<p>I got into Cooper Union for the engineering school and I am on the waiting list for MIT. I turned in my SIR for Cooper Union already but I keep thinking, what if I did get off the waitlist from MIT?</p>
<p>Which school would you choose and why?
Is Cooper Union better for undergraduate studies?
Is it possible to go to MIT for both undergrad and grad school? I want to ultimately end up at MIT....</p>
<p>If you want to ultimately be at MIT, go there as soon as you are able. Doesn't matter what anybody else thinks!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is it possible to go to MIT for both undergrad and grad school?
[/quote]
In most departments, it's actually a lot easier to get into MIT for grad school if you went there for undergrad. About 20% of each graduating undergrad class goes directly to MIT for grad school.</p>
<p>MIT is a great place to be an undergrad.</p>
<p>Anyone know about Cooper Union who can give an opinion?</p>
<p>Personally Cooper Union.</p>
<p>why though....</p>
<p>Cooper Union for undergrad. Its free, in NYC, and is very well respected among graduate schools. Thats a pretty amazing combination in my opinion. Going there will not hurt you on grad school apps are due.</p>
<p>interesting... well... for my major I want to study aerosapce engineering. That is why I want to go to MIT because Cooper Union does not have an actual aerosapce major. Should I just go for mechanical engineering at Cooper Union and get a master's degree in aerospace at MIT? Is this possible?</p>
<p>Thanks for your opinions. :)</p>
<p>Your plan sounds good to me.</p>
<p>But I personally would take MIT over Copper Union if I got taken off the waitlist there. The bad thing about Cooper Union is that there are such limited options when it comes to taking classes outside your major. On the other hand, MIT has an incredible business school and a strong political science program, in addition to their unbeatable engineering curriculum. Plus, its possible to dual register at MIT so that you can take classes at the surrounding colleges, if there's a class at one of them that interests you. Like, my friend is going to Wellesley, and she can go to MIT anytime and take classes there. Also, this girl I know got accepted into Harvard and MIT and didn't know where she would go, but it doesn't quite matter as much with those two schools, because each allows students from the other to take classes at both institutions.</p>
<p>Again, though, that's just my personal opinion.</p>
<p>May be MIT is better for undergraduate, but it is 200K+ more. If money is not an issue, you should pick MIT over Cooper Union. On the other hand, I like your idea about going for mechanical engineering at Cooper Union and get a master's degree in aerospace at MIT.</p>
<p>This is just my humble opinion. :)</p>
<p>ok so: I did get off the waitlist and got into MIT. </p>
<p>Now! I do not know what to do.
My parents say that at Cooper Union class sizes are smaller and the professors will be very accessible. They think at MIT, the professors don't teach it and that if I need help I won't be able to get the help. They think because of my personality, I need close attention.... </p>
<p>But I like MIT better.</p>
<p>Should I really give up the free 120,000 k? Are professors that inaccessible at MIT?</p>
<p>
[quote]
In most departments, it's actually a lot easier to get into MIT for grad school if you went there for undergrad. About 20% of each graduating undergrad class goes directly to MIT for grad school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is false.</p>
<p>Your decision is really tough. I don't know anything about Cooper, but MIT is truly an exceptional place, and from what I've heard can be a very rewarding use of your college years. It's even got a decent social scene. It's hard as balls to get A's, though. I'm not sure what kind of a person you are, but personally I would go to MIT because it has more options in case you decide you don't want to do engineering.</p>
<p>mit is incredible. if money is no issue, go there, hands down. people going to mit for under and grad is so common it's called mit cubed. (bs, ma, phd mit).</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is false.
[/quote]
No, actually it's not. Last year's graduating student survey, which had a 68% response rate, showed 137 students going to MIT for grad school. (Of course, this doesn't include those who were accepted but chose to go elsewhere.) MIT is the most common graduate school destination of MIT undergraduates.</p>
<p>For an anecdotal example, of my husband's graduating class in aero/astro, all but two students were accepted into the department's master's program. All of the MIT students who applied to the biology PhD program my year were accepted. Some departments, like EECS, have special master's programs to which only MIT undergraduates can even apply.</p>
<p>For the OP, I wrote a blog entry a few years ago on some of the student</a> support resources at MIT. In short, your parents are wrong -- undergraduates get quite a bit of professor attention at MIT, and classes are generally small once you get past the big freshman lectures. If you're willing to ask for help when you don't understand something, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is false.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, it is absolutely true. And Mollie and I actually <em>went</em> to MIT and would know this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
ok so: I did get off the waitlist and got into MIT.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Congrats! This is great! You are very lucky!</p>
<p>MIT is a tough place (and, like everywhere, has a mixture of good and bad profs - I had some horrible ones, and also some phenomenal ones). But there are plenty of support resources.</p>
<p>Course 16 (the aero/astro department) has always seemed to me to have a good sense of community. Mollie would know more about the specifics, since it was her husband's department. And as she said herself, if you are a course 16 undergrad at MIT, you are extremely likely to get into the master's program (which is very difficult to get into for people who weren't MIT undergrads).</p>
<p>If you have specific questions, you can ask me, and I suspect Mollie wouldn't mind either. :)</p>
<p>Help me out here with the financial aspects of your decision --</p>
<p>Isn't Cooper Union free of charge?</p>
<p>What is the cost differential b/w Cooper and MIT?</p>
<p>Beyond that, it sounds to me from the responses that MIT, for your particular interest, has no peer (well, except for Caltech of course -- JPL and all). Why settle? Simply identify the aspects of MIT you think will be a challenge, and work to overcome them starting now.</p>
<p>You can't go wrong with either school, but Cooper Union doesn't really have many aerospace courses. I remember there being one or two courses when I was there, but that was it. </p>
<p>Some things to think about... mechanical engineering is more versatile than aerospace engineering, so it won't limit job opportunities later on. However, you can't be sure you'll have grades good enough to go to grad school at this point. </p>
<p>Personally, I'm glad I went to Cooper. Every major is a pretty tight community within itself. The free tuition made it possible for me to get my MS immediately following my undergrad. Graduate school-wise, people in my year were accepted to many top schools. Princeton, CalTech, UIUC, UT-Austin, Columbia, CMU, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No, it is absolutely true.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not if you want to study physics. It's actually impossible, since they don't accept MIT undergrads into the MIT physics Ph.D. program. And for the EE Ph.D., they only accepted like 5 people out of my bro's class (he's going there next year).</p>
<p>This is why I said originally
And actually, accepting 5 MIT undergrads for the EECS PhD program from a class of 200 is an admission rate about five times better than the overall admission rate if you assume that every single EECS undergrad applied to the PhD program, which they didn't. Even if half the department applied, which I think is unrealistic, the MIT undergrad admit rate would be ten times better than the overall rate.</p>
<p>Wow! In Course 16 Aero/Astro, majority of the undergrads go to the Master programs? That really makes me feel comfortable! I received the financial aid package today and it was not so bad. Cooper Union is free tuition only and does not include housing, textbooks, food and etc. So basically with the small scholarship from MIT, (counting only tuition and fees), my parents and I would have to pay about 21,000 more at MIT. O well.. I'll just be more careful when it comes to money. Thank You so much for valuable opinions! I'm so excited to attend MIT this fall!</p>