Similar culture to MIT

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Hey everyone,

New around here, hope it’s the right subforum to be posting in. My question is: what other unis have a culture similar to that of MIT?

To give you some context, I’m an international student who has in the last two years fallen in love with MIT. I applied last year and got rejected, but I do believe the match is good so I am reapplying again this year (currently taking a gap year).

However, my scores are not exceptional, nor are my ECs even though I do love them. I’ve been looking for other places to apply to on and off for the past year but MIT is the best I’ve seen at really giving you a sense of what the culture is. Not to mention I don’t really know where to start looking!

Everyone around me thinks I’m crazy to be looking for a uni based on culture & match, especially living on the opposite side of the world where I can’t even do campus visits. People think I’m applying because MIT is a top uni (which definitely contributes to the kind of people that attend) but I’m mainly looking for a place where I’ll be happy.

So I’m turning to the community here to see whether the answer to my question exists.

Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

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Additional info: I love STEM but am also a big Humanities person, thinking of doing a computer science major with some sort of Humanities minor.

I appreciate any suggestions, but to be realistic I will definitely need financial aid/scholarships, which I know severely restricts my options. But please feel free to list some colleges and I will look into the financial aspect myself :slight_smile:

The reason I’m looking to the US is because I really love the concept of holistic admissions and a well-rounded degree program, which is hard to come by around here.

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@polyglotmediator:
Much has been written about the culture of MIT. Do a simple search and you’ll have many hours of interesting reading.

But when I read your post, my first question was what have you done during this GAP year that will make your application more competitive than it was last year?

I assume you have “Plan B” safety schools which you’re applying to. Even if you had a stellar application, you would still need to have your safety school applications in top shape.

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@jpm50 :

Thanks for your response :slight_smile: My aim is actually to look for other colleges that are similar to MIT. I have read up a lot on MIT already, and have a friend attending so I kind of already have an idea for MIT itself.

To answer your question, I’ve mainly been working (I’ll probably be funding my own education as far as possible) and doing things I love. I’m not sure whether any of it is impressive, but I’m not looking to impress! Part of the reason why I’m even bothering to apply to MIT is because I feel like it’s the only place that encourages you to do things you believe in and give you credit for it.

I could be wrong and there are other unis that are similar, which is what I’m trying to find out :slight_smile:

My safety schools are basically local colleges that are cheap or where I can likely get scholarships. Whether or not the environment is what I’m looking for is very hard to find out, but MIT has taught me that it’s up to me to take initiative and make the most of what I have, so hopefully I’ll be fine anywhere I go :slight_smile:

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[QUOTE=""]

Part of the reason why I’m even bothering to apply to MIT is because I feel like
it’s the only place that encourages you to do things you believe in and give you credit for it.

[/QUOTE]

There are many schools that fit that description.

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I would love to hear about some of them :slight_smile: As an international student, it is really hard to start from anywhere but the rankings which I guess isn’t the best way to go about it, hence I am looking for some suggestions.

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I think you’d get more help if you’d post in the International Students and/or Financial Aid fora.

Specify your exact stats and how much you can pay and you will likely get some concrete suggestions.

And keep in mind that a non-US citizen without top-notch credentials or the means to pay is going to have a very hard time finding a free education in the US. Also, beggars can’t be choosers.

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Harvey Mudd College, in California - much smaller than MIT but similar down to earth attitude, stellar academics and requires STEM & humanities. We visited both and my D preferred Mudd over MIT.

Best of luck!

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@GnocchiB Thank you for the advice, I’ll look into that. And yes I do understand that, I have a number of other options locally.

@gratefulmama Thank you! I looked it up and it definitely seems to be what I am looking for! And they also meet full demonstrated need which is perfect :slight_smile: Obviously not need-blind, but it could be worth the shot!

I love their first essay: “Many students choose HMC because they don’t want to give up their interests outside of STEM and because they’ve seen exciting connections between their work in STEM and their work in the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts…”

If anyone knows other places like HMC, I would be very happy to hear about them!

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Harvey Mudd is also extremely competitive for admission. Not much easier than MIT, especially if you are international and male. It is another reach. What about schools like RPI, WPI, Rose-Hulman? But if you need significant aid, and don’t have amazing stats, then it will be challenging to afford college in the US.

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When you say your scores are not exceptional, what are they? Harvey Mudd is still highly selective.

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Yes, I realised looking at their website. I’m female by the way, but I kinda don’t like the idea of getting in because of that.

I didn’t bring up my scores because I wanted to avoid the “chance me” idea and also because it is just not possible to explain the whole context. But I suppose it helps gauge whether the schools are reaches and maybe you can give me some suggestions so here goes:

SAT Math: 720
SAT R&W: 750
Total: 1470
SAT Subject Test Math II: 750
SAT Subject Test Physics: 770

I was quite disappointed with my math scores, especially the 720. For the SATs I only had Khan Academy practice because I had no idea how important these scores were and the test prep material is crazy expensive.
I know I can definitely do a lot better if I retake the tests, but am quite reluctant as they cost around 600 bucks in our local currency, which is what I earned working half time for a whole month, not including test prep material which is another few hundred (ugh shipping).

For those of you who know the system, my A level results are: 2A2A.
A in Physics and an uncommon humanities subject, A in Chemistry and Math.

I’ve considered retaking Math II and taking SAT Chem to compensate for the As. However I was hoping to rely on the fact that scores aren’t everything in the admissions process, and my MIT friend told me that improving these scores wouldn’t make or break the application.

I also want to avoid being the person who has ok scores and complains that they are terrible, the scores are good, but they are below 50th percentile for MIT and I do think I could have done a better job at them if I had better resources :slight_smile:

@intparent Thanks for the suggestions, checking them out right now!

I really appreciate the answers, thank you all!

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Yes, your scores are on the low end for Mudd.

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It’s a reach but not impossible. I would def. apply and see what happens. Writing compelling essays that gives admissions a sense of who you are and whether or not you would be a good fit could make a difference. I’ve read past threads of kids with perfect stats that didn’t get in (probably were not a good fit) and slightly lower scores that did. Just make sure you also have safeties as back up.

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RPI is MIT’s baby brother. The main difference is that MIT is a great graduate research school. And although RPI is also, RPI has strenghts in research for undergraduate level.

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“I’m mainly looking for a place where I’ll be happy.”

I have heard a lot of descriptions of MIT (and I spent 4 years there), but “a place where I’ll be happy” is not what comes to mind as the normal description of MIT.

Having read this thread, I still don’t actually know what you want in a university. If you want a university with strong STEM programs that will meet full need for an international student with scores that are not exceptional, then there might not be one in the US. On the most part the few schools that guarantee that they will meet full need are also very hard to get accepted to. On the other hand, if you are looking for schools with a strong STEM program and can afford to be full pay, then there are a lot of them (probably hundreds, depending upon the precise definition of “strong”).

One major issue: What can you afford? Also, are you pretty sure that you want to major in a STEM field, and if so do you have any particular subset of STEM in mind?

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@gratefulmama Thanks for the encouragement!

I looked into RPI and the others intparent suggested and they all look pretty good. WPI can’t meet full-need though so I’ll probably have to leave that out.

@DadTwoGirls Yes I know MIT is definitely not an easy ride, I meant “happy” as in generally satisfied with the kind of environment I’m in, people I’m surrounded with, projects I’m involved with, classes I’m taking. MIT is also definitely not the only place where I can find all those, but they’re just very good at selling themselves through their Admissions Blog :slight_smile:

To be honest, I don’t think we could even afford 10k USD per year, and it wouldn’t be worth it for me even if we could because I would be able to attend good international universities that have local campuses at that price. This means I practically need a full ride, and I know this means everything will be a reach. That’s okay, I just want to at least give it a try.

I am planning to major in computer science or something IT related, and I would love to minor in a humanities subject. MIT’s humanities department is actually really good from what I gather, and they have quite a few projects that involve education which is one of my big interests.

Minors and double majors aren’t widely available in my country, and combining STEM with humanities is possibly non-existent, which is kind of why I’m turning to the US.

I read this post earlier: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16372635/#Comment_16372635
and these are the kind of things I worry about in applying to unis. eg. unis with a strong culture of drugs and alcohol are probably not places I’d be happy in (I understand that all unis have it to a certain extent, as long as it’s not a huge thing it should be fine). “learning for learning’s sake” is something that I love, and being in an environment that challenges and pushes me is something I’m comfortable with.

Ultimately, I believe that the courses don’t differ too much from one uni to another, it’s mainly the people I’ll be surrounded with that will make a difference. Regardless of where I go, I will work hard and pursue my ambitions and that’s what’s important :slight_smile: