<p>How good is humanity programs (especially philosophy, English & Economics) in MIT? Is there anything special about them because MIT is almost equivalent to heavy science/math?</p>
<p>Well, economics is not a humanity discipline; it’s a social science, and one that is particularly strong and mathematical at MIT.</p>
<p>my understanding is that mit economics is the best in the country; their list of alumni is very impressive. being mit, it is also more quantitative based then other programs</p>
<p>MIT’s philosophy department is also outstanding.</p>
<p>Many of the humanities, arts, and social sciences departments at MIT have relatively few majors, so the class sizes are very small and students get a great deal of one-on-one attention from people who are really outstanding scholars in their fields.</p>
<p>Question for Mollie or anyone else who is relevantly informed:</p>
<p>Is the economics department at MIT one of those that discourages inbreeding for their Ph.D. program?</p>
<p>I don’t actually know – my course 14 friends all went the $$$ route rather than the penniless academic route. :)</p>
<p>I feel like Course 14 at MIT has some very famous professors. (an aside: Solow, of the Solow Model, if you study Macroecon, is professor emeritus at MIT! he still gives talks every once in awhile).</p>
<p>However, I don’t think it’s indicative to rank departments based purely on the undergraduate education, since undergrads don’t publish and you just have to fulfill a set of classes to graduate with the major. The classes themselves start from very large (for some reason a ton of undergrads take intro macro and micro - 14.01 and 14.02) and then whittle down to ~20 or so students in the advanced classes. Although Econ is categorized with the HASS department with other humanities classes, it’s actually categorized as social science and it’s a very rigorous course of study. Econometrics at MIT has the reputation of a very difficult class, even for math majors (14 and 18 is a popular double major combo).</p>
<p>The big difference between Econ at MIT and Econ at Harvard is that Econ at MIT is a lot more math-based and analytical, while Harvard’s Econ education (I’m talking about undergrads here) is more trend-seeing and essay-writing. Beginning from the intro classes, the econ courses will rely frequently on mathematical methods, and you should be pretty comfortable with math to do the econ major. But otherwise, just broadly speaking, I don’t think there’s a “better” undergrad Econ education than MIT. We’re on top along with everyone else (Harvard, UChicago are examples).</p>
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<p>If you’re talking about English (Literature and Writing are separate disciplines at MIT), History, Anthropology, Foreign Language…etc., that’s a whole new different story because they’re categorized with “Humanities” in HASS. The short answer to your question is that yes, we have a strong humanities program, and we’re definitely not just one-sided science and engineering. The same goes for the Arts (the other missing letter in HASS).</p>
<p>Of course, we don’t have as many professors and courses in these disciplines as schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, for example, so it may not be the best choice for you to come to MIT to major in the humanities (but it still happens), but we certainly have a strong supplement to our science courses.</p>
<p>First off, Econ is awesome (yay course 14!)</p>
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I find it very rare that MIT students actually stay behind to do graduate studies in economics. No idea why. I don’t think the department discourages it, per se, but the trend is definitely that our graduate economics department is greatly made up of international students, mainly those focusing on international economics, development, trade and foreign affairs, etc.</p>
<p>There are a handful of MIT Econ PhD students who also did undergrad at MIT. Considering how few students the undergrad program graduates, I think it’s fair to say it’s possible to stay if you’re a stellar student and your interests match well.</p>
<p>Glad to hear such great things about Course 14… I was deferred and I’m positive on going the econ route. I read; however, that at MIT the economics department focuses notably more on grad rather than undergrad. Can anyone corroborate or reject such a claim? How good are the econ professors (generally speaking) at teaching and how accessible are they? Do they really care about you or not really?</p>
<p>In most departments at MIT, the focus is not on grad students or undergrads but on students in general. A large number of upper-division courses are joint undergrad/grad student courses, and both undergrads and grad students work with professors to do research. Professors care about educating their students, but don’t really discriminate between grad students and undergrads.</p>
<p>I only have good things to say about the course 14 professors I’ve encountered. They may be busy with research, but they are always reliably at office hours and ready to answer your questions. Last year when I was struggling in 14.01 (damn that second test!) I emailed my professor (Prof. Jeffrey Harris) and asked if I could visit him the next day with some questions for a private tutoring session. My friend and I went to his office and spent the next hour drawing graphs all over his whiteboard. In the end, thanks to him and all the awesome TA’s (plus a ton of studying), I managed to pull my grade from a D to a B+ in two weeks, which is by no means a small feat.</p>
<p>As for teaching; I personally love the way the econ professors teach. Yes, they use a ton of Powerpoints, but the ideas presented are always repeated and clarified. Problem sets are very structured to cover all of the material, and if you study them and read the textbook, you will score well on the tests (which are also very predictable if you’re studying off previous years’ material). If you’re paying attention in class, there’s no reason why you should not pass with at least a B.</p>
<p>I’m an econ major, so if you ever want to chat more, feel free to PM me =)
EDIT: Ah, for clarification, 14.01 is Principles of Microeconomics.</p>
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<p>One thing I want to add to this - CMS (Comparative Media Studies) also falls under the “humanities” in HASS, and I would consider it a signature HASS program (like 14, 17, or 24), that non-negligible numbers of people DO come to MIT to major in, rather than a “good but generally perceived as a supplement to sci/eng” program (like, say, theater, creative writing, or foreign languages).</p>
<p>Not that people don’t come to MIT to major in the latter category of HASS majors - I have a friend who came to MIT to major in creative writing, worked as a tech writer for years after graduating, and is now applying to English and Women’s/Gender Studies PhD programs - but there are relatively few who do.</p>
<p>There’s a program that lets you combine a science major with a humanities major…I think it’s called 21S or something like that. One of my closest friends used that program to combine CMS (all kinds of art, drawing, media) and comp sci to effectively build a major in video game design. She’s actually appeared in the credits of some relatively big name games that have come out recently (from work she did during internships) and just got a job offer in San Francisco with a small division of a relatively well-known gaming company. (The name escapes me at the moment.)</p>
<p>I mention this because it’s a good way to show how MIT does do humanities well without losing sight of science (and in fact allowing you to integrate them well) and um, it’s AWESOME.</p>
<p>That sounds great for me. I need a place where I can integrate science with humanities.</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ll have the chance to do lots of integration.</p>