<p>Just quick quick bio, you can read further up on me with my other posts if you want, I'm a HS sophomore in private yeshivah, am taking 15 AP's, going to take USAMO most likely, will get eagle scout this year, not a prodigy but most definitely a serious competitor for MIT 2017,</p>
<p>and when i think of MIT, Harvard or Princeton, images of Andrew Wiles, Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerburg, or Larry Page and Sergery Brin come up, is that exceptional or can i find those people and can i work with them?</p>
<p>I wonder if my dream almost utopian like views of these colleges are over rated and maybe it's just a 'nice place' for smart people to 'discuss' stuff, but nothing extraordinary.</p>
<p>And I understand the issues about not making my life into College, but I can;t help but wonder if there truly is that world of intelectual utopiah or is it just bland and a better college than others?</p>
<p>It's almost as if I am in love with college, but for the different reasons than a college 'animal'.</p>
<p>Please share if you also feel this way or why you shouldn't,</p>
<p>I don’t know, kid. Idealizing college, or anything for that matter, can be dangerous. I don’t care what it is. Once you get close to anything, you realize everything that is wrong with it. And also, one person’s experience can be different from another person’s even if they go to the same college at the same time.</p>
<p>You need to be more specific as to what you think an “intelectual utopia” is.</p>
<p>Will you find people as smart (and smarter) than the ones you mentioned? yes.
Will all people be like that? No. Sometimes you will even think “how did this person get into MIT?”</p>
<p>Will you be challenged, humbled, and thrown around by your classes? yes (most likely… Some people are so ridiculously smart that they are essentially immune to MIT).</p>
<p>Will you have deep conversations about science/technology/[insert your passion here] with fellow students? yes.
Will these deep conversations happen all the time? no, probably not even a quarter of your conversations will be like that.</p>
<p>Will you find people who share your interests and find extracurriculars that you really love? absolutely.</p>
<p>Please be realistic. MIT is not a perfect place, far from it. But it is a good place for certain people, and if you think you’ll like it, certainly give it a shot.</p>
<p>It’s really what you make of it. If you just want to go there to “talk to smart people”, then you can do that. Although I doubt that’s what many people go there for.
You can go explore stuff you like, try out stuff you’ve never did or never had the opportunity to. You’ll have a lot of resources at your disposal to do these kinda stuff. Or you can be passive and don’t do anything extraordinary. It’s your choice.</p>
<p>btw. Wiles shouldn’t be associated with Princeton but with Oxford University, where he spent most of his research time and where he proved Fermat’s Last Theorem. He taught at Princeton for mere 4 years.</p>
<p>One thing to note - these schools are home to many greats who aren’t even popularly known to the masses, but are to the scientific/technical masses. The work of many, many eminent number theorists contributed to Wiles’s breakthrough, and many others still laid the foundations in what he worked on, but the general public knows it as “Wiles proved FLT” …</p>
<p>A more accurate view would be to proceed in awe that a school can be so full of activity and top scholars, along with trying to appreciate the unique class admissions put together. The scholars won’t have time for you all the time, in fact, when they were studying, their mentors probably didn’t have time for them. But cherish the time you spend with them, and make an effort to know some - I think then, you really get what you paid for if you want something to glorify.</p>
<p>Your idealization is actually not necessarily misplaced, but never underestimate how much time it takes to figure out your sweet spot and use it. I think people sometimes gather a wrong impression that once I finish college, I am well trained to do so and so, and once I get a PhD, I can do so and so other stuff. Rather, it is not uncommon for someone fresh out of a PhD at a great school to feel intimidated by the knowledge of the senior faculty. So while there is plenty to glorify, you get to be just a humble part of it, not the center of it (at least very rarely).</p>
<p>thank you guys, and all of you had great points, my favorites in summarized words,</p>
<p>A. Any college, great or not, depends on your response to it as well,</p>
<p>B, yes there are many geniuses there, both the world famous ones, and other unnamed but pivotal contributors to academia, and at same time many people who fit “How in the world did he end up here???”</p>
<p>C, college is not life, and don;t lose my life in hs (at same time, do rough through it, it’s worth it!)</p>
<p>D, and I do heed the first comments warning, to idolize anything would be dangerous, and I am taking precautions not to fall into a fantasy mode, and stay as alert and objective as possible, </p>