MIT stress levels

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>My daughter has been planning to apply to MIT EA. </p>

<p>She is an excellent student, has 2300+ SAT scores, a 5 on AP BC Calculus, and nearly perfect subject test scores. She is interested in Computer Science and Business and spent the summer at the WTP program at MIT where she did well, and enjoyed herself. She is also a solid athlete and is good enough to play her sport at MIT. She has a work hard, play hard mindset, and some level of friends and fun are important to her. She wants to obtain an excellent education, but also wants to enjoy the college experience. When she is not studying or practicing sports, she is also very sociable and has a lot of friends.</p>

<p>Recently she has been reading information on the internet from articles and blogs about high stress levels and high rates of mental problems (2001 study that 74% of students have emotional problems that interfere with their daily lives) at MIT and has begun to wonder whether the work load is so extreme that she (or almost anyone) would be miserable there.</p>

<p>Obviously all top colleges have students that regret the decision to attend them, but 3/4 of students having emotional problems, seems very high to me, although I do not know whether the rate is similar or even higher at other colleges.</p>

<p>I want to support my daughter in making an informed decision, and her concern is a reasonable one, I just do not know where to get good information regarding this issue. It seems to me that the Freshman retention rate would not be 98% if everyone were a miserable, emotional wreck, and no one was having fun. </p>

<p>Can those more knowledgeable about the overall environment/experience at MIT please comment on these things she has been reading and their experience at MIT? Is it realistic to do well and succeed in Computer Science and Business at MIT, and also enjoy your time there? Or is that unrealistic? What would you tell her?</p>

<p>Much2Learn</p>

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<p>I don’t personally know anyone who went to MIT who regrets the decision. I do know a few people who went to Caltech and found the academic demands there overwhelming, even though they were quite smart–however, the last of that group graduated 20 years ago. I think that both universities have taken steps to alleviate academic stress since then. I’ve met a number of quite happy MIT students in the past few years.</p>

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<p><a href=“2001%20study%20that%2074%%20of%20students%20have%20emotional%20problems%20that%20interfere%20with%20their%20daily%20lives”>quote=Much2learn</a>

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I was curious about this, so I found the 2001 report, which is [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/chancellor/mhtf/]here[/url”>MIT Mental Health Task Force Report]here[/url</a>]. (The 2001 report is, of course, from an entirely different student generation from the one that’s there now – I graduated seven years ago, and the report pre-dates me.)
I’m not sure what the question was, but the exact wording they use in the report is

I read this as including both ongoing and one-time emotional problems. I have to admit, if the question was really asked in this broad a fashion, I don’t find it surprising that three-quarters of the 500 undergrads and grad students who responded did so in the affirmative – I mean, my high school boyfriend broke up with me during my freshman year, and emotional upset from that relationship certainly affected the quality of my schoolwork. So I would say that I experienced an emotional problem that interfered with my daily functioning at MIT, even though that emotional problem had nothing to do with MIT whatsoever.</p>

<p>The thing about MIT is that it’s a bunch of smart, driven people put together in a big box where they can do anything their little hearts desire, and it’s very easy to overload one’s plate in a significant way with activities and classes and research. (Oh, my!) MIT is legitimately difficult, but that’s partly because science and engineering are difficult subjects in general, and partly because MIT professors expect high-quality work out of students, and because students expect it out of themselves. </p>

<p>I don’t mean to dismiss the very real problems of student stress and overwork, but I think it’s important to realize a few things. First, most people are not actually miserable, at least not for significant periods of time – more people are miserable during midterm week, for example, than during a random week of term. Second, much of the pressure that people are under is self-imposed, because they really want to take those two really tough classes and participate in that student group and do that research project, or whatever. Third, and I say this with all possible love and affection, MIT students love to complain about how tired and overworked and hardcore they are.</p>

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This could describe a large percentage of the people I knew at MIT.</p>

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<p>Okay, I just found the wording of the survey question:

That’s… pretty general. I feel like most 18-to-22-year-olds would answer yes to this, no matter where they went to college.</p>

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<p>I’m a sophomore here, and yes, the psets and exams can get stressful at times (particularly if you take too many classes or all advanced classes). A good strategy I find is, take one easy class per semester to balance out the workload from the more advanced courses. Throughout the year, various student groups hold study breaks with free good, games etc. to encourage students to take a break. Overall, I found my freshman year not too stressful (except at certain times), and I was able to find free time to join a few student groups, explore Boston, go grocery shopping, everything a typical college student does…</p>

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<p>I don’t think overworked students should be that much of a concern. LikeMITer94 I’m a sophomore at MIT and I haven’t felt particularly stressed despite taking rather large/advanced course loads. Certainly mollie is correct when she says that MIT students love complaining about how much work they have though. Yet in reality MIT undergrads do about 27 hours per week of homework per week [source: <a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/pressure/breakdown/year/index.htm][/url”>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/pressure/breakdown/year/index.htm][/url</a>] which is not exactly a crushing load. When you factor in class time it’s around 40 hours per week. That amount may be higher than other schools though. I think a large amount of stress comes from the fact that most MIT students would like to above average academically at MIT but obviously only half of students can be above average academically at MIT and so inevitably a large fraction of students are not doing quite as well academically as they would like.</p>

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<p>MIT offers so many amazing opportunities that driven students such as your daughter and my daughter (current Junior) sometimes bite off more than they can chew and end up stressed over the heavy load. My daughter is majoring in Mechanical Engineering and either minoring or double majoring in literature. She holds an office in her sorority, sings in and holds an officer position in an accapella group, is a coordinator for Camp Kesem, holds two campus jobs as a tour guide and grader and carries a heavy class load. She spent last IAP in Nicaragua and hopes to travel to Italy this January through MISTI. UROPs and internships are also part of her life. She has many friends and always finds time to have fun. Yes, she has stressful days or weeks but she can’t stand to be idle or bored. I suspect she is quite similar to the typical MIT student, which makes it such a perfect match for someone like her.</p>

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<p>@UMTYMP</p>

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<p>ding ding ding</p>

<p>MIT is hard, yes, but a lot of the psychological hard-ness is the ego hit when you are no longer the smartest person in the room. </p>

<p>Which is not to trivialize it, but to contextualize it. I found that MIT did weird, nonstandard things to my confidence. It made me both much less self confident (in that I was no longer always sure I was the smartest person in the room, Listen To My Opinions Dammit), and much <em>more</em> self confident (in that problems I had once considered entirely intractable now were well within my ability to solve). </p>

<p>In some ways MIT is sort of like your brain moving from a studio apartment into a large mansion. The walls are now terrifyingly distant, and there might be some intellectual agoraphobia, but you’ve got <em>so</em> much more room to expand and grow and move around and hang things on the walls.</p>

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<p>That’s a really nice metaphor. And the things some of us hang on the walls are really freaky looking.</p>

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<p>The first thing I’d tell her, even right now, is that she shouldn’t worry about it if she gets rejected. I’m sorry to burst your bubbles, and I don’t mean to sound like an *******, but don’t promise your daughter that she will get in. Unfortunately, MIT tends to go for inventors/people with “names”. My friend had:
→ 2360 SAT, 800 on Math IIC/Physics SAT II
→ 8 AP’s in junior year, got a 5 on each.
→ Sports all year long. Lots of clubs in which he was active and other extracurriculars too.
→ Attended summer programs in Columbia basically every year of high school.
He ED’ed and got rejected… She might have a higher chance if she’s really as good at sports as you say she is, and because she attended that program at MIT. Plus, don’t call me a sexist but also because she’s a girl. NJIT, for example, has lower standards for girls to encourage them to go into engineering/computer science. Same thing for MIT, most likely. They need to show that there’s a low male:female ratio, and thus “more diverse.”
But with that being said, no; you don’t have to worry about stress. I have friends who are in ivy’s and MIT and they say only the first year is hard. But then again - that’s true for ALL colleges. In reality, the level isn’t much higher in MIT than in other schools: it’s just that MIT has “better” teachers and they are more selective in their choosing. After the first year/semester, they get used to it. And a fun fact - emotional problems are prevalent EVERYWHERE outside of community colleges.
I really don’t think you have to worry about your daughter. Everyone struggles in the beginning, but it gets better (or, at least, more tolerable) as he/she goes on.
Pretty cool that she wants to major in Comp Sci… I want to major in Comp Sci too. And wow, I took AP Calc BC too and got a 5 (the only AP I took in 11th grade). I also got a 5 in AP Comp Sci, which I took in 10th grade. Is she going to take that, by the way?</p>

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<p>

Your friend ED’ed at MIT ??? Or ED’ed at Columbia? Either the story is inaccurate or has little relevance to MIT. The idea that “MIT tends to go for inventors/people with “names”” is simply preposterous.</p>

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This seems unlikely at least at MIT. I don’t think I know anyone at MIT who would agree with this. For more concrete evidence according to the stress survey I linked to earlier this thread freshmen at MIT spend substantially less time on school work than upperclassmen. They also spend much less time on research and working.</p>

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This is simply not true. I took numerous upper division math/science classes at the University of Minnesota (a good but not elite state school) and without exception the level was considerably lower than the corresponding classes at MIT. The most advanced/challenging undergrad math classes at the University of Minnesota are somewhat slower than their MIT equivalents which are intermediate math classes at MIT (18.100B and 18.701/2). The more advanced undergrad math classes at MIT are on a whole different level than any undergrad math class at Minnesota. The freshmen advanced chemistry class at MIT was harder than Minnesota’s junior level physical chemistry classes. Humanities classes are somewhat of an exception to this as upper level humanities classes at Minnesota typically were more focused/advanced than humanities classes at MIT.</p>

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<p>It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a poster spewing as much misinformation as you are.</p>

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<p>@Piper My bad for the “people with names” think. I was out of it yesterday. It’s more of for people who are really involved and demonstrate “leadership” and all of that stuff.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I’m currently in 18.701 and trying to keep my head above water, lol. It’s a pretty tough class, especially if you haven’t seen mathematics at such a rigorous level (I have, but my linear algebra background is weak). And the title of the class is “Algebra 1,” which seems confusing to some at first.</p>