<p>Newbie posting here.</p>
<p>But if there is anybody who is willing to help me know the good points about MIT engineering, please tell me.</p>
<p>This is a pretty broad question, and it’s tough to answer.</p>
<p>Some of the good points about MIT academics in general are that you’re surrounded by really smart people who are also friendly and helpful, that you have a lot of freedom to take the courses that interest you (even if you don’t have the prerequisites or if they’re graduate-level courses), and that there are lots of opportunities to get involved in research with great professors.</p>
<p>But if you want more specific answers, you’ll have to ask more specific questions.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore in 6-2 (EECS). So far, the major pros seem to be that the course 6 staff is really supportive, there’s a wide variety of interesting classes, and you get major street cred with employers.</p>
<p>The major con is that it’s really, really hard, and many upper-level classes can have infinite debugging time. So, if you don’t want to work hard, you shouldn’t come to MIT. But I bet you knew that already.</p>
<p>Simply its #1, it has lots of Pros.Actually there is too much to write down in one page but there is only one con which is explained by a long going joke at Mit
“You can do three things at mit, sleeping, having fun, studying ; but you can do just two of them at same time” not a exact quotation but gives the idea</p>
<p>@ mollie - Good point. But I can’t think of a specific question. I just want to know what’s a distinct feature at MIT.</p>
<p>@ k4r - Haha, working hard is no problem. But I’m assuming debugging means fixing all the minute details that a program has.</p>
<p>@ Dex - That line makes it seem like MIT people have no life, but I’m sure that’s not true. What would be the main pro’s you would point out.</p>
<p>The only con of MIT EE, which I speak of as an outside student though in a school with a similarly serious EE program, is that being surrounded by too many people who’re intense about similar things can wear one down. Other than that, of course it’s going to be challenging stuff. But I cannot even come close to imagining what cons there could be in terms of opportunities – there can’t be somewhere better to do an EE degree, and really only if it’s a terrible misfit (perhaps in terms of weather, student setting, etc…) should one really worry.</p>
<p>Thanks mathboy.
So if you could go to MIT why? (other than the fact that it’s number one and it’s a great school).</p>
<p>@ k4r - Oh, that reminds me. Do you like the fact that MIT mixes EE and CS together?</p>
<p>@ k4r again - Sorry. I have heard that MIT sponsors many outreach programs for under-taught and underprivileged children. How are you involved are you in these programs, if my facts are correct.</p>
<p>Well I am many years into schooling at a different school, but the only matter at MIT that would be a misfit for me is that I’m heavily biased towards staying in California and/or that kind of weather (I tend to perform best under ideal weather and surrounding conditions). Else, the school and its student culture sounds absolutely amazing to me. The unique thing is that people going to MIT probably self-select in a special way. There are some smaller schools with this feature, but MIT has the advantage of being a bigtime research powerhouse along with having such an undergraduate body – this is to say that if you want to continue on to further studies for instance, you’ll be in an environment where it’s all happening around you. I think that’s what makes it special. On the other hand, the self-selected student body means that one can more easily become a misfit for the culture – if you take other engineering-centric schools like UMichigan, Berkeley, Cornell, you may find that there is less to bind the students together, and that may be refreshing to some. </p>
<p>If you’re a serious student, I’d apply and visit the school if you are accepted and take it from there.</p>
<p>Hmm. That is a risk too. But yeah, California does have better weather conditions. I think I’ll be fine with the culture. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>I feel like a lot of your questions can be answered by some very basic googling on the MIT website - it’s a pretty good place to start. Course 6 includes the CS department, so their website is pretty nice. They have a section for prospective undergrads and the different degree programs are detailed there.</p>
<p>Also, basically what I mean by ‘infinite debugging’ is that projects in upper-level classes can be extremely open-ended, such that they not only don’t have defined endings but that it’s possible that there isn’t a feasible way to make what you’re attempting to do work. I’m thinking of my boyfriend’s experience in 6.828, in which students write an operating system - basically, you can get into a situation where you can spend an undefined amount of time writing code for and fixing your system (see other operating systems, like Windows or Ubuntu). This is a hard concept to wrap your mind around as a high school student - even your most open-ended final project probably had a set of criteria that were on a rubric or something for you to look at.</p>
<p>In that sense, MIT does a really good job of preparing you for the real world.</p>
<p>edit: Well, you’re interested in EE, which means that you better get to be really, really good friends with your multimeter and lab bench instead of with your desk chair and computer.</p>
<p>The main pro/con pair that I generally point out about MIT is this:</p>
<p>Pro: Duh, it’s MIT, it’s an awesome education.
Con: It’s quite possible that you will hate it there. (“You” in the general sense, not the OP or anyone else in this thread in particular.)</p>
<p>MIT is a very intense place, and it is NOT for everyone. Even among the population of very intelligent, very focused high achievers, MIT is not for everyone. You have to be more than a little crazy, in my personal opinion, to really enjoy MIT. (And even then you’ll hate it half the time.)</p>
<p>I don’t mean to emphasize the con, but it does tend to get lost in the general gushing about MIT being such a top notch school. You need to dig into the culture of MIT in general, and try to decide if it’s right for you.</p>
<p>alright thanks guys
I’ll be be on another search then and thanks for your input</p>