<p>So when I told my friend my dream of going to MIT, he automatically told me it was a bad ideaand was overall just really negative about it. He told me that his uncle went there, (I don't know if this is true though) and he said it was an almost hostile enviroment, with students competing for A's becasue all/most of the classes are graded on a curve. Is this true? I have a feeling that those at MIT have a stronger desire to learn and discover by corraboration than to get perfect grades. Am I right?</p>
<p>You are right. MIT doesn’t curve, and people generally aren’t at all competitive about grades. Collaboration is a huge part of the culture here. It’s not just one of those things they write on the brochure, it is actually true. </p>
<p>MIT has changed a lot in the past few decades, so the MIT your friend’s uncle went to probably isn’t the same school at modern MIT.</p>
<p>^And when MIT does curve, it’s for good reason – many of the tests are difficult enough that class average is in the 50s or 60s.</p>
<p>When there are curves at MIT, it’s not so not everybody will get A’s. It’s so not everybody will get C’s.</p>
<p>At every college and university, there will be some students who wish they had gone someplace else. If you Google the phrase, “students review colleges” you’ll find a website that displays this graphically. Among Harvard students, a minority would not choose to enroll there again, given the choice. Ditto Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and even MIT. Nevertheless, the large majority of students are happy with their current schools. </p>
<p>MIT is academically very intense, but the student culture is collaborative. Most alumnae I’ve met have been really happy they went there; one physicist today, at age 60, still describes it as the place where he had the most intellectually stimulating discussions of his life. But occasionally I meet someone who wishes they’d gone to a state flagship and had a more laid- back experience. Still, you can encounter unhappy alumns at any school, as you will see on the website I mentioned.</p>
<p>One thing I HATED about my high school was how competitive it was. I went a magnet school, and I had classmates who would argue with teachers to get another 2 points on a 97. I absolutely loved my high school, but that drove me crazy. I was nervous that MIT would be similar, despite all that I heard in the brochures and so on, but was pleasantly surprised that it is the exact opposite.</p>
<p>MIT is way too hard for people to compete with each other. Everyone is too busy trying to survive to worry about how well everyone else is doing. In fact, even the most arrogant and competitive of high school students quickly learns that they will need the help and support of their classmates to do well. Everyone works in groups on psets. We frequently call them “pset parties.” I rarely did homework alone in my room. Even if no one on my floor was in the same class, I’d sit in the suite lounge with people working on other psets, because we’d keep each other focused on working. It’s also not uncommon to see upperclassmen taking a break from their own work to explain the finer points of calc or physics to the group of freshmen working next to them who have run into trouble on their pset. In fact, they’re usually glad to do so- because they feel like they’re paying forward a favor that was done to them in past years, or because they’re excited that they remember the material and can put it to good use helping someone else.</p>
<p>^ Or because they don’t want to work on their psets ;)</p>
<p>^^ It’s universal :D</p>
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<p>What major was he? I have a strong suspicion only in a major that is less project/problemset-based and more exam-based would this even be possible. Even at Berkeley, CS majors don’t seem competitive – they’re doing more along the lines of what Laura says, which is trying to survive the insanely crazy workloads, and helping and comforting each other through it. And my understanding from those who know MIT’s mathematics program (both its graduate and undergraduate schools) is that it’s one of the least unfriendly around, in stark contrast to some others. </p>
<p>I have heard the physics program is very hard at MIT, and physics tends to be a more exam-centric major than mathematics. I’m not sure what to make of this.</p>
<p>My experience is that the physics majors at MIT were pretty collaborative and easy to get along with. Not competitive or mean-spirited. </p>
<p>I’ve seen plenty of pettiness among students at MIT, but there also was a lot of great people. Your experience will vary based on who you are around, and that is determined by chance.</p>
<p>Um - his information is a bit biased. I went “way” back when and host the annual reception which is attended by alum older than me. And we tell incoming students that it’s collaborative. Was then, is now.</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t care about class rank or curves. People compete against their own personal best not each other. There will always be some idiot in every school that worries about that stuff or is competitive in a way that isn’t healthy. But often that’s fueled by some external issue and/or low self-esteem. </p>
<p>Everyone else pretty much ignores people like that. But yes - there are a few people who are still - decades later, nursing some psychological need to whine and be negative.</p>
<p>Which begs the question - why didn’t they just transfer up the street to Harvard or one of the many other fine colleges in a 30 mile radius?</p>
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<p>With all due respect, transferring is a major decision which must be made relatively quickly. If you transfer after 2 years, it means you have to know that you want to transfer after a year to a year-and-a-half. Maybe the guy thought it would get better.
And if you transfer, you don’t get the full experience at the second college.</p>
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<p>You had a great college experience and that’s great. Not everyone did. The fact that MIT is such an intense place can magnify bad experiences. There’s no need to attack this guy’s uncle, who merely confided in family members that he hated it.</p>
<p>I only spoke vaguely before about “pettiness”, but in my first living group, people were constantly complaining about random people in their classes who had “effing 5.0’s.” They would also make fun of people in their own living group behind their back if they were doing worse than them. In other words, the guys with 5.0s were freaks, and the guys with 4.0s were “idiots.” There was a lot of insecurity there, and as a first impression it certainly impacted my view of MIT in general. </p>
<p>After I left, I met a lot of people who were not competitive like that. But as I said, different people can experience different MIT’s based on who they were around.</p>
<p>bump 10 char</p>
<p>^^^ Why are you bumping this? If you want additional responses, you might consider actually asking another question.</p>