Hey everyone. Lately, I’ve been a bit hesitant to apply to MIT because I’m not sure if I should put effort into an application for a school I may not want to attend. I applied to Stanford REA and will be applying to Harvard, Princeton, Columbia (attended CE^2!!), Cornell, and Rice in the RD round (just my reaches, btw).
I’m concerned that MIT may be a bit to techy for me, and I’m just not sure if I’d be able to thrive in that sort of culture. I think I should still work on their application, cause I don’t wanna regret anything, but I still have these feelings of reservation about it.
@hebegebe Thank you. That’s an interesting sort of test. My answer would be that it’s pretty dorky but a little cool at the same time. I like that they do that but I don’t think it’s anything super special.
@neoking If you think you’ll enjoy things like role-playing game programming competitions over IAP, puzzle hunts, Quidditch, or hacking (look it up if you don’t know what this means), MIT might be a good fit for you.
MIT is not for everyone, but it (and many other schools) might not be fully represented by what you see on CC or many other places.
I think the general public has this skewed view that every MIT student is “dorky.”
While I do agree that people who like the things @MITer94 lists won’t find a better place to be at (okay, maybe Caltech included), many people here are “normal.” Sure, a lot of students try out the Puzzle Hunt, but there are probably an equal number of people who like reading a book or “hanging out” with friends in the “normal” sense.
As said before, MIT is not for everyone. It would be a very good idea for you to visit. If you can’t visit before applications are do, you still should visit before accepting. (Anywhere)
You can find subsets of different people at any school, but if you have doubts this might not be the best fit for you. As my MIT student described kids from another Cambridge school "They are too normal ".