<p>I am aware that MIT has a awesome Political Science and International Relations programs, so why is everyone in CC that is applying to MIT going for Math/Science/Engineering? Do you know anyone who is applying for other majors? Also, is it easier to get into MIT if you list your major as Political Science??</p>
<p>The [MIT</a> Degree Enrollment Statistics](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar) might shed some light on why few MIT people on CC seem to be in non-STEM majors. If my understanding of the data is correct, 91.6% of MIT students who have declared a major declared their primary major in the School of Engineering or School of Science (3050/3328). Assuming the distribution of MIT people on CC is not too different from the distribution of MIT people overall, that would explain the apparent absence of non-STEM majors among MIT people on CC. MIT’s reputation is based largely on its excellence in the STEM fields, so most applicants would understandably gravitate towards those areas.</p>
<p>Declaring a non-STEM major will not increase your chances of admission. See the last two paragraphs on [this</a> page](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/part1]this”>Getting started | MIT Admissions).</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply. I really hoped my chances would improve if I didn’t apply for the science areas.</p>
<p>If your primary interest is political science and IR, I would not necessarily recommend MIT. Although MIT is strong in those areas there are better programs out there in those fields. Significantly, there are very few undergraduates in political science and the department is on the smaller side so the course offerings are somewhat limited. Additionally MIT’s core requirements are reasonably difficult and mostly irrelevant to political science.</p>
<p>As someone who is double majoring 3 and 17, I have to disagree, MIT is a great place to do political science. Yes, the department is small, and yes, next semester the offerings are limited (an unfortunate result of a lot of professors being on sabbatical and on leave at the same time). However, MIT is great for political science for one very good reason: MATH. MIT’s poli sci program is probably one of the best at preparing you quantitatively for political science. Graduate schools (at least, I’ve been adamantly told this) in political science highly value quantitative ability, and it will push you along in admissions. A benefit of the department being small, is that there are a lot of resources for you to use that aren’t in high demand. Also, as far as the GIRs and core, the math is something that you should consider doing even if it’s not required (more Math is almost always good) and exposure to physics, chemistry, and biology won’t be awful (physics does help you with math, and honestly, IMO the GIRs are not that terrible to pass/get Bs in)</p>
<p>Don’t other top schools also offer quantitative political science courses? MIT does not have a monopoly on math courses either. I find it hard to believe that a Harvard student wishing to prepare for graduate school would not be able to take enough quantitative social science classes. Similarly, I imagine that a quantitatively-oriented political science student would be able to stand out from the large number of political science students at other elite institutions. Seemingly more stats courses would be a better idea than bio, chem, or physics for a political science major.</p>
<p>To be clear, I think MIT is fine a place to do political science and a student with interests in both STEM and political science would do well to consider it. But I think for a student whose interests are in political science and not STEM there are probably better alternatives.</p>
<p>Maybe, and maybe not. I roomed with an English Literature major while I was at MIT. The amount of time he spent one-on-one with very well known faculty was awesome. Because the HASS departments have fewer majors, those they have get a great deal of individual attention. It is not uncommon for those students to come back to discuss the discussions that they had had with faculty about shaping their careers. That is not to say that those discussions do not happen in STEM courses, but they do happen less frequently and easily.</p>
<p>Literature might be somewhat different than political science though as political science professors have graduate students to worry about while MIT literature professors typically don’t. My impression remains that the science requirements are likely to be painful enough for non-science majors and the HASS courses limited enough in most disciplines that MIT is not a particularly good choice for students primarily interested in humanities or social sciences (with the possible exception of economics and linguistics).</p>