<p>I recently got accepted to MIT early and am leaning towards attending there. However, there is one thing that really bothers me about MIT, and that is that there is sometimes a perception of MIT as being "nerdy". I am not a nerd, a geek, or whatever. I am not obsessed with videogames, I don't know binary code, and I am not obsessed with looking up wikipedia articles on obscure science topics. However, I did get accepted to MIT, and like to think of myself as fairly intelligent. </p>
<p>I do not think "nerdiness" is something to strive for. I think it would be better if all the brilliant people who are involved in science were well adjusted people who don't play world of warcraft etc... I am not necessarily hating on or condemning "nerdiness", i just guess its not me at all. I want to go to a school where people are brilliant, yet relatively normal. </p>
<p>I have visited MIT and stayed overnight with some soccer players, who all seemed like pretty normal, cool guys. I'm curious if the majority of people at MIT consider themselves "nerds/geeks/whatever", or normal people who are fairly socially adept? Also I wonder the same question about the people who have been accepted early?</p>
<p>I’d strongly suggest you attend CPW. I think you will find a huge variety of personalities at MIT, everything from Really Nerdy (which is really cool) to Not Nerdy (which is also cool). I think the over-riding principle at MIT is that whatever your personality you have an abiding interest in science and/or math or business (at Sloan) and want to concentrate in those areas.</p>
<p>Make sure you look carefully at dorms and activities, and even certain floors of dorms, which have distinct personalities. Lots of videos of the dorms are on youtube or on the dorm websites. Figure out where you feel most comfortable. Ask questions.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen anyone at MIT play WoW, although some people probably do. No one will force you to play or do anything you don’t want to do.</p>
<p>This is a hard question because I think most people here consider themselves “nerdy” but few define it remotely the same way.</p>
<p>And there’s definitely some overall nerdiness. For example, regardless of where you are on campus or what groups you find yourselves in, expect people to crack the occasional joke about math or bio. Depending on the specifics of what group you’re in, “occasional” might mean once a week or 4 times a day. But there are all types at MIT, and I’m sure you’d find some culture where you feel you fit in.</p>
<p>You mentioned the soccer team. I played on the field hockey team and the girls there were very far from the nerdy stereotype. (I didn’t fit in very well. =) As I said, there was still the occasional math or science joke or what have you, but mostly they were what I surmise to be your definition of “normal people.”</p>
<p>Definitely try to come to CPW, but in general I don’t think it’s something to be concerned about. MIT is a very diverse place. There are absolutely pockets of WoW-playing, binary-decoding, pocket-protector-wearing geeks, and they coexist peacefully among pockets of fraternity and sorority members, hard partiers, athletes, and all other types.</p>
<p>Do you have people into Linux and stuff, hacking around (no, not the security-hacking, but the ‘real’ hacking ) with random coding, playing video games, watching Sci-Fi movies, etc.?</p>
<p>@Nikki93: Using Gnu/linux doesn’t mean to be a nerd. I use a system called gNewSense, it is a Gnu/linux distribution, but i am not a nerd, i am not a programmer, and i am not a computer sciencist. I use Gnu/linux because it respects my freedom, i can copy and share the sfotware when i want. :)</p>
I would answer “yes.” To both questions. The majority of people at MIT consider themselves nerds/geeks, and also are normal people who are fairly socially adept.</p>
This comes off as condemning nerdiness. As a scientist, I am not interested in the least about the after-work habits of my colleagues. I am interested in my colleagues being “well-adjusted” insofar as they are friendly, collaborative, and collegial, but if I insisted that all scientists around me behaved like “normal” people all the time, I’d be fighting a losing battle. And probably nobody would eat lunch with me.</p>
<p>Although I wholeheartedly agree with posters above me who note that there are a wide variety of types of people at MIT, I think you’ll need to adopt a more libertarian attitude toward what you perceive as nerdiness if you come to MIT. Part of the MIT ethos is living and letting live – all kinds of people attend MIT, and that’s okay with everybody. Everybody is free to be him/herself.</p>
<p>I concur with the advice to attend CPW. MIT is a place full of lots of different types of people, and half the fun is finding the group(s) that make you feel most like yourself.</p>
<p>Nikki, try the [MIT</a> Student Information Processing Board](<a href=“http://sipb.mit.edu%5DMIT”>http://sipb.mit.edu) - I think it might be right up your alley.</p>
<p>@nikki93: yep, but i think that to be a nerd is a good thing. A nerd is someone who love to explore programming and computer science, it is not an asocial person.</p>
<p>Really? I was of the opinion that programming/computer science (without doing school-stuff all the time) would characterise a geek, and ‘school stuff’ (math, pure science etc.) a nerd.</p>
<p>This is a ridiculous statement. The most avid WoW player that I knew at MIT was a hallmate who was a US Marine Corps veteran, got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, and is now a commissioned officer in the USMC. The next-most-avid player got his PhD in chemistry from MIT a couple of years ago, and now works in biotech (and is an avid actor and director in amateur theater). These are productive, well-adjusted people, with lots of friends. Playing WoW or similar games doesn’t mean that you’re living in your mother’s basement eating Doritos.</p>
<p>I think you’ll find that there are plenty of people who share your interests and non-interests, and that nobody will be trying to force you to be a console gamer if you don’t want to. I mean, you discovered this yourself when you visited MIT. But I don’t think you’ll find that condemning geeks (which is exactly what you did, even if you claimed you weren’t) makes you too popular. Like Laura said, most people at MIT consider themselves at least somewhat nerdy and/or geeky, even if one person defines that very differently from another.</p>
<p>As far as social adeptness goes, I actually found that MIT was a place where people who weren’t socially adept became more so. It is not an environment that encourages asocialness (there are people who choose to embrace that, but I think they’re a pretty small minority) or complete social cluelessness.</p>
<p>Brilliance will never be mutually exclusive from at least some form of eccentricity/quirkiness/“nerdiness”. If you think otherwise then please reconsider coming to MIT… :P</p>
<p>I don’t think your characterization is quite on the money - besides, what is the arbiter of “well-adjusted”? </p>
<p>That said, it is your decision, and before you come to MIT you should make sure the culture is right for you. This is why we have CPW. If you come here, and you like the campus and people, then it’s right for you! And if you don’t, then it probably isn’t! Plenty of smart people thrive at MIT, and plenty of equally smart people wouldn’t. </p>
<p>Like forest fires, only you can be the final word on this one.</p>
) with random coding, playing video games, watching Sci-Fi movies, etc.?</p>