<p>MIT is in Boston, namely, an urban location. My older cousin who went to MIT was robbed in 2009. He lost everything he carried with him, except for his clothes. -_-. So really, how safe is the campus? Are there ample crime scenes at MIT? Is it safe to walk at campus at night?</p>
<p>Hi boom - </p>
<p>MIT is not in Boston, it is in Cambridge, across the river. Many students do go in to Boston, though. </p>
<p>I’ve never felt unsafe on MIT’s campus. There are plenty of blue lights and campus police. It’s well-lit. That sort of thing. </p>
<p>I mean, no protection can guard against an excess of either stupidity or bad luck. That said, I think MIT is a pretty safe campus. By comparison, I went to a large state school in a very rural location. That campus, despite being in a rural area, was much, much less safe than MIT. </p>
<p>I’m sorry for your cousin, but that is very much a rare event.</p>
<p>The campus itself is generally very safe. If you go just off campus, it is a little more sketchy (Central Square, other parts of Cambridge), but it is still generally okay if you keep your wits about you.</p>
<p>I have actually never heard of anyone being mugged on-campus, at least not in the time I’ve been a student/alum. There’s certainly low-level crime (e.g., don’t leave your laptop out in public and walk away), but campus is not a dangerous place to be in the least. </p>
<p>I wrote a blog entry on campus safety [url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/health_safety/home_safe.shtml]here[/url”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/health_safety/home_safe.shtml]here[/url</a>], and I don’t think anything’s changed as far as that goes in the past four years. One thing I didn’t mention there is that Boston is a relatively safe city, as far as big cities go, and student safety generally isn’t a problem either on- or off-campus.</p>
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<p>I don’t think I’ve heard of a mugging on campus either. However, I think I remember that a woman was sexually assaulted in one of the bathrooms on campus, but I guess this can happen anywhere. Also, a friend of a friend was bike-jacked when coming off of Harvard Bridge on the Boston side.</p>
<p>Don’t bother bringing a bike, because it will get stolen. Other than that, take reasonable precautions and it should be ok. And there’s no reason to ever go to Central Square.</p>
<p>I bike to work every day and haven’t had any problems (knock on wood)… </p>
<p>And there is a reason to go to Central: Four Burger. </p>
<p>But Central isn’t sketchy. I was wandering around there post-Tosci’s last night at like 11 PM.</p>
<p>“I was wandering around there post-Tosci’s last night at like 11 PM.”
How reckless :D</p>
<p>Another reason to go to Central - Mary Chung’s! Omnomnom.</p>
<p>I regularly walk in and around campus at night, even venturing into some parts of Boston. People think I’m crazy. But I’m from Los Angeles ^.^</p>
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<p>??? If you have a nice bike, just make sure to get a U-lock instead of a chain lock. There is the small likelihood that it’ll get stolen, just like with anything. But many, many students find bikes pretty darn useful.</p>
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<p>I had a bike with two U-locks on it, and it was stolen. </p>
<p>I saw a news story on bike theft and they showed that you could unlock a U-lock with a bic pen. Bike theft is/was pretty prevalent at MIT.</p>
<p>Lol I thought ppl don’t steal bikes in America. -_-</p>
<p>^ Define “prevalent at MIT”? Yes, bikes get stolen, but I think you’re implying a much higher rate that what’s actually occurring.</p>
<p>@college - </p>
<p>I don’t dispute your experience, I’m just saying it hasn’t been mine.</p>
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Central has actually gotten gentrified by a significant amount in the time I’ve lived in Boston – my freshman year (2002), it was pretty sketchy, but by the time I graduated, it had gotten quite a bit better.</p>
<p>Having a bike can be pretty darn useful. You do have to be careful about locking it up, and yes it might get stolen, but honestly it’s not that bad. I had an old crappy bike (the lock was worth more than the bike, ironically) so I wouldn’t have cared if anything happened to it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bring a nice bike to campus, but I also never want to drive a nice car, because I’d always be paranoid about it getting beat up and/or stolen. So, to each his own. :)</p>
<p>MITChris said:</p>
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<p>I hope you’re not referring to UIUC. That, sir, is blasphemy. :-P</p>
<p>Every school my son and my daughter looked into said the same thing, “don’t bring a good bike to school as it will get stolen”. It was the same way many years ago in my day. Couple of my fraternity brothers invented a bicycle lock made from some kind of super case hardened steel. Hacksaw blades would just polish it. Thieves got so pieved at it that they would put some kind of acid into the lock mechanism (which was made of the same stuff) and you’d be stuck. Only way to get it off at that point was to get some liquid nitrogen and then shatter the thing. Son went to school in CA with a nice, but not great, bike and used that lock. Problem was that it weighed a ton and its a pain to carry. However, he never got his bike stolen. Lock never went into full production. Anyways, the bike issue seems to be universal on all college campuses. </p>
<p>MIT seems to me to be relatively safe. You do need to keep your wits about you and be “street smart” on any college campus. Theives know that any college campus is going to have students with a lot of expensive and easy to fence “toys” around.</p>
<p>I mean, if you’re really concerned about getting your bike stolen, here’s what you do: buy a cheap bike. Like $20 from one of those sales where campus police buys up the bikes that people just left there, or an old huffy off of ebay. </p>
<p>If it gets stolen, eh, $20.</p>
<p>Nobody ever stole my cheap Target bike. Even when I might have wished it had been stolen.</p>