<p>Hm, not going to graduate school after MIT = failure = waste of $200,000? Chill out man, live and learn.</p>
<p>To the OP: you are a poor fit for the dorm you live in. MOVE. Before you do anything else. MOVE.</p>
<p>To @LostAtMIT:</p>
<p>Just reading your post brings back lots of memories for me. I had a really hard first semester. I almost flunked organic chemistry (which they no longer let you take as a freshman). I also felt like I made the wrong choice because I had soooo many science & math classes and my life felt very unbalanced.</p>
<p>However, I did much better my second semester, went through two potential majors (possible medical career - killed by hatred of organic chemistry, electrical engineering - killed by my not thinking I wanted to spend my life doing that) and finally settled on getting a management degree from the Sloan School. MIT did a good job of squashing my self-esteem. But as someone said in another thread, it is true that when you go to MIT, you WILL NOT be the smartest one there or even close to it. You really do have to find something else to hang your identity on.</p>
<p>Part of what you are going through is Culture Shock: new environment, new way of learning, new friends, maybe shopping and cooking for yourself for the first time, -- just new everything. After a while you will get used to how MIT works, make friends and become acquainted with Cambridge and Boston.</p>
<p>If you are interested in Business, I suggest what CalAlum says: take a bunch of Sloan and HASS courses just to see if those courses/majors are for you. There is no need to finish the requirements now. You have all four years to do that. And as another person wrote, you can cross register at Harvard. If you do transfer, I don't think very many "top tier" schools have business majors, so try out the classes at Sloan before you decide to do that.</p>
<p>If you haven't found any friends yet then consider switching housing. Also join a club or sport or something where you can excel and can find like-minded people.</p>
<p>I went on to join the crew team. Those people became some of my best friends. I also figured out how to study more efficiently. One of my suitemates got all C's the first semester and all A's her last semester senior year -- she finally figured out the system.</p>
<p>I graduated in 1979, went to work in Silicon Valley in the Computer Industry and did VERY WELL. The first thing people say when I say that I went to MIT is "You must be very smart". I had many job interviews where they didn't care what I studied or what my GPA was -- going to MIT was enough. I'm very proud of the fact that I "survived" MIT.</p>
<p>My daughter just applied and was accepted and will probably go there next year. People would always ask "Would you send your own child there". I was always hesitant. I have fond memories but also memories of long nights and not completely understanding what I was learning. My daughter has heard all of the stories and already knows that she will find it hard and that she won't be the smartest -- not even close. But I told her to look for the end result -- You will learn how to think at MIT. I also told her to take the "easier" courses the first semester and not to feel that she has to prove anything to anyone. This is not a competition. She already made it into MIT. She will need to get used to being away from home, making new friends, managing her life in new ways, living in very different weather and so she needs to focus on those things as well her first semester.</p>
<p>I believe that the biggest thing I got out of MIT was learning to think and solve problems. I think that I'm better at it than almost anyone around me. MIT doesn't teach classes on a particular subject matter as most schools, it teaches you how to solve problems and how to teach yourself. I don't even remember what calculus, physics or chemistry is anymore because I never had to use them in the last thirty years. Although I do remember by management, finance and computer science classes because I used them. Even then, what I learned in business and computer science areas has changed dramatically over thirty years. At MIT, you learn how to learn. Since graduating I've been able to teach my self just about anything I need to know to further myself, my family, my daughter's school or whatever I put my mind to.</p>
<p>So I have several pieces of advice for you:
- Talk to a counselor. You need to find perspective. I tell my daughter that life is about relationships, not work, not money, not things. I work to live, NOT live to work.
- Find friends by either changing your living situation and/or joining clubs/sports/something.
- Try out classes at the Sloan School, and/or more HASS classes, and/or classes at Harvard.
- Take off Friday Night/all day Saturday because you need a break. Then enjoy everything that the MIT Campus and Cambridge and Boston have to offer. They are amazing places. I went to concerts at Boston Garden, Berklee College of Music and Harvard. One thing I learned at MIT and during my working career is that you can only work so hard before you burn out. You have to find that limit for yourself. If you stay under it, you can probably work forever. But go over it and life becomes a drudge.
- If there are no majors at MIT for you, and you are still unhappy after your next semester, then transfer.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I am so amazed at all the useful advice I've gotten so far. I am currently leaning towards staying at MIT, at least until next year. I am going to try some of your suggestions. Thank you so much!</p>
<p>good luck LostatMIT !!!
all the best....</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are unhappy, you should change things up. You can easily switch dorms or halls/floors/entries at almost any time. Hell, I'm about to start my last semester and I'm moving tomorrow. Switch your major, your classes, your dorm, your activities, whatever. If those do not help, switch your school.</p></li>
<li><p>You are placing waaaay too much emphasis on the "prestige" of the college you go to. Do you seriously look down on Brown as not the same tier as MIT? Yikes. A lot of your education is what you make of it. Even if you go to a state school, there's every possibility that you will learn more there than at MIT if you are that unhappy about your situation here vs there. The name of the school you go to will not make or break your career ambitions- especially a few years after graduation when you've proven your skills in the real world- and the name is totally not worth it if it makes you miserable.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>AMWMIT79, your post was really thoughtful and insightful.</p>
<p>thanks AMWMIT79</p>
<p>thanks AMWMIT79, great post. What was the nature of your work in silicon valley? Did you have enough computer skills, etc. as a management major that you could do a lot of computer work?</p>
<p>Quick question for MIT people: is Concourse easier than mainstream (specifically physics)? </p>
<p>thanks a lot, everyone, for all your posts. AMWMIT79, I am def. going to try out your advice:)</p>
<p>I am happy LauraN said that!</p>
<p>imo, as long as its a good school ...
besides...i keep hearing over and over how much undergraduate education is the focus of Brown! (possibly easier to study if you are left alone like at Brown?)</p>
<p>Thanks AMWMIT79, that was such a great post.</p>
<p>Good luck, lostatMIT.</p>
<p>To SiliconValleyMom: I live in Los Altos -- I could be your neighbor :-))</p>
<p>To Ham: I actually did have enough "practical" Computer Science classes to become a Software Engineering Manager over time. I did customer support on database products on IBM Main Frames, then developed custom applications on DEC minis in BASIC, then designed, managed, and developed a spreadsheet product in the early 80s using PASCAL and ASSEMBLER on the new IBM PC. I managed software developement for several years switching platforms and languages -- most of it self-taught -- many times as the industry changed. I worked on designing applications for the first tablet computer, then moved into Internet web site design. I've also met and interacted with some very well known Silicon Valley types -- it's been a wonderful ride. </p>
<p>With my degree, I could have gone in a different direction, but being part of a young growth industry was super exciting and so I kept with it.</p>
<p>The MIT Club out here is great -- one of the largest in the country. For many years, my husband and I went to Stanford-MIT New Enterprise Forums where they had speakers from the industry talk about everything having to do with starting and running a company from Venture Capital to Human Resources to Stock Options to specific market niches to business law etc. etc. I met the founders of SUN when they were just the four of them at one of those meetings. Learning continues after college -- I gained so much from the New Enterprise Forums.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, I'm now a mom helping my community. I've been PTA or PTSA President three times and just want to give back.</p>
<p>To eveyone else: LostAtMIT's post just touched my heart. We had four au pairs and two exchange students and I'm very aware of Culture Shock. I now know that that's what I went through at MIT during my first semester and I've seen it happen several times with my foreign visitors. </p>
<p>I can see LosAtMIT choosing MIT based on the Sloan School. Even if she did go to Brown, she couldn't get an undergraduate Business/Management degree. However, to get that coveted degree, you need to take all those math and science classes to fulfill the GIRs. She just needs to make it though them and I think that she'll love all the other classes she takes. I loved financial and managerial accounting, managerial psychology, marketing and a whole slew of other classes. </p>
<p>Also, what I found fascinating was the report of which companies MIT grads went to work for in 2007 -- a lot of financial services companies, even for graduates with other majors. So I can see more applicants choosing MIT for business. Although with the current business climate, who knows what will happen next.</p>
<p>I hope that LostAtMIT finds her niche there and thrives!</p>
<p>
[quote]
To Ham: I actually did have enough "practical" Computer Science classes to become a Software Engineering Manager over time. I did customer support on database products on IBM Main Frames, then developed custom applications on DEC minis in BASIC, then designed, managed, and developed a spreadsheet product in the early 80s using PASCAL and ASSEMBLER on the new IBM PC. I managed software developement for several years switching platforms and languages -- most of it self-taught -- many times as the industry changed. I worked on designing applications for the first tablet computer, then moved into Internet web site design. I've also met and interacted with some very well known Silicon Valley types -- it's been a wonderful ride.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hmmm ... people's experiences tend to differ depending upon their circumstances, etc. I graduated from MIT with a BSCS a few years after you, and got an MSCS from UCLA a few years later, but I have not had such a wonderful ride. (For example, I've been laid off twice.) I've found that a lot of tech interviewers are looking for answers to highly specific questions, such as what command option to tcpdump is used to print out a particular type of IP packet, and not the sort of "concept" or "principle" type of knowledge that was typical of my MIT engineering and science classes. I wonder what you think of the criteria that's used for hiring at Google that's discussed here:</p>
<p>Why</a> Google Employees Quit</p>
<p>Also, I've found that some people in the Silicon Valley don't particularly respect MIT. It isn't even that these people went to comparable schools - it just doesn't matter to them where you went - what matters is whether you can answer their questions. I live near (but not in) Los Altos, and know VCs, CEOs, etc. ... doesn't matter. If you have any opinions, you can message me offline if you like.</p>
<p>Anyway, @lostatMIT, I think you should talk to the undergraduate deans about your situation. Tell them what you've written here and see what they say. I also don't think you should rule out schools like Brown just because they may not seem as prestigious as MIT. After all, for all of MIT's prestige, you're not happy. There are lots of schools that give the opportunity to study abroad as preparation for working abroad. Give yourself a chance to find out what these schools have to offer.</p>
<p>@ ham</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing.</p>
<p>@Snowesummer and Ham:
Even if you aren't a Course 6 major, you can pick up a range of computer skills rather quickly at MIT (or elsewhere post-MIT). Case in point: My daughter (sophomore) and her boyfriend (junior) decided, just for fun, to enter MIT's Battlecode Competition during IAP, even though her boyfriend knew little about programming: [url=<a href="http://battlecode.mit.edu/2009/%5DHome%5B/url">http://battlecode.mit.edu/2009/]Home[/url</a>]. Over a 3 week period they learned enough about coding swarm intelligence to place in the top third of qualifying teams at MIT. </p>
<p>The way my daughter describes it is like this: "At MIT, when you're doing a UROP with other graduate students and professors, everyone just assumes you'll contribute like everyone else." One of her tasks during a plasma physics UROP the summer after freshman year was to install an $80,000 high-speed camera in the plasma chamber and program the camera. She was given the manuals and told, "Here, installation and software requirements are explained here; the tools are over there." By the end of the summer she had learned two additional programming languages and installed the camera herself, a task that included laying some cable, etc. Having completed the installation, she then began working on methods to model the data, and that involved learning new skills as well.</p>
<p>Her uncle was a history/political science major at MIT, if you can believe it. One of that tiny, tiny group of students that becomes passionate about the social sciences. But later in his life he co-founded a laser company, sold it several years ago at age 51, and is now retired and living at Lake Tahoe. Even a history major at MIT can be exposed to a wide range of scientific and engineering activities.</p>
<p>As my moniker states, I graduated in '79. A 6-3 major pointed me in the direction of Sloan when I told him I liked my few programming classes but wasn't sure that I wanted 6-3 because I knew so little about how computers were really used in the real world and the coursework seemed aimed at developing the next great computer language/platform. During that time, Profs JJ Donovan and Stuart Madnick were teaching "practical" CS courses in the Sloan School. The same 6-3 student told me that they had a rift with the 6-3 department and went over to the Sloan School to teach their "practical" classes in databases, systems programming and operating system (They wrote an Operating Systems textbook and the only OS class at MIT was at the Sloan School at that time). So by the time I graduated, I had programmed in FORTRAN, Algol, LISP, PL/I, two types of ASSEMBLER language and some sort of database language. When I first went to work, I knew more about databases than anyone around me. What I did then, you can't do there now. But one could try to figure out what's the next big market on the horizon and go for that.</p>
<p>As for my career, I was one of the first working on applications during the PC era. Most of the people I know who were financially successful were one of the first employees (or founders) at a company at the start of a new market segment. Or they got MBAs, and/or went into any kind of management and/or marketing/sales and worked their way up into the positions that dole out huge stock options. Many people simply got lucky.</p>
<p>I never went through the grueling interviews because the people who hired me were more interested in my acquired knowledge of how people used computers, user interface design, and project management skills. Also once a company got too big, I had no interest in joining it. I would have been interested in joining Google when it had less than 100 people, but over that would mean my chances of having an impact and/or advancing would be limited.</p>
<p>However, that was all in my twenties and thirties and now I'm getting ready to launch the best project that I ever worked on: my daughter goes off to college -- probably MIT -- in August ;-))</p>
<p>My son is also a freshman. He found he made MIT "smaller" last semester by taking ESE courses (small groups instead of large lectures); he made new friends more easily this way. You should look into the ESE program.</p>
<p>I have been a physician in practice for over 22 years. I'm rarely asked where I went to college, and of course it is irrelevant. I was a Mathematics major, and as mentioned earlier by another poster, I never use what I studied then in my daily life. The sum of your college experience will be so much more than how your freshman year went; I was so depressed I saw a psychiatrist (and knew immediately that was not the field for me!). </p>
<p>Advice: what was already said; look into ESE; enjoy Cambridge and Boston as often as possible; ENJOY meeting kids from other schools; take 30 minutes a day for thinking and reflection; study in groups; plan a great summer.</p>
<p>re: Concourse physics</p>
<p>I took physics in Concourse for E&M (I did mainstream for Classical Mechanics). I don't really like physics, I find it very confusing. I don't know if it's better or worse than mainstream, but I can tell you it's DEFINITELY MORE PERSONALIZED. You'll get plenty of help from faculty if you ask, which you seem to be looking for, so I'd recommend it. I've worked for the instructor, he is a very nice person (if not my favorite lecturer lol).
But if you do Concourse you have to take at least one more class within Concourse.</p>
<p>DUDE this thread is way too long with long long posts so I only skimmed it. BUT SERIOUSLY here are a few things you can do!!
1. email hbsweet, holly sweet, the director of esg, and go see her. there may be a chance you can switch into esg for your spring term classes. go go go go now!! you will no longer feel lost or alone or floating in your girs. the classes are tiny and the professors are incredibly caring.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>don't keep taking girs if you don't want to right now!! if you want to major in management, take some freaking management classes this term! take writing, take lit classes, ignore the prereqs. you can always take bio later!</p></li>
<li><p>cheer up cheer up cheer up! go see dean henderson in student support services, he is extremely nice and was helpful last term when i was majorly struggling with classes and anxiety.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>cmonnnnn you can do ittttt</p>
<p>also brown is not a low tier school so if you do decide you want to transfer just do it. you shouldn't stay here for any other reason than wanting to.</p>