I went to yellowstone this year with one of said programs. Paid $150 for a roundtrip ticket, all the transportation within the park, park admission, 8 days of food, day trips to Grand Tetons and other landmarks nearby, camping gear etc etc, and the last night's hotel costs in bozeman. Basically everything except the hat I bought at the gift shop. Sweet deal. </p>

<p>5- I haven't pulled an all nighter yet. I did go to sleep at 7am last night though. So I think I'll leave the judgment to you.</p>

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<p>congratulations to your D</p>

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<p>Thanks so much to all of you! I really appreciate your helpful comments. My daughter is just so happy, and since she had spent quite a bit of time at MIT events and knows a lot about both MIT culture and MIT academics, I decided to stay out of her application process there. I think that worked out really well, but last night I had this daunting sense of worry from deliberately not having learned much about a place at which my eldest plans to spend four years.</p>

<p>Thanks particularly for the comments about crime and sleep (I can relax a little now), about extracurriculars and also for the information that parents attend at least some of the campus preview weekend, which was a complete surprise to me. I'm glad I can learn, without feeling like I'm interrogating my D or making her feel as though I am second guessing her choices, more about what her next four years will be like.</p>

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<p>I would say that about half the students at pre-view week-end had parents along. That doesn't mean that you actually saw them together. There are separate activities for the parents, plus kids have dorm hosts while parents are in hotels. If you do not know much about MIT, it would be well worth attending (book your hotel early).</p>

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<p>Hi! MIT freshman here to answer your questions:</p>

<p>Everyone else has adequately talked about safety and other issues, but I'll throw in another note about sleep.</p>

<p>I typically stay up really late...or early, depending on how you look at it. It helps that classes don't start until 9 the earliest (and some days I have no where to be before noon). I usually take a nap in the middle of the day as well. The number of hours of sleep usually evens out eventually.</p>

<p>Basically, MIT students are pretty nocturnal. We feel most productive at 2 AM. I actually know some people who go to sleep at 10 PM, wake up at 2, work until 5, and then sleep until 9. Seriously. It's crazy. =) We all pretty much feel sleep-deprived (that firehose analogy is pretty good) but no one I know is so sleep-deprived that they're in the unhealthy zone or anything.</p>

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<p>I'm a freshman too and I'm getting more sleep than I did in high school. For instance, the past week I slept like 9 hours a night. I still have alot of free time to do other stuff. Things will get harder next semster but so far (I'm sure alot of other freshman agree with me), MIT's normal workload is not bad as people stereotype it to be. And of course, it depends on what you make of it. If you take like 8 classes a semester, I'm sure u wont be a breeze like you would with 4 or 5 classes. </p>

<p>And on campus safety, the campus in general is very safe. When I have free time on weekends, I like to visit friends in other dorms. I sometimes end up staying until like 3-4 AM (once even 6 AM) and walk all the way back to my dorm. Each dorm has different policies. Some (like mine) would pretty much let anyone in who knocks but other dorms require you do sign in and show your ID if you are not a resident.</p>

20

<p>Can it get intense, you bet :P</p>

<p>Would I have still chosen to come here? Definitely!</p>