<p>My son (accepted for fall 2011) will be visiting MIT for the first time ever. He can't attend CPW due to a direct conflict. So, we're going to visit during his spring break instead.</p>
<p>We'll be in Cambridge/Boston for 2 full days and 2 half days.</p>
<p>So far, his (hopeful) itinerary includes Shadowing a Student for 3 hours one day, taking a campus tour from the admissions office, sitting in on several classes, visiting two departments that are of special interest to him, viewing lab facilities, seeing some of the dorms, and attending an orchestra rehearsal in the evening. (Still working out all the details.)</p>
<p>Any visit recommendations from "the locals?" What else should we see or do on the MIT campus or in the Cambridge area? Ideas for food and fun? Other great stuff to see or do on campus? Stuff to do in the evenings on campus? Or in the very early morning?</p>
<p>Depends on when you’re coming out! I’m personally a big fan of the Boston Duck Tours, which show you around Boston and then take you into the Charles river (their vehicles are amphibious DUKs or DUK-remakes, able to go on land and in water). There’s also a lot of interesting historical stuff in Boston (google “Freedom Trail”).</p>
<p>Check out some of the athletic facilities, even if your son isn’t an athlete. The sailing pavilion is just a short walk from the main dome and the dorms. Students can take basic sailing lessons and learn how to race, if they wish. Periodically, students can take out a small group to sail at night by moonlight on the Charles River. If you’re a Californian or from some other “warm” state, you might be interested in the ice-skating rink, too. My daughter learned to sail and skate there.</p>
<p>Personally, I like the walk down Mass Ave. from MIT to Harvard; it takes about 35 minutes, and you’ll encounter a range of little cafes & restaurants. I’m partial to the Miracle of Science Bar, myself. Students can cross-register at Harvard, so it’s interesting to traverse the distance, either on foot or by shuttle (the shuttles run regularly from MIT).</p>
<p>We would recommend the MIT Museum, just a few blocks from the main campus. We definitely enjoyed it. We also took visited the Kennedy Museum and Library and the Boston Museum of Science. (Yes, we like museums! Our favorite thing to do on family vacations.) Being Midwesterners, we enjoyed some great seafood while we were in Boston. Legal Seafoods was across the street from our hotel. </p>
<p>Whether our son is accepted or not, our trip to Boston last February was wonderful.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son on his MIT acceptance.</p>
<p>If you really want to eat like a college student, there’s a food court behind the Coop in Kendall. Go to Beijing Tokyo and get orange chicken + another entree + fried rice for $6.09. For the true college student experience, eat half of it, then stick the other half in your mini-fridge and eat it later for dinner :)</p>
<p>Although more seriously, the food trucks that are behind MIT Medical are pretty awesome. A lot of people really like Clover (vegetarian food, amazing rosemary fries) but I personally prefer Jerusalem Cafe (has falafel for $3!). Depending on when you’re visiting and his interests, you could also sit in on an EECS lecture in Stata (super nearby).</p>
<p>My dad really liked Anna’s in the Student Center when he came with me for CPW, but I haven’t ever been there. Your son should also try to arrange an overnight if possible, in my opinion - seeing campus with your parents is very different from actually living here.</p>
<p>^MORE great ideas! Thanks! ALL of you contributed exactly the kinds of things we were hoping to hear about. Great minds think alike?</p>
<p>About the overnight … he doesn’t really want to spend the night with a student. Doesn’t see the point … would rather just get a good night’s rest. He did ask to spend an entire day and evening with a student, all the way up until, say 8 or 9pm, but I guess that’s not allowed. He’ll be spending much of each day without me, though, sampling classes, shadowing a student for a few hours, and stuff like that. I’ll be meeting him for a few meals, taking the campus tour, and doing extra stuff in the evenings and mornings with him. We’re both going to have fun! I can EASILY entertain myself for hours without a care in the world!</p>
<p>@ SimpleLife,
I second Karen’s recommendation, that your son spend an overnight. I understand that he doesn’t see the point, but that’s only because he just understand – yet – what student life at MIT is really like. MIT is night-shifted, as some would say. It’s on Hawaii-time, as one professor put it. Students do much of their work at night. It’s been that way at least since the 1920s, when the beaver was chosen as the school mascot (not only a great engineer, but one who does his best work at night). The typical student probably is up until at least 2:00 in the morning, working on problem sets with others; to miss this is to miss a big chunk of what goes on.</p>
<p>This fall I attended a conference in Cambridge and met my daughter for dinner after class, at 10:00 pm. We had dinner at a restaurant off campus, and at 11:30 or so, I offered to walk with her back to her dorm. We came back through the underground tunnels, which were busy with students. Groups of students were working together on problems in the classrooms and talking about research in the labs. The place was like a bee hive.</p>
<p>Walk around campus on any morning, and the place seems kind of dead.</p>
<p>Did MIT admissions actually make a mistake? We thought it couldn’t happen!</p>
<p>Are there no MORNING people at MIT?</p>
<p>Application Question #1:
Are you frequently in bed by 11pm and up by the crack of dawn?
If no, proceed to question #2.
If yes, what were you thinking?! MIT is not for you!</p>
<p>Okay. I’ll encourage my son, again, to sign up for the overnight… but I’m not gonna tell him what you guys said. He’ll run for the hills!</p>
<p>The Miracle has a great menu, you should definitely check it out. Also, Flour is slightly closer to campus and has delicious baked goods.</p>
<p>I think that part of being a night owl comes from being a college student - in high school, I had to get up a lot earlier for classes and didn’t have things after 5pm for school. Now, many of my club meetings are at 7 and I work nights, so I’m often not back in my dorm room until late. Then, I do my homework and don’t end up going to bed until 2am or so, and the cycle repeats. I think it’s generally harder to do your work in the morning and it’s also hard to get work during the day if you’re involved in campus activities, hence the night-shifted-ness.</p>
<p>There are plenty of morning people at MIT (for example the crew teams). However, there are more evening people at MIT than morning people, and many students do shift time a little bit. I echo PiperXP’s comment above.</p>
<p>^^^Night-shifted-ness." That’s a pretty good word! I like it.</p>
<p>Yeah, my current college kid has experienced some night-shifted-ness, too. It’s not quite as “shifted” as what you MIT students describe, though!</p>
<p>You all have provided some really great suggestions! I’ve got to count – I hope there are enough meals in our visit to fit in every recommended place! :)</p>
<p>I was of course teasing about not telling him “what you said.” Maybe after he knows that an overnight at MIT is truly an experience (versus merely sleeping in somebody else’s room), he’ll want to do it. It’s not that he has an aversion to it (he’s actually overnight in another state right now); he just didn’t know there was an actual point and would rather sleep in a hotel bed! It does sound like a good part of the experience, though.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks everybody, for all these great pointers!</p>
<p>is your son a morning person? i mean, there are morning people here at MIT…but most people night-shift in college, and MIT more than most. </p>
<p>i think overnights are good because so much of MIT culture is in the dorms and he can only experience that through overnighting. he just has to make sure he finds the right dorm…but our staff should be able to help with that.</p>
<p>Ditto what Chris said. Our child did an overnight recently, and the admissions office did a terrific job placing her with a host that had similar interests. And the host went above and beyond the call – definitely more than just a place for the guest to crash for the night. Very worthwhile experience for those that can swing it.</p>
<p>Other fun things we’ve done as visitors with limited time (our son is a junior):</p>
<p>rent bikes and ride along the Charles
climb the Bunker Hill monument
check out the nuclear reactor on campus
take an “architecture” tour of the campus (buildings, sculpture, etc.)
jog/walk/bike up Mass Ave to Harvard (watch out for “M*******” drivers!)</p>
<p>IMO there is no better location for college than Boston/Cambridge!</p>