<p>It went alright. We talked for 1 hr 45 min. Score! He couldn't make eye contact, but I think after taking for a while, we got more comfortable. I really just talked about my passion and how I'm problem solving... and I came up with some questions to ask him about the atmosphere, residential living, and study abroad.</p>
<p>I am starting to doubt MIT a bit. I feel like I might be a bit too social to go there. The EC couldn't hold eye contact for more than a second, and even that seemed like a lot for him. He was a bit of the stereotypical MIT person, and I was hoping that that stereotype was a bit unfounded.... I guess not.</p>
<p>I'm less nervous about how the interview went, and more nervous about whether I should even want to go there. Gosh, I thought the interview was about me convincing him that I'm perfect for MIT.... not him scaring me!</p>
<p>What do you all think makes a good match between a student and a school.... especially MIT? I know about "the match between you and mit" article... I fit all of that without even trying that hard. It's more about is MIT the right place for me.</p>
My advice would be not to let a stereotype be confirmed or refuted based on meeting one person.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about whether you want to go to MIT now. Worry about that in the spring when you have your admissions decision in hand – there’s a weekend in the spring, Campus Preview Weekend, when admitted students come to campus and meet their fellow admitted students and see all that campus has to offer in terms of social and academic activities. Going to CPW and meeting a large number of MIT students will likely help you decide whether MIT is a good fit for you, moreso than meeting a single alum and judging the entire school by that person.</p>
<p>It’s not that I’m thinking the stereotype is completely true… it’s more that I thought MIT had more of the creative arts side of things, and it doesn’t seem like they do. I asked the EC about creativity and arts on the campus, and he could really only say that there were a lot of clubs and I could start something if I didn’t find it.</p>
<p>Before the interview, I felt like MIT would give me the opportunities in math and science and allow for creative outlets (arts classes or something creative within the curriculum) , and now I feel like I’ll be forced into math and science for four years. I know that that probably isn’t true, but that’s how it came off. That doesn’t help me when I’m writing the essays!</p>
<p>I asked the EC about CPW, and he said that it might not be the best representation of what MIT is because it’s on show. How do I even make a decision based on CPW? He talked about how his wife chose the wrong school, even after visiting and researching and all of that, and had to transfer (to MIT). I don’t want to have to transfer!</p>
<p>Now, it’s like, is it worth all the effort if it is the completely wrong school for me?</p>
<p>Sorry to dump these doubts out here, but I can’t really talk about it anywhere else. Everyone at my school thinks MIT is perfect for me, and I can’t talk without them trying to tell me to just trust my old opinions.</p>
<p>I cannot speak for your personal attraction to the arts. I spent 4 years in the MIT Shakespeare ensemble. I performed at prisons and hospitals. I spent one IAP touring California with a Twelfth Night, and I got my Actor’s Equity card shortly after leaving MIT (I gave it up some years ago). I recall several “artsy” schools that got seriously ticked off when MIT won some of the major intercollegiate dramatic prizes while I was there, and due to our close cooperation with Harvard, most of the dramatic stars who visited Harvard, also came by MIT. I recall meeting David Mamet on the MIT campus who was working with a small group of students (say half of the Kresge Little Theatre) and the like.</p>
<p>The Institute is home to distinguished arts faculty such as Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison, Hyperinstrument developer and composer Tod Machover, writer Junot Diaz, science fiction writer Joe Haldeman, and conceptual artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. </p>
<p>MIT has six a cappella singing groups, including the all-male Logarhythms, the all-female Muses and the co-ed group, the Chorallaries. MIT is home to Bostons only Balinese gamelan, as well as a Senegalese drumming ensemble, and a South Asian performance series. MITs List Visual Arts Center has been voted Best Gallery in Boston Magazines Best of Boston awards. MITs outdoor sculpture collection features works by international figures such as Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson and Pablo Picasso. The MIT Museum is home to the worlds largest collection of holograms. Thanks to the List Student Loan Art Program, many students dorm room walls are decorated in artworks that they (usually) could never afford to purchase. </p>
<p>Academically, there are a significant collection of arts courses available. Lots of folks in this board have commented about MIT’s cross-registration programs with Harvard College and Wellesley college, in which students can take courses at these institutions without paying additional tuition or jumping through too many hoops. Less well known, but also important is that MIT offers straightforward cross-registration with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) as well as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA).</p>
<p>There are some things that might not work at MIT, but a lack of opportunities to participate in the arts is definitely not one of them. Indeed, when I was unsure about going to MIT, purely because I was worried about this side of it, I went to visit campus in term-time. While there, I chose not to sit in on any of the science or engineering courses, as I presumed that they would be superb. Rather I sat in on classes in Literature, Film, Drama, and the like, and I was wowed by the quality and interest of both the faculty and the other students.</p>
<p>Now I cannot speak from personal experience about the Intercollegiate Sports program, the foreign language houses, or the Woods Hole program in Oceanography, but I can talk about my personal experience in the arts at MIT, and that experience was superb. Other schools like Yale or Northwestern have “better” drama facilities, but these excellent facilities are reserved for the almost sole use of the drama majors, and if you weren’t planning to commit your life to these programs then your opportunities to participate at the highest level were limited. At MIT, all of the facilities were open to all, and you would find no limits as to what you can do.</p>
<p>Seriously kitkatkatie, this is not an issue at MIT.</p>
I think it’s fair to say that MIT students put their best collective foot forward during CPW, but I’m not one who thinks CPW is inaccurate or misleading. I think going to CPW will give you a chance to see if the environment at MIT is something you’ll enjoy, and if you’re interested in the activities and classes available.</p>
<p>In a sense, picking a college is a lot like marrying someone. Everybody puts on their best face during the dating process, and there’s no real way to guarantee that you’re going to end up happy. At some point, you just have to pick based on the information you can obtain and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Rest assured that you won’t be forced into four years of math and science if that’s not what you want to do monotonically – you have a lot of freedom at MIT to take the classes that interest you, even if they’re outside your department or graduate-level courses or you don’t have the prerequisites. Perhaps oasis will speak up – he’s a science major, but is happily fulfilling the requirements for his major and taking a bunch of humanities classes at the same time.</p>
<p>(EDIT: I hope you don’t mind that I moved these posts out into a separate thread. I just thought the questions you’re raising deserve to be addressed by more people, and not just by Mikalye and me monologuing at you. :))</p>
<p>The nice thing about MIT, is you get to CHOOSE your environment. The dorms have such a large range in culture, that you’ll like find a place TOO social for you, and a place just social enough for you. Don’t worry about this, I can tell you that I thought about it too before I came here. You will quickly realize it is fairly easy to find your niche here, simply because you get to choose the culture of your living environment.</p>
<p>My daughter’s an artist/physics major at MIT. During her senior year in high school, her school’s art department tried to convince her to take a full-ride merit scholarship to a well-known school of design back East. But MIT was her dream school, and she’s been very happy there.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re right. Maybe you wouldn’t fit in at MIT. After all, if I understand you correctly, a shy MIT alum spent an hour and 45 minutes with you to talk about MIT, but rather than appreciate his generosity, your response was a rush to judgment and generalization: “He was the stereotypical MIT person.”</p>
<p>In my experience, the stereotypical MIT person is far less judgmental of others and far more accepting of differences.</p>
<p>In this day and age, there is no reason to be forming your image of MIT based solely on your interviewer. This is a forum with a large number of current students and alums. The social networking sites are full of MIT people, and you can use them to get a sense of those people. There are what, a dozen student admissions blogs, plus the archives of the alum bloggers’ blogs?</p>
<p>The arts scene at MIT is not lacking. You don’t even really have to look to find it.</p>
<p>I agree with Mollie about CPW. It’s a show, but having been on both sides of it, I didn’t feel that it was disconnected from the reality of campus life.</p>
<p>Like everyone else has said, there are plenty of arts at MIT.</p>
<p>I would also ask how old your interviewer was? It’s quite possible that he graduated from MIT 20 years ago when student culture was remarkably different than it is now.</p>
<p>I’m going to be completely honest: yes, there are awkward people at MIT. Yes, there are people who can’t keep eye contact. There are also people who are extremely social, extremely charismatic, and extremely non-awkward. There’s a nice balance of people of all types with all different personalities, and you can choose who you want to hang out with. Like people have been saying, that’s one of the great things about MIT: you can <em>always</em> choose. You can choose your living group; this allows you find a group of people you really mix well with, and get really close to them. And it’s not just talk; different living groups really do have different personalities and features, and it <em>does</em> make a difference where you live. You also get to choose what classes you want to take. I decided this term that I want to double major in math and French. I can do that here; MIT isn’t restricting me to math and science. Other than the GIRs, you can take as many humanities classes as you want as long as you still fulfill whatever major you decide to be. You can also choose what activities you do. There are certainly some people here only want to do math and science. They can go get UROPs in whatever field they like best, and do math and science in their spare time to their hearts’ content. Other people, like me and a lot of the people here I know, have some kind of artistic outlet. I’m very involved with a few theatre groups on campus, and I’m really always impressed by how well and professionally things are done. I am also consistently impressed by the quality of MIT’s musicians (who are quite numerous, by the way), dancers, artists, and other artsy-folks. There are tons of ways to get involved in non-math/science things; that’s not something to worry about.</p>
<p>As for CPW… while I definitely agree that everyone here is trying to convince you to come here and trying to show you the <em>best</em> parts of the school, there’s a <em>reason</em> for that. As much as everyone here may say they’re miserable at 5AM when they’re hosed and exhausted and wish they’d gone to an easy school like Harvard, the fact of the matter is that most of the people I know here wouldn’t want it any other way, and wouldn’t leave MIT for the world. And they think that if you applied, got in, and like what they have to show you at CPW, then chances are, you’ll feel the same way. Trust me, we’re not trying to trap you into something you’ll despise. We’re trying to show you, in just a few days, <em>everything</em> about MIT that will make all 4 years you’re here great.</p>
<p>Yeah, but I wouldn’t expect someone like that to volunteer as an EC. It seems a bit out of character, but it’s still nice to know that he took the effort to do it anyway.</p>
<p>(My parents were MIT students 30 years ago, and I doubt that it got <em>less</em> like it is now for 10 or 15 years after that and then swung back up. Plus, I know some alums from the 20-years-ago era.)</p>
<p>But yeah, there <em>are</em> very socially awkward people at MIT (especially frosh, though that obviously doesn’t apply to the interviewer). And there are people without a lick of interest in the arts, or in anything but math and science. The issue is that that’s not <em>representative</em>. You may have gotten one as your interviewer, but one is not a good sample size. ;)</p>
<p>I’d like to add that every school accepts socially awkward kids; part of being successful in college is maturing! My son has always been quiet, a reader; he had geeky friends but was always home on weekend nights. Within a few weeks as a freshman at MIT, he was included in study groups, in a cappella group (he had zero singing experience but was courted by three groups), a member of MITSO (the symphony), a fraternity pledge, and in a relationship. As parents, my wife and I were surprised and thrilled with how quickly this transformation occurred. I’d like to think that this course of events would have happened no matter where he went to college, but the collaborative study approach (no class rank has something to do with this), the city of Boston, the extensive artistic opportunities (he was offerred free piano lessons, taught bassoon to high schoolers, wrote his own symphony) all showed me how incredible a school MIT is.</p>
<p>Some schools put very little emphasis on interviews for acceptance. </p>
<p>DS as undergrad applicant, “interviewed” with an alum who was a science major at MIT then turned law professor. Interviewer couldn’t answer any of DS’s questions on engineering or arts. </p>
<p>DS applied as a grad student, and couldn’t get an interview with PI. Later PI contacted DS and asked why didn’t he request an interview and would DS please reapply for the next year. ??? </p>
<p>All of DS’s undergrad interviews were not as one would had hoped. And most had no weighting for acceptance. Grad school interviews mean much more. </p>
<p>Everything worked as it should. DS attended another high quality undergrad school, attended another high quality grad school. And got an excellent job based on the experiences from those schools and mentors.</p>
<p>As an outsider, I’m going to venture to add that it does rather surprise me how much involvement in the arts people are saying there is at MIT. Nice to know.</p>
<p>MIT has in many ways literally shaped and started many fields of engineering, science and mathematics. MIT’s students and faculty frequently appear in the news excelling at many different things, ranging from academics to athletics to the performing arts. MIT has over the course of a century established a reputation for producing both first class research and giving students a first class education. MIT has an extremely high number of student clubs and sports, as well as student government like structures. MIT’s CPW and the MIT-Blogs are a unique university-prospective-student interaction among college campuses. MIT students who frequent CC give a down to earth and very reasonable portrait of regular MIT students. In summary, I believe MIT has made more than enough effort reaching out and showing the world why it’s a great place to be.</p>
<p>If after all this, you are having serious doubts about whether applying to MIT is even worth it, simply because one EC interviewer didn’t make eye contact with you, then you either didn’t have particularly solid reasons to apply to MIT in the first place, or you are being pretentious.</p>
<p>It’s really more that they would pick someone who is a bit awkward to represent their school. One would think they would screen people to determine what impression they’re making on applicants. That said, he was very nice, and did make a good impression, though I’m sensitive to things other people wouldn’t be as sensitive to, so it’s different in this situation. You also have to realize that all the people applying to schools are freaking out about every little thing, and CC is the place we can post our concerns and have people assuage (and sometimes attack) our fears.</p>
<p>He was nice, and I am extremely grateful to have met more than just two people from MIT, and I told/emailed him that. </p>
<p>@CalAlum You’re just as judgmental, if not more so, for calling me ungrateful and judgmental, especially as you haven’t even met me. At least I’m commenting on someone I’ve actually met. And you’re commenting on a university you haven’t attended. That doesn’t really help me much.</p>
<p>The people I’ve met from MIT have included someone who graduated 5 years ago, and someone who graduated 30 years ago. They didn’t differ all that much on the “culture”" aspect, though the younger guy had more to say on the parties and newer research. </p>
<p>@Mikalye I see a lot about extracurricular activities and activities at other universities. The other schools I’m looking at offer courses on campus where I don’t have to travel to another campus to take arts courses. And I do want to minor or double major in theater. Don’t take that as being on the offensive, it’s just that I see that MIT offers arts as an extracurricular activity, but not really as a major part of the curriculum. Of course it’s an “institute of technology,” so I should be expecting that. I’d really like to be able to explore in college and not have to take math/science every semester for a while (a semester of just english/arts would be a nice break so I don’t get burned out). Don’t get me wrong, I do want to have science as the main focus.</p>
<p>@Mollie I understand that there is choice. It’s just that there are requirements for a science major that are quite extensive, and then there’s the freshman year science requirements (physics and calculus). If you’re taking humanities courses with science classes, you’re still taking science classes. That isn’t really a break- it’s more work! I guess that if I’m even applying to MIT, I’m OK with a lot of work. My real concern is how MIT students avoid burn out when so many math/science courses are required of them. </p>
<p>I understand there are extracurricular arts, but how is there time to do any of them with the workload. I’ve talked to a friend that goes to MIT, and she does 10 hours of homework per night. She has excellent grades, but she is working so hard she can barely take it. I don’t want to do 10 hours of homework a night. I mean, she gets almost no sleep.</p>
That post makes it seem like you consider math/science “work”, as in something you are willing to do but don’t enjoy. Why are you considering a science major (much less applying to MIT) if you don’t like the idea of a lot of science?</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m going to have to agree with everyone else here - if you’re going judge other people for their social graces, you aren’t going to fit in at MIT. I understand that the college application process is a stressful time, but I have really and truly never met anyone at MIT who’s anything less than understanding about people’s lack of social awareness. This is one of the most fantastic parts of MIT - I feel like I’m never being judged. But if you feel as though you won’t be able to thrive in this sort of an environment, then you really don’t belong here.</p>
<p>As far as the workload goes, this semester, I’m taking a relatively light load (48 units, but classes that are typically known to be not that much work), and I probably find myself doing 3 hours of homework a night on a good night, and 6 to 7 hours of homework a night on a bad night, as do most of my classmates. Assignments take on average 6-7 hours to complete and are given out once a week or so. Yes, it’s a lot of work, and if you don’t want to do it, you should consider going elsewhere for college. Pretty much everyone I know agrees that there is a lot of work, but it’s interesting, and the only thing they really dislike about it are the time limits. I’ve been given many, many problems that I’d like to explore in greater detail, but I can’t, because there’s another problem due next week.</p>
<p>So. If you would like to go to a school where everyone’s poised and articulate and where you get 8 hours of sleep a night, you shouldn’t come to MIT. But if you’re willing to have an open mind, and you’d like to tackle interesting problems and live with amazing, kind, and giving people, then perhaps this is the school for you after all.</p>
<p>
If this is really your attitude, you should look elsewhere for college.</p>