<p>Just this week, I visited MIT. One of the things that disturbed me the most is the fact that many students are seperated into specific ethnic groups. That's what I saw at least. Is it because of all the different living groups? All the american students talk to other american students, asian americans to asian americans, african americans to african americans. Is this true or am I just misinterpreted? Students there preached about their team work spirits and working with different people, but that's not what I saw. Please explain this situation!</p>
<p>That's definitely not what I experienced at MIT -- as a matter of fact, I felt like I stopped seeing other people's ethnic affiliation altogether after a while.</p>
<p>I think there is some self-segregation into various dorms, but I also know that I was the only white kid on my floor freshman year -- it was me, two Asian guys, three Asian girls, a Hispanic girl, and an African-American guy.</p>
<p>Where did you see this supposed segregation?</p>
<p>I live close by MIT and from I what I see all the time, MIT is very diverse and not at all segregated. In fact, it seems like kids are blind to race and skin color.</p>
<p>Yeah, my three best friends were two asians and a mexican (I'm white) and of the seven people that lived in my suite (with all of whom I was good friends) only two were born in the United States.</p>
<p>I mean there are definetly kids of different ethnicities that are really proud of their heritage and identified more with kids of the same heritage but most kids I met didn't really care what ethnicity you were. By no means will you instantly be shuffled into a catagory when you arrive. I mean, we all got into MIT so I don't think race is out defining characteristic.</p>
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All the american students talk to other american students
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<p>Who would bother to find out whether someone was American or international before talking to them? Nobody I know, that's for sure.</p>
<p>It does vary depending on what part of campus you're on, but my experience is that MIT is the closest to race-blind of any environment I've been in.</p>
<p>i was about to say that it's a phenomenon seen at most campuses, but being here for...a few hours, it surely doesn't seem like it. Not so far off from the norm.</p>
<p>aren't African/Asian Americans, also Americans? but moving on...</p>
<p>MIT's ethnic/culture based living groups are a bit interesting. Many universities explicitly assign dorm residents so that a good mix is always there. I haven't decided for myself what effect this system has on students, but if there's any, it certainly isn't much. (I have a mexican and an asian friend who both live in French House)</p>
<p>I would say that on the day to day life I experience, MIT life is more race/color blind then any place I've ever known (well ok...I'm from Kansas...but still!).</p>