<p>"...the school works hard to integrate transfer students. "</p>
<p>???? FWIW, that's not the report I'm getting, from the front. Suffice it to say that people's experiences in this regard may vary. Apparently.</p>
<p>My D who is now a sophomore at MIT also struggled first semester freshman year. She hated math and physics, and has no interest in engineering. She came to MIT because she wanted to study neuroscience, do clinical research and go to medical school. Although she had sailed through HS with straight As in all the toughest classes, she was unprepared for the intensity and rigor of the MIT science curriculum. She found herself struggling academically for the first time in her life. She had a tough time in math and physics and even found chemistry, which was her favorite subject, hard. She was up until 2 AM every night studying, trying to assimilate all the material and complete the psets. She failed a few mid-terms and couldn't understand what she did wrong. She was starting to worry she may never get a decent enough GPA for med school and that enrolling at MIT could have been a big mistake. By thanskgiving she was a wreck. On top of all that, her roommate from Florida cried on the phone constantly, was failing several classes and wanted to go home. After break, our D just focused on trying to do the best she could on the finals. She barely passed 18.02 and 8.01, which for her was as a major achievement. </p>
<p>A few things eventually made a big difference for our D and allowed to adjust during second semester. </p>
<p>Joining a sorority made a huge difference. She made many new friends and her "big" was extremely supportive. She started having more of a social life: going to movies, restaurants and parties with her sorority sisters. She also complained about non-MIT girls (mostly from BU and Simmons) crashing the MIT frat parties although her sorority sometimes held joint parties with certain fraternities, which were not open to non-MIT students. Her sorority also its own formal events which they organized as well as skiing trips and other activities. This past fall, she actually moved in to the sorority. </p>
<p>She also realized her academic experience was far from unique and that many students struggle first semester as they are adjusting to "drinking from the firehose" and MIT's problem solving approach. There is a good reason for MIT making the first semester pass-fail. Failing a class is far from unusual. </p>
<p>One of the hardest decisions for her was asking for help, which took some swallowing of pride. After all, she had been helping other students all through high school and now she was the one needing help. She quickly found a lot of support. She found a physics major on her floor more than willing to help her with her psets. She joind various study groups at Simmons. She was assigned a tutor (grad student) to work with her on organic chemistry second semester. Her TAs also helped her prepare for tests. </p>
<p>She also took full advantage of the opportunities available in the humanities. The humanities departments may be limited in breadth but the faculty is top notch and the classes very small. She took a poetry class first semester taught by a former Oxford professor and an art history class second semester where she went to various museums. It was welcome change from the psets. </p>
<p>The first year was definitely hard for our D, but now that she has completed the science core she is mostly taking classes in her major and doing research in a brand new brain imaging lab on campus. She is in charge of volunteering activities for her sorority and spent a week during IAP with some of her sisters cross country skiing up in Canada. Next semester she is actually taking 3 HASS classes, which she is looking forward to. </p>
<p>There is no denying that MIT is hard and that every student's experience is different. But you have already gone through the toughest part. This spring, pick a humanities class you can really enjoy, make friends at your sorority, have some fun on weekends. By next semester you should be done with most science core requirements and will be able to take many classes at Sloan.</p>
<p>If you PM me I will be happy to give you my D's contact info. You may actually be in the same sorority already!</p>
<p>i don't know much about MIT, so I can't really help in that regard, but if you are looking for ideas for transferring, I would strongly suggest liberal arts schools. you said you were frustrated with the lack of professor attention towards undergrads. I go to an LAC and have been shocked at how much attention students get from professors. you will also find big variety of various humanities-related fields at LACs. I recommend following the advice of those who suggested taking a class or two at Wellesley. that way you can get a strong humanities class and see a slightly different style of college teaching. good luck.</p>
<p>Another parent of an mit kid (now graduated) who watched someone who had been the HS "whiz kid" in math and science have to struggle to keep afloat the first semester.</p>
<p>And then it ended.</p>
<p>I think the likelihood that you will make a bad decision now about transferring is extremely high. You are under a lot of stress; you haven't found your niche; you sound isolated and lonely. I think any decision you make right now will be reactive and not proactive.</p>
<p>So my suggestion is to get yourself a meeting with your advisor asap and lay it on the line- you are unhappy, you aren't enjoying the class experience, etc. Get a plan in place to have a semester of courses that will be interesting and challenging without frying your brain. If you leave MIT it won't matter that you haven't finished the core. If you stay, you can tackle those classes next year when you've reestablished your equilibrium.</p>
<p>Then get yourself an appointment with a mental health clinician. Also ASAP. Get a plan in place to make sure you are staying healthy, eating right, getting fresh air, not becoming nocturnal (which is very common among Freshman but isn't very healthy and also contributes to sleeping through lectures which is bad for the GPA etc.)</p>
<p>Then get yourself a meeting with your Big Sister at the sorority. Also lay it on the line.</p>
<p>You will be stunned by how quickly these people mobilize to help you. None of them can turn MIT into a touchy feely place but all of them can help you understand which opportunities you've missed out on. All of them can help you create an academic/social balance which doesn't leave you so stressed. All of them have seen your situation dozens of times (except for the mental health clinic which has seen this hundreds of times) and can point out to you ways to make it better.</p>
<p>There are TA's and Tutors and academic counselors and deans of students sitting in their offices waiting for you to approach them. So get to it.</p>
<p>MIT may be a bad choice for you in the end-- there is just no getting around the academic intensity. But there are fantastic professors in the humanities departments who teach wonderful subjects in the arts, literature, social sciences, etc. and if you haven't found them yet you need an advisor to point you in the right direction. There are kids at MIT who work their %$%^& off for a C average, and as long as they are happy and challenged and gratified with the intellectual content that's great-- but if that will never be you, then maybe MIT is a bad match for you.</p>
<p>But I'd encourage you to deal with the problem at hand (second semester) before you conclude that you've got to get out of there.</p>
<p>And in case you didn't figure it out from the website, catalogues, etc.- the kind of management taught at Sloan is heavily quant (operations research, supply chain management, financial engineering, etc.) so a person who really doesn't like math is not going to be happy at Sloan, Wharton, or any of its peer institutions.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How much do grades matter in transfer admissions?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>They matter a LOT for the schools you are considering.</p>
<p>I do not have any suggestion to add but I wanted to applaud posts such as Cedardweller's. I think it should be a must read for many students and parents who frequent CC. The transition from being the whiz kid in high school to having to fight very hard to survive at a highly competitive school is rarely addressed. Yet, for students who rarely needed help during high school and could manage academic, social, and often athletic demands with uncanny ease, the first months represent quite a challenge. </p>
<p>Such students rarely have any experience with asking for help from friends or teachers and believe it is simply a matter of working harder. And, unfortunately, parents who have been lulled by decades of straight As and unending compliments are not always the best support. </p>
<p>Admitting that there is a problem is the first step; realizing that the problem is far from being rare is the next step towards positive changes.</p>
<p>
Then they will have two?
Hey! We have 16 this year -- thirteen women and three men. I'm the overstressed biology PhD student who doubles as a coach.</p>
<p>
[quote]
One of the hardest decisions for her was asking for help, which took some swallowing of pride.
[/quote]
This deserves not to be buried in Cellardweller's post, which illustrates many good points.</p>
<p>For me D, learning to swallow and ask for help came [fortunately] in pre-Calc/CalcA in high school. CalcBC went very well as a result and I'm bemused now to be the father of someone who graduated with Latin honors in Mathematics. If she hadn't learned to ask for help in high school, it probably would have been a different story. </p>
<p>As it is, she lived in some profs' offices during office hours. And in turn she tutored & TA'd underclassmen when she was a senior.</p>
<p>To add a few of my cents to this discussion, I first of all agree with xiggi above. This happened to me many years ago. I was at a top tier school, but not HYPM. At that time, I thought that I would be unable to transfer to places that I wanted to go to with a B+ cum, so I did not apply. I also had wanted to go to a couple of other schools more than where I was, and they were the more selective schools by a small factor. I had a dorm friend at that time who did transfer, but she was intense, always studied and had a very high gpa. She did not go to HYP, but to an LAC.</p>
<p>As to suggestions above to transfer to Cornell, while Cornell takes many transfers, and has historically had special programs to integrate transfers (I am not currently up to speed on housing etc.), it is not easy for many. Cornell can be very isolating, hard to meet people, etc. It is more frozen than Boston, with less available in terms of a city. Professors in the liberal arts are often barely available to undergrads, and I think it does not provide a community feeling in this regard. Cornell can be wonderful for the right type of person. The right type is not limited to a particular type (i.e. not just preppy or studious or fraternity/sorority), but you must be able to negotiate a lot of the issues that the OP mentions as being problems at MIT. </p>
<p>It is also a lot of times just bad luck freshman year that causes unhappiness socially. Who you meet has a large bearing on how much you like the place, and sometimes you are not thrown in with a compatible crowd. It sometimes takes work to meet people that you like. I would reach out to people in classes, try new activities, etc.</p>
<p>In a sense it does not hurt to apply to transfer because if you do not get in, you can stay where you are. However, if you do go down this route, you should not emotionally "check out" of your current situation. Always, getting the most out of where you are at the time is the better way to spend your time.</p>
<p>You sound like a Claremont C, possibly CMC type.</p>
<p>^ How can you guess?</p>
<p>When you meet with your advisor Monday about spring course selection, be very honest and explain what you're feeling.</p>
<p>It is one thing to struggle academically- it is almost a given. On our first 5.41 exam (which then was the intro organic chem) the average grade was 17/100. Everyone in the class had been accustomed to only A's..and now we were happy with 18/100. We knew we were in for something different.We took solace in not being alone in thinking the professor was a bit of a jerk and in reminding ourselves that it would get better...and that it was P/F. </p>
<p>But, from the minute I got to MIT, and I think this was true for many of my peers...I knew it was the right place for me on the social front and in terms of all the rest of what being at MIT represented it was right. This was in an era when it was 25% women, no sorority, narrower range of female-oriented activities. </p>
<p>The people who left fell into a few categories. Some never really figured out how to make the academics work for them or decided they wanted to study something that wasn't at MIT. Others were people (women often) who really just felt socially like fish out of water. One of my floormates was even (the only MIT woman) little sister at a fraternity, but it was still not what she wanted and she headed west. Another stayed on but repeatedly questioned the choice, though it did get better after first year.</p>
<p>I think the first 6 months at many larger schools is not as personal and personalized experience as some people may like (my son who attended another school certainly was not himself the first 6 months) and it is not unusual to question a choice...but there are some things which change and some things which don't and MIT is what it is.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I do not have any suggestion to add but I wanted to applaud posts such as Cedardweller's. I think it should be a must read for many students and parents who frequent CC.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think it's worth noting that freshman year can be stressful for students at any level. It's a new style of learning, living away from home, and so on. Add onto that the legendary work load of MIT and I admire these young people who work so hard to hang in there and certainly understand why if it's not a good match, then tranferring is a wise choice.</p>
<p>This is a great thread and should be required reading for any high school student or parent who thinks that prestige should be an important factor.</p>
<p>I appreciate the good intentions and efforts of the posters who encourage the OP to stick it out at MIT, but I have to disagree. As the song says: "You gotta know when to fold 'em."</p>
<p>Just from reading the first post, it is obvious that the OP doesn't belong at MIT. </p>
<p>
[quote]
-I don't have passion for technology, math, and science, and so I struggled in all my classes 1st semester- I hated being forced to take math, chem, and physics.</p>
<p>-The humanities program is- and this is personal opinion- lackluster. I am a humanities-based person.</p>
<p>-I naively thought I would get individualized attention from faculty. But when I was struggling, I could find little help.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Case closed. This is like saying I got into Julliard but I don't like music; I got into West Point but I don't like men; I got into Northwestern but I don't like cold weather. The only problem is that the OP still wants to go to another school on a level with MIT. Extract that from the problem and there is no problem. Lots of humanities based programs would love to have her. </p>
<p>BTW, although I disagree with the general idea of working it out, I'm fine with the damage control suggestions.</p>
<p>^I agree with bird rock--MIT is a bad fit for this person. But obviously the application must have said the right kind of things about science/math/technology, etc., because this person was admitted. OP has had some time to do some real soul searching trying to figure out what went wrong during her first semester at MIT. And that is good!</p>
<p>In this case, OP should listen to her gut and transfer to a smaller LAC. And if she would turn off her brain (and get rid of the "prestige" requirement), I'm sure that she could find some great schools that would be more to her liking.</p>
<p>I would look at the CTCL type schools--schools that are known for academic growth, not as prestigious for a number of different reasons, but known for getting their kids into grad school.</p>
<p>Also, I would do as another poster suggested--re-apply to a school that accepted you already on the first go-round. They wanted you once and would understand why you might want to leave MIT.</p>
<p>Applying to schools that didn't accept you the first time through is a waste of time.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for all your great advice. I am still in the process of mulling it all over! There are definitely some steps I am going to take immediately. </p>
<p>Right now, I am leaning towards staying at MIT, mostly because I don't think I've given it enough time, and because I've only taken GIR's.</p>
<p>I'd like to clarify though that I did ask for help- I went to office hours incessantly. I really think I just can't do physics..I put all my effort into that one subject, and still failed. :( That's why I was doubting my ability to survive MIT.</p>
<p>If you're going to stay at MIT, it wouldn't be a bad idea to finish up your science requirements this year while you are still under P/F. Then get into the humanities even though you say they are "mediocre."</p>
<p>concur with birdrock and ellem.</p>
<p>Dad's giving advice to just 'suck it up' is not good advice, IMO. The OP stated that she does not have a passion for technology/math/science. She obviously applied bcos of the prestige (and family pressure?). Staying will earn prestige and kudos from the relatives, but at the cost of being miserable for four years? Unfortunately, there is NO way to earn admission to another prestige school with low grades (not to mention that prestige schools have extremely low, low transfer rates). Thus, it's a simple call: prestige+miserable for 3.5 years, or alternative college. </p>
<p>Suggest OP consider colleges that are driven by rankings and love high test scores, such as USC, where she probably could still earn a scholarship for last three years.</p>
<p>lostatMIT:</p>
<p>You will probably be taking 8.011 in the spring which is a small class format of 8.01 without formal lectures. One of my D's friends who failed 8.01 in the fall took the course and ended up with a B. You will also find 8.02 or (8.022) to be lot easier than 8.01. </p>
<p>Make sure you ask the TA to assign you a tutor for any science class where you are having difficulty. MIT pays for it and you can set up times at your and the tutor's convenience. It is a lot more individualized than just office hours. </p>
<p>Also, find a humanities class which you can enjoy. There are dozens of choices and there has to be some that really excite you. Some of the anthroplogy classes are amazing. What about a philosophy class, where MIT is truly top notch? Or an art class? Even for classes which seem to be at capacity, you can generally show up the first day and ask the prof. to be added to the class. </p>
<p>If you can hang in there through this next semester, as you seem to want to do, you will have a lot more fun next year. </p>
<p>Rather than succumb to self-doubt, remember that when MIT admitted you, they were convinced that you could handle the work. They did not make a mistake. In some of her darkest moments, this belief is what helped my D pull through.</p>