<p>Well, I've heard several different stories about MIT. As a school I'm planning to apply to, I am wondering how much of these impressions are true. I've heard that it's hell and no one has fun (although this could be in a U Chicago kind of way), and that it's extremely fun and one of the most creative colleges out there. Is it really just a math/science/engineering heaven or is it more dynamic?</p>
<p>"As a school I'm planning to apply to, I am wondering how much of these impressions are true."</p>
<p>lol, you're a school you're applying to?</p>
<p>/grammarnazi</p>
<p>But really, though, MIT (from what I've found) is much like U Chicago, in that it seems they don't have fun but they really do. It's a "work hard, play hard" sort of thing, and while it is very math/science/engineering focused, it is pretty dynamic (from linguistics to business). I'd say it's one of those very creative colleges out there -- all the students are very bright, and seem to have a good sense of humor (their pranks, from what I've heard, are hilarious). Of course it's a difficult school, but not without fun.</p>
<p>If it weren't so science-focused (all the distribution requirements), I'd apply there, as it's strong in my intended major (linguistics).</p>
<p>I'll have to put in a good word for my cousin school, MIT...</p>
<p>... like Chicago, the only people who don't think it's any fun are the people who don't attend. The types of students who attend schools like MIT and Chicago think that work IS fun and they don't need as much of a drinking culture to counterbalance the demands of school.</p>
<p>My friend at MIT enjoys it very much. He's being challenged in classes and works very hard, but he still has time to relax on the weekends. He finds being around all the crazy and amazing kids really stimulating, in a way that makes it fun to do work and work on problem sets with kids who are going to come up with solutions that you hadn't thought of.</p>
<p>Both MIT and Chicago seem to be stereotyped as "competitive" because they are difficult, when in reality, the opposite ends up happening. Because the problem sets/essays/what have you are difficult, you're going to end up working with other people to get it done. At Chicago, students form study groups for exams even if they're being graded on a curve.</p>
<p>For the person I know who chose Chicago over MIT, she chose Chicago because she wanted to be around social sciences/humanities majors as well as math/science majors. As a prospective math major with no interest in engineering, she found Chicago's math department to be friendlier and more devoted to getting its undergrads research opportunities. If you're an engineering major, don't even bother with Chicago's nonexistent engineering department.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for your advice. If I could get your opinion on one thing: assuming that I get into both U Chicago and MIT (I know it's a long-shot), which one should I chose considering that I really want to major in physics and possibly either double major or minor in linguistics? I know MIT is famous for both of these, especially due to Chomsky, but U Chicago is not far behind. In fact, they may even have a better physics dept. Anyway, your advice as well as anyone else's is certainly welcome.</p>
<p>
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I've heard that it's hell and no one has fun (although this could be in a U Chicago kind of way), and that it's extremely fun and one of the most creative colleges out there.
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Can it be a little bit of both?</p>
<p>I mean, there were times during every term at MIT when I had to really sock down and do work when I didn't want to, but there was also plenty of time when I got to do fun things with my friends and hang out at frat parties and participate in extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>The average MIT student takes 4 classes per term, which is a courseload of 48 units. One unit is supposed to equal one hour of time per week, so the average MIT student is theoretically doing about 50 hours of class/homework/labwork/studying/other school-related stuff per week. That's not an insignificant amount, but it's not a crushing amount of work, either. There are plenty more hours in the week than 48.</p>
<p>There are definitely times when students get tired and grouchy and overworked, but I don't think any MIT student would say that "nobody at MIT has any fun."</p>
<p>Kappa Sig at MIT is ridiculous, btw.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the MIT "campus" is really unattractive. Then again, there was a lot of construction underway at Memorial Drive, so maybe that influenced my impression. As for academics, who in his right mind can question the quality of MIT?</p>
<p>Again, the current students at MIT and Chicago support it while the people who don't go think it's hell on earth. I'm going to reinforce what molliebatmit said about MIT, and I'll follow it up by saying that I don't think I work 50 hours a week. Sure, I work hard, but I don't kill myself on school by any means, and I have a decent GPA. I've decided that for me, it's not worth the extra stress only for better grades. If I put work into something, it's because I WANT IT TO BE GOOD rather than I WANT A GOOD GRADE.</p>
<p>If you're physics/linguistics, absolutely apply to both. Having never been to MIT, can't make direct comparisons. However, some of Chicago's strong points:</p>
<p>-- A Core Curriculum, which puts every student on the same page, regardless of major. Core will (re)teach you how to read, write, think, and ask questions. If dabbling with Plato and Aristotle and Kant doesn't interest you, that might be an indication that you'd like MIT much more.</p>
<p>-- Chicago's got a winning campus, which has the neo-gothic quads and green grass, much like a Yale or a Princeton. Also, considering that you're in the city of Chicago, you've got both a real campus and a real city.</p>
<p>--We have lots of opportunities for physics majors, in particular-- my physics major friends who are third- and fourth- years know the entire department and many are conducting research (one of my friends is starting his PhD at Princeton next year). The school also owns Fermilab, and some of my friends intern there over the summer.</p>
<p>-- We also have a very strong linguistics department that often goes overlooked (so tells me a third-year PhD student here and a friend of my mother's who did her PhD here eons ago). I don't know what MIT's linguistics department is like outside of Chomsky, but I know that the linguistics department has its bigshots teaching the intro courses. Pretty cool.</p>
<p>Other than that... I think you'll find more nerds nerding out in more areas than you will at MIT. As my friend (the same one who's a PhD here in linguistics and did undergrad at Harvard, mind you, so she's not about to MIT a compliment), she glows as she says that the U. of C. is like "MIT with humanities."</p>
<p>(Quick story: I always knew I wanted to be an English major, even though I was in the hardest math/science track offered in my school and I was doing proofs for LaGrange's Error Bound theorem and explaining emerging patterns in polar coordinates. When I was doing my apps, I fell in love with MIT, and I thought that the female humanities major who really likes math and is editor of the school newspaper would have a chance of getting in. However, seeing the percentage of math/science majors was a huge turn-off for me... I was reading one of MIT's admissions blogs, where they had a list of other schools to consider. The ONLY school on that list that wasn't math/science oriented was U. of C. So I kind of fell in love with U. of C. twice!)</p>
<p>I want to give molliebatmit or another current MIT student a chance to compare MIT to Chicago, but if you have any additional Chicago-specific questions, please feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I don't necessarily see any need to compare MIT with Chicago right now -- the way I see it, it's more prudent to like both schools a lot and apply to both if that's something an applicant wants to do (plus matches and safeties), then worry about picking one next spring. No use falling in love with an ultra-selective school at this point!</p>
<p>Students who are admitted to MIT are invited to Campus Preview Weekend in the spring, and get a chance to see what MIT life is really like. Most people who attend come away with the realization that MIT is really very different from the stereotypes, and that it's nothing like "solitary confinement for four years."</p>
<p>To put a personal spin on it, I came to MIT from a crappy public high school, made an awesome group of friends that I'll love for life (since you get to pick your dorm, you tend to get really close to the people with whom you live), completed two majors, did outstanding undergraduate research, joined the cheerleading squad, participated in my dorm's government, and met and fell in love with the rocket scientist I'm marrying in September. If that's "solitary confinement," I'll take it.</p>