<p>Can anyone elaborate on Laura K's blog (<a href="http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/fake-it-til-you-make-it">http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/fake-it-til-you-make-it</a>) when it comes to gaps in education through Course 2? I get the impression that software (she specifically mentions Solidworks and Excel) isn't prioritized, but it seems to me that CAD is increasingly important for engineering jobs. Has the situation changed since she graduated, or should I still plan on teaching myself CAD? Are there any other perceived holes, and how would you suggest they be filled? </p>
<p>Hm…it’s a very good blog post. I wasn’t course 2, but in my experience as a course 6 major MIT most often doesn’t teach programming languages…they just expect you to use it. Like the first day in software engineering (a Friday), they were like, “So…learn java over the weekend.” There was no homework to do this. It surprises me that some of the upper level classes in course 2 wouldn’t require you to use professional programs like Solidworks, CAD, and the like. It may be that there were some upper level classes which did so, but that they were electives which Laura K chose not to take. If someone is sort of struggling, as it seems Laura was doing by the tone of her post, it’s an understandable choice to not avail yourself of all the various electives. You’d have to ask Laura K. that. Similarly, some engineering majors you can get through with tons of theory and no real useful training in the lab–I did it with EECS, but then I didn’t intend to be an engineer. If I had wanted to, there were more hands-on classes that I could have taken.</p>
<p>Excel is something so basic that MIT may expect that you have already used it before. However, it may be a good idea to offer some training in it during IAP or something. Probably a couple of hours in it would be sufficient. (For those that are interested, there is an excellent book on working with Excel for scientists that has everything you would want to know to use it.)</p>
<p>I especially like from her post that she learned some of the theory from classes she did poorly in after she left MIT and was able to use it in her job. Also, I think her point about MIT advising is excellent. Along with Caltech, it is the hardest school in the world with the greatest work volume, but basically there is no guidance even for those that want it. The philosophy is sort of that it is a sink-or-swim school that is not going to hold your hand, which is fine I guess, but it would be useful to have someone more experienced to talk about your strategy toward approaching school and your career.</p>
<p>I think there are tons of gaps in MIT education. I think course 6 does not coherently teach everything that it should. I think course 20 (my original choice for major) is still in the process of figuring out what it should really be doing. I’ve taken course 16 classes where there was a clear gap that could’ve been filled by requiring every single student to get flight training (I needed to explain to one group in particular that a commercial pilot should be able to recognize a stall and stall conditions - you do stall recoveries before you can even fly by yourself!). </p>
<p>I talk a little about this in my blogiversary post (which goes up late tomorrow), but: MIT is run by awesome people. This makes MIT awesome. It also makes MIT imperfect. I’m not convinced that perfection exists in any organization. I have friends at Caltech, Columbia, etc who complain about the imperfection and gaps there, so I don’t think this is unique to MIT 
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<p>I’ve also taken classes at three (!) other universities, and I tell you, the gaps at MIT are way smaller. Further, I think MIT teaches you how to approach the world in a much better sense than the other universities I’ve attended - and I think the stress of MIT better enables you to handle anything else without blinking an eye. The sink-or-swim fashion is not everyone’s perfect fit, but it does teach you how to teach yourself for the rest of your life. I think all these things are invaluable. </p>
<p>I also think some real-world experience helps. In retrospect, interning at a company one summer instead of doing UROPs would’ve been better for me. Right now, I’m working full time as a software-engineer-project-manager-hybrid and taking classes at Harvard on the side, and I’m able to guide my class choices in ways that improve my abilities for my real-world job. (Luckily, my current job and my future career interests/general interests align very well. I think it would be hard to figure out if I were trying to do a career change.)</p>
<p>Mechanical engineering is a pretty broad field. Course 2 gives you a fairly comprehensive theoretical coverage of the entire field, along with practical work in design and other areas (including requiring everyone to learn how to use machine tools). Back when I was at MIT I thought there were too many requirements and not enough electives, but they have addressed that by consolidating some of the required classes, giving more flexibility in the required classes, and allowing for more electives. </p>
<p>There certainly are gaps, but as mentioned above, you should be able to fill those in yourself. There are a lot of course 2 majors (including me) who are doing something completely different from what we studied at MIT. Even those still doing mechanical engineering have had to constantly learn new things.</p>
<p>I find some of the the items in that blog kind of odd. I’m not sure what to make of the complaint about not learning Excel. Anyone who has done reasonably well in middle school should be able to learn it over a weekend if they need to. My kids learned it (among other things) the summer before high school so they could opt out of the required computer literacy class. I believe that course 2 does offer classes using CAD, but I wouldn’t expect them to provide training in a specific software package to everyone since the majority of students would be likely not to use it after graduation. Again, you should be able to learn it pretty quickly it if you need to use it.</p>