MIT vs Columbia vs BRDD

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Hello! I’ve visited all three choices and honestly am still stuck. I would appreciate it if you guys could give me some personal insight or correct/add to my initial impressions. I’m kind of all over the board regarding my interests which include design, life sciences, public policy, & econ currently.

For Columbia, I love its location in NYC and easy access to internships throughout the school year. In addition, there’s the added benefit of their Arts Initiative and their lovely dorms. In general, the environment felt so much more worldly and refined. The students there seemed very independent, but the Core seemed like a great unifying factor. I sensed more smaller communities and less of an overarching university wide community. I did not find as much entrepreneurial support/spirit as MIT there.

For MIT, it was amazing how passionate and active the student body was in undertaking projects. I liked the breadth of resources the administration seemed to provide to them. The abundance of research opportunities is reassuring, and I like their authority defying culture. The other universities in the area are also a major plus because I can cross register there if MIT does not have a course I want. However, I honestly felt a little alienated during CPW and student culture seemed cliquey initially. I’m unsure about how I would fit in socially here and engineering/tech seems to permeate everything even design courses here.

For Brown RISD Dual Degree, when I met the students in the program they seemed like a family. The students at Brown were so friendly and many people went out of the way to help me around campus (which didn’t happen at either of the other two). I’m worried about the relative isolation of Providence as well as the restrictive schedule of the Dual Degree Program. I don’t want to be unable to explore major options because I’m busy trying to finish up requirements for the combination of majors I think I want. The current students also seem to spent a lot of time at RISD and go into majority art careers which is something I am not quite set on. I do love the major options available at RISD though (ex. glass, textiles) that I feel like I won’t be able to explore anywhere else (but I’m pretty sure I will not major in).

Sorry for all that text haha. I’ve been thinking over this a lot.

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This is a tough one! All three schools have top alumni networks.

( I am an MIT grad. )

Between the three, you will get the best science and math education at MIT,
just because the students are more focused in those subjects. (a lot of learning happens student to student at any college today) The MIT school of Architecture is well known and very well ranked for design. Art flourishes at MIT but its not the Rhode Island School of Design by any means, MIT does not offer a bachelor of fine arts.

MIT has a separate department of political science and economics and both are very strong.

Ask yourself do you want a bachelor of fine arts or do you want a strong technical degree with a focus on math content of your courses? Public policy at MIT will be more focused on science and technology policy than policy degrees at your other two choices.

http://web.mit.edu/polisci/undergraduate/minor/pp.html

Brown and Columbia are more well rounded than MIT for student interests and majors , and the Columbia Core offers a lot of readings in philosophy, English and history. You will read and write better by the end of four years, if you pick Brown or Columbia. I think the Columbia Core is very light weight on math and science, I have looked it over for my son. However Columbia has fantastic departments in economics, physics and math. Not sure about biology. I feel Columbia is not as strong in engineering if you might say want to major in bioengineering.

At MIT you will do more problem sets and have tremendous options for research in pubic policy, political science, biology or economics starting in freshman year. MIT’s problem set approach is very good preparation for analytical careers in business, law, medicine or science or engineering, or econometrics.

Columbia has a School of Visual arts. Is that important to you?

Check about where MIT will allow you to take classes. In the 1980s, students could only take Harvard courses if MIT does not offer that subject. Wellesley College, about 20 minutes away, a girls liberal arts college, is completely open to MIT students, however. So check if Wellesley College would be a place to study the fine arts you seem interested in.

http://www.wellesley.edu/art

The bus between MIT and Wellesley runs frequently so some MIT students are able to take lot of classes over there.
But if you did not visit Wellesley College, you have to think about whether you fit over there and would be happy taking art or humanities subjects at a women’s liberal arts college.

Boston and NYC are better for a college student, than Providence in my opinion, but that is a personal choice.

Providence is 20 minutes from Cape Cod, if you like the beach. Boston is 50 miles north of Providence, but ask yourself do you want to experience city life?

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@Coloradomama So would you say that a lot of the humanities majors at MIT are very quantitative?

I was looking at cross-registering at either Harvard or MassArt for some of their courses but was unsure how the credit for that would factor in my degree. I hadn’t actually considered Wellesley, but I will look into that too! I’m only concerned about travel time and the logistics of actually scheduling these classes as compared to the close proximity of Brown & Columbia’s art departments. Columbia’s main attraction to me is the city so I would prefer to go to college near one.

Thank you for the very informative reply!

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MIT requires a science core for every major at MIT, music, physics or architecture majors take the identical science core. It is one semester of biology, one semester of chemistry, a year of math and physics. All MIT students must take 8 humanities courses to graduate, and that is defined very broadly as anything in course 21 (English, history, foreign language, music ) , 14 (Economics ) , 17 (political science) and a few other majors, maybe urban planning?? . I know several MIT humanities majors, some doubled majored. One woman in my class got into Princeton for an English PhD. She is an English professor today. Another MIT grad I know majored in political science, and another in theatre studies.

A few pre law students at MIT study public policy and an engineering or science subject. Double majoring in public policy seemed to appeal to a number of my classmates.

I do not know if MIT will allow you to cross register at Mass Art and count those credits for your MIT degree. Call and ask them. Harvard, only if MIT does not offer the same subject. Harvard, you have to take the Mass Ave bus up there. Wellesley bus leaves every twenty minutes from MIT’s campus. There is a lot of cross registration with Wellesley and much less with Harvard. MIT/Harvard Health Sciences is a collaboration between those two colleges, largely at the PhD level though, for health related PhDs.

I knew many boys to go to Wellesley College for many of their 8 required humanities classes. Girls in my day went to Wellesley a lot less than boys did. I am not sure of the social dynamic surrounding Wellesley today.

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@OhPearl I found the page you need to study about cross registration for MIT students at MassArt.
You cannot use any MassArt classes as your 8 required Humanities subjects to get an MIT degree. The courses you take at MassArt will be graded P/F. You can use Wellesley classes and I think Harvard classes for those 8 required humanities , HASS classes. You can cross register at Mass Art, though as long as you are a full time undergrad at MIT and earn elective credits, but I wonder how many you will realistically be able to take if you want to finish a degree at MIT in four years?

http://act.mit.edu/academic-program/cross-registration/for-mit-students/

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@OhPearl Rules for Harvard cross registration are that you cannot take any Harvard courses in your freshman yea rat MIT. They note that spring break is different at Harvard and the start dates of the semester at MIT and Harvard are different:

http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/xreg/ugradMITtoHarvard.html

Taking classes at Wellesley is the best bet for MIT students as there are less restrictions and very good transportation between the two campuses. Its a very old cross registration program that has been very successful for many MIT students. I think the MIT and Wellesley calendars line up better than Harvard/MIT.

http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/xreg/MITtoWellesley.html

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@OhPearl One cool thing about MIT is that MIT undergrads can take Harvard Graduate Law and Government courses that Harvard undergrads can’t even take.

I think you’d basically be set for public policy with that. Also, during an Economics UROP tour I heard them say that their Econ department was ranked best in the world. I don’t know any specific information on the others, other than that there are people majoring in it. Honestly, MIT is so big you can definitely find people with the same interests as you.

On that note, I think the most important part of finding friends would be to find a dorm culture you like. I too, felt lonely during CPW because everyone already had friends they explored with or were super outgoing or just followed another group, none of which was true for me (I’m international, somewhat shy, and somewhat independent). However, we definitely can’t have been the only ones who felt this way, so perhaps all the loners could get together and be friends? Regardless though, everyone was really nice, and I actually really enjoyed spending time with my host and her friends, so I’m sure I’ll find a group of friends I’d enjoying being with (and I’m sure you will too).

Now, did I destroy all your reservations about attending MIT?

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^:)^ Yes both of you guys have helped so much in correcting some of my misconceptions!

also @AthenasMight could you direct me to where I can find more information about taking classes at Harvard’s Law school? I can’t seem to find any links online for that, but I’m very interested!

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@OhPearl

http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/xreg/ugradMITtoHarvard.html

EDIT: Just realized you already had this link, but this is the section where it is mentioned:

"Full-time sophomores, juniors, and seniors are eligible to cross-register for academic subjects offered at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences or one of Harvard’s professional schools. First-year students (including freshmen who declare Early Sophomore Standing) are not eligible for cross-registration.

Note: Undergraduates may not cross-register at the Harvard Business School, Harvard Extension School or Harvard Summer school."

So basically, Law, Medical, Government, we can take them all! =D
(I actually originally got this information off an MIT senior during CPW.)

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As far as cross-registration goes, in addition to Wellesley and Harvard, MIT does allow cross registration at the Massachusetts College of Art (MassART) and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (SMFA). These are fairly easy to arrange, and you automatically get elective credit for courses taken at these institutions on your MIT transcript. However, these courses only count for elective credit. You may not use them to satisfy any of MIT’s HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) requirements. They are also graded pass-fail. You will need to get your academic advisor’s permission to take classes at one of these institutions. All MassART classes award 12 elective credits on an MIT transcript. At SMFA, a 2-credit SMFA class becomes 6 MIT elective credits, and a 4-credit SFMA class turns into 12 MIT elective credits. For more information see http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/xreg/index.html

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Thank you guys! I just committed to MIT this morning <3

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Sweet! See you August! Any ideas regarding your dorm? I’m thinking McCormick. :smiley: