<p>is it true that students at places like mit and caltech have no social life?
i want honest opinions, now. if it's true, who gives; they're still amazing people.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Lies. It often gets tough Junior year, but before that if you don't procrastinate and get your work done there is plenty of time to have a social life.</p>
<p>My interpretation of a social life is drinking. My freshman year and half of sophmore year I managed to comfortably drink 5 nights a week without any effect on my grades. You could easily use that time to do other stuff, this was just an example, but if you do it right more often than not there will be plenty of time for social activities.</p>
<p>
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My interpretation of a social life is drinking.
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</p>
<p>Er, wow.</p>
<p><em>My</em> interpretation of social life is hanging out with friends, going to parties (there's one pretty much every weekend, and there is drinking), and taking part in fun and interesting activities. And yes, this is done pretty heavily at MIT =D. I can't speak for Caltech (I've heard things - but I won't speak for it), but MIT has a very collaborative and fun spirit (in my eyes anyway). We're not locked up in our rooms with our books, trust me.</p>
<p>Check out some club/groups on the website, see what people participate in =D. There's everything there - from biology lectures, learning to juggle or shoot an arrow, roleplaying (yes, there's a nerdy side to MIT), musical theater, martial arts...</p>
<p>(Not to imply that all socialization is done in clubs, but this would certainly be the easiest to see online.)</p>
<p>In short, yes.
If you need convincing, I'd point you to the stats on how much Greek participation MIT has.</p>
<p>^^^I'm no expert on this, but from what I saw at CPW, there were a lot of people participating in frats. Also, honestly do you think there is any school where EVERYONE just sits in their room studying 24/7 not talking to anyone. No of course not, therefore at MIT there has to be students with social lives. Granted, there are many who do not because they study a lot and want good grades. Supposedly, such an environment exists in MacGregor. But then there's dorms like Baker, BC, EC etc which are very social and fun. People there love to party and have fun. Now if you consider studying a lot every day and perhaps not being able to have much fun on weekdays being not social then perhaps MIT isn't the right fit because there will be a lot of work involved, but in the end, there will always be time for socializing and having fun.</p>
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Supposedly, such an environment exists in MacGregor.
[/quote]
I hate to be sensitive about this, but no, it doesn't! Some of the entries are quieter than others, but I never encountered an entry that didn't at least socialize within itself.</p>
<p>To answer the question in the OP, like everyone else, I came to MIT and had a happy, fulfilling social life. For me, that was defined as eating dinner with my friends on weeknights, and going to restaurants or ordering in and watching movies on weekends, with occasional trips to frat parties or beer pong in our own lounge.</p>
<p>There's a saying at MIT that of work, friends, and sleep, you can pick two. I never had to make that choice.</p>
<p>"There's a saying at MIT that of work, friends, and sleep, you can pick two. I never had to make that choice."</p>
<p>WHAT ABOUT THAT ONE ALL NIGHTER YOU PULLED?</p>
<p>I pulled two all-nighters, actually. :) (Three if you count the night I fell in love with my husband, when we stayed up until talking about anything and everything before falling asleep exhausted on opposite ends of my bed around 8 AM.)</p>
<p>Aww, Mollie, that's so sweet =)</p>
<p>It's all about balance. If you choose to take 90 credit hours at MIT (equivalent to an average of 90 hours of class, lab, and homework time combined), you might be stressed to find free time. If you take a reasonable five or six classes, a social life is easy to have. Most people at MIT find a good balance between work and play. There are two unofficial mottos of MIT that I love quoting: "Work hard, play hard." and "School, Friends, Sleep - pick two."</p>
<p>It can be sort of an odd form of socializing, in some circles, but yes, people do have social lives.</p>
<p>When my boyfriend first moved to the Boston area and started hanging out with the MIT crowd, he said it reminded him of Real Genius (which you should watch, if you haven't :)).</p>