<p>Interested in comments and such. :]</p>
<p>Extremely stressful.</p>
<p>Why? Does working hard = stressful? I thought folks worked very hard, but in a supportive environment.</p>
<p>Working hard doesn't always equate to success when you take 6 courses at a time, especially when 4 or 5 of those courses are in naturally difficult subjects like engineering. You could work hard for 4 straight hours and barely make any progress on a problem set -- now that is pretty stressful. We get a similar amount of reading as hum majors, except on top of that we have problem sets every week. Problem sets at this level aren't like high school physics sets when you can skim a section of the chapter and finish the homework in 30 minutes.</p>
<p>I can only speak for Mudd engineers, but there isn't much time for error. I have hardly any free time (excluding eating, sleeping, and working out time) during the week and spend a majority of my weekends working. There aren't many breaks or escapes from work. Senior engineering majors count down the days until graduation, which should tell you something.</p>
<p>"Why? Does working hard = stressful? I thought folks worked very hard, but in a supportive environment."</p>
<p>Working hard is not necessarily stressful...but in a rigorous school, it kind of ends up being. I can work all through winter breaks and summer breaks in a relaxed pace and even learn a bunch on my own, but not get stressed [except maybe a little frustrated]. But when you want to go to grad school and school is tough, you don't exactly forget about the fact that you have deadlines to meet and grades to achieve. I work in a fairly cooperative way in my school as well, but that just amounts to sharing one another's stress. I imagine it's similar at Mudd -- hard schools will be very stressful, even if fostering cooperative learning.</p>
<p>It's also even more stressful if you aren't the type of person who gets more out of working in groups. I prefer to work on my own and that puts me at a great disadvantage at Mudd. I've lost countless homework points because of it.</p>
<p>a single single physics major POV:</p>
<p>Personally, when I came to Mudd I found it extremely stressful at first. However, over time as I have gotten used to things, I find myself sleeping 7-8 hours most nights and getting to do a lot of outside things. I prefer, however, to work with people around me. I used to to work alone, but I found that I didnt have any extra time that way.</p>
<p>"I prefer, however, to work with people around me. I used to to work alone, but I found that I didnt have any extra time that way."</p>
<p>Interesting. I guess I like a balance...when people are together, sometimes there's too much noise to be able to hear oneself think. I learn best when I get to struggle with ideas hours on end alone, and then discuss what I've thought about with others later. Studying in groups from the getgo can get less productive...UNLESS you get too much HW, in which case it's kind of ridiculous to work it all by yourself. I prefer classes with less HW as such, because I can think about it on my own time, and give it very good depth of thought, rather than merely stress about finishing it so I can get a good grade. </p>
<p>Thoughts from a non-Mudd student, but I think pretty common + related. I think this just amounts to the general philosophy of studying math, science, and engineering...though there are even subtle differences among them.</p>
<p>"It's also even more stressful if you aren't the type of person who gets more out of working in groups. I prefer to work on my own and that puts me at a great disadvantage at Mudd. I've lost countless homework points because of it."</p>
<p>Hey me too! <em>high five</em></p>
<p>Stressfulness seems to depend quite a bit on major as well. Engineering sophomore and junior years can be terrible. (Also, 1st semester senior year sometimes)</p>
<p>It also depends on how quickly you work. I usually work quicker than most people, so I've had lots of free time (I'm just a freshman, but taking advanced math classes). Also, raw aptitude has a lot to do with it. If you had to work hard at math and science in high school, you'll probably be swamped at Mudd.</p>
<p>"It also depends on how quickly you work. I usually work quicker than most people, so I've had lots of free time (I'm just a freshman, but taking advanced math classes). Also, raw aptitude has a lot to do with it. If you had to work hard at math and science in high school, you'll probably be swamped at Mudd."</p>
<p>Yeah. You're just a freshman. You'll be eating your words by junior year.</p>
<p>I'm an engineering senior and a very efficient worker in many disciplines. With this said, however, junior year (and first semester senior year) were very terrible in terms of time commitments and the sentiment is widely popular.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah. You're just a freshman. You'll be eating your words by junior year.</p>
<p>I'm an engineering senior and a very efficient worker in many disciplines. With this said, however, junior year (and first semester senior year) were very terrible in terms of time commitments and the sentiment is widely popular.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Agreed. Freshman year I had much more free time. The problem sets are much shorter and much more straight forward. Junior year is much more difficult and time consuming.</p>
<p>Don't discount Hajt's claim just because he is a freshman. Mind you freshman year is when we are all the same major. After that, you two decided to go into engineering which is notoriously time consuming. As a junior physics major I can easily see the potential for a lot of free time and fun if you take the basic 16 credit load.</p>
<p>I get the impression from rocket's posts that Mudd engineering may just be a larger workload on average than other majors. That might be behind things. </p>
<p>I know a physics graduate of Mudd, and he definitely said things got very hard in the upper level stuff. He didn't, however, necessarily say it was more time-consuming in the upper level. Who knows, this may be specific to major. </p>
<p>I actually find that upper level math courses have less raw homework, and everything is clean and elegant, so being a quick worker actually matters more. I spend more time <em>flat out stuck</em> than I do actually working intelligently. If every second consisted of intelligent work, I could probably handle almost any kind of beast of a schedule fine.</p>
<p>But for instance, there's no such thing as being quick at programming -- I mean yes there is, but pretty much nobody escapes the onslaught of two of the legendary CS killers at my school. It's less possible to just finish things off quickly even if you're thinking pretty clearly in some subjects.</p>