Hi Everyone!
I am an international student at a US school, and I am interested in majoring in sociology and international relations. Although I am sure I want to pursue a social science related career, I also like math. Throughout high school I have always gotten A+ in the school’s math curriculum, and by the time I graduate I would have taken BC Calculus, Multi-variable Calculus, AP Stats, and Number Theory.
My problem is that I don’t like math to a degree that I would go to math camp and train for math Olympiads. My math related extracurriculars are all tutoring, to students at my school for part of a work program and to students in India for a service learning program. So now math is like a distinct blob I don’t really know how to fit into the rest of my agenda. I talked to a couple adult friends and they tell me I should look at MIT.
I pondered a lot about the idea of pursuing social science in a traditionally STEM school. I know that no matter where I end up I will try to take advantage of the school’s offerings and continue learning mathematics and statistics. I would love to hear your experience and insights if you have shared my experience. I also wonder if MIT would really consider me, because I really don’t think I am at their caliber if judging by my highschool math and science accomplishments.
MIT does have significantly more rigorous general education requirements in math and science than most schools (it also has substantial humanities, arts, and social studies requirements). The math required is single variable calculus and multivariable calculus. Note that MIT single variable calculus is accelerated, taking a semester to cover what is ordinarily covered in a year at most schools, although it is not as heavily theory based as at Caltech or Harvey Mudd unless you take the “with theory” option. MIT allows AP credit to cover some or all of single variable calculus, and may accept transfer credit for multivariable calculus.
http://catalog.mit.edu/mit/undergraduate-education/general-institute-requirements/
If you can handle the general education requirements, the offerings in your major(s) of interest are suitable for you, you are admitted, you can afford to attend, then there it is certainly possible for MIT to be a good choice for you.
Social sciences at MIT are terrific, but be forewarned that they do have a significant quantitative component in addition to the general requirements. Best of luck to you, @JessYang !
I mean, what you describe – someone who working quantitatively, but wants to work in social science domains rather than STEM domains – is typically a pretty good fit for MIT. Check out Yuliya’s blogs.
Not every MIT student took the AMC, AIME, or USAMO in high school. Two years ago two students from my school got in because of their engineering or architecture work, and had never taken any of the AMC competitions. Last year a student got in having taken the AMC but not qualifying for AIME. (He went to UPenn though). You don’t necessarily need to have AMCs under your belt to get into MIT. Obviously it’s a plus but they’re looking for diversity in their admissions.
@MITChris is what I’m saying accurate?