Hi everyone!
This forum has been invaluable for me to get a sense of the cultures at different colleges!
I have a couple questions on stress at MIT, and I would really appreciate any input!
What is the environment at MIT–are students constantly feeling upset because of their workload?
How many hours a week do MIT students spend studying (I know there are some studies on this but I would like to hear your opinions)
Does MIT dramatically reduce your self-esteem? Do students still have ambitious/idealistic plans to change the world after they graduate?
And most importantly–are most MIT students happy?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post!!!
redoxreaction
@redoxreaction A lot of this depends on what and how many courses you’re taking and how you handle stress.
I'd say not usually, although it seems to be often so during hell weeks and finals week.
For me, I might spend anywhere from 0 to 5+ hours of studying per class per week outside of lectures, recitations, homework etc. Generally you can estimate how much time is spent outside of class by looking at the 3rd number in the course description (if a 12-unit class is 3-0-9, then there are usually 3 lecture hours/week and on average 9 hours/wk outside of class (e.g. psets)). A better estimate is to look at past years' course evaluations but you need a Kerberos.
For me, not really (unless I find out I scored a 20% on an exam I studied hours on - this happened to me once).
My experiences are older than @MITer94 but for me,
No. Definitely not. There was workload, sure, but it was part of the experience, and it was highly collaborative and shared. I play MMORPG games, and there is something quite exciting about a group of players all working together on a really hard raid in a PvE (players versus environment) game. MIT is a PvE game. There are other schools which are predominantly PvP (player versus player) games. That is not MIT. Barring the odd evening, I do not know anyone who was “upset” over the workload. There was instead a sort of perverse pride in it.
There was quite a bit of variation in this, but quite a lot. MIT is hard. MIT is also (for me) fun. Your mileage may vary.
No (mostly), and Yes. MIT is filled with brilliant people. I do not care how smart you are, you will find many people who are just smarter than you are when you get to MIT. For most people I knew, that is just not an issue. For a very small number, it can be. There are those whose self image all through high school is all tied up with being the smartest person in the room. If that is the only lens through which you look at yourself, then when you get to MIT, you are going to have some trouble. For a very small minority, it is devastating. As an interviewer now, I get concerned when I hear some kids describe themselves. If a kid tells me that their favorite out of school activity is their local Mensa chapter, then I am likely to probe hard. If they tell a story of it as a purely social club, then that can be fine. If they are overwhelmingly proud that they are in MENSA, then that is an indication that they may face trouble at MIT.
Yes and no. Certainly most of them are happy in the aggregate. As someone who recruits interviewers (EC’s), I have seen repeatedly that a huge number of our alumni look back on their times at MIT with huge fondness and gratitude. I regularly hear alumni tell me about how happy they were at MIT. That being said, while you are up late with a small group of friends working on a problem set, it can sometimes be hard to perceive the joy.
MIT does a great deal to reduce the stress levels. The most obvious example is the pass/no credit that you walk into. My study skills in high school were not adequate for MIT, but it took a few weeks for me to develop the new habits that would serve me at MIT. The school lets you make that adjustment without threatening your GPA. Also, there are no classes of degree at MIT. You cannot graduate magna cum laude. That concept does not exist at MIT, in part because it promotes competition between students. MIT is all about competing with yourself, pushing yourself, and collaborating with other students. MIT does all it can to make itself a PvE rather than a PvP school, and that it what keeps it fun and light regardless of the workload.
There is the thought that the MIT students who are most upset at their performance/under the workload, are those who deem themselves to be beholden to the expectations of glory and accomplishment that will reflect well on others (i.e., parents and community). When a young person who does not feel they can rebound from an unexpected awful grade begins to equate his/her worth to the grade, which can start a downward spiral into anxiety and depression. For the other students, those who learn to pace themselves and get used to the enormous difference between high school and MIT, there is merely learning something new about one’s self and moving forward.
Sorry, I don’t have a clue how many hours a week a student there studies.
3 +4:
As for self-esteem, no, MIT does not negatively affect students’ self-esteem. Just the opposite, I would say (Tell someone you are a student at MIT, and watch for the look that comes into their eyes.) Kids learn to form a new family there, at least while school is in session. They are very busy, do extra curriculars, are involved in all sorts of self-driven endeavors, and enjoy the campus’ traditions of engaging the students in a kind of organized, quirky fun.
At the beginning of one’s long walk from the high school commencement to the first days and weeks of study at MIT, many students undergo a weird negative internal dialogue that can basically be summed up as “I am not worthy to be here, I am merely posing as an MIT student and nobody has realized it yet.” For some reason, this can be a phenomenon that many of the young students tend to give some sway in their lives. However, their friends, family and fact of matriculation at MIT (hopefully) act to disabuse most of them of this “imposter” belief.
Are you worried it’s all a grind? Don’t worry about that at all. Your time at MIT will help you to realize more of who you are, and help you to own it.
I really like @Mikalye ‘s comparison with the PvE games, and it’s true. Perhaps it’s more “PsvE” (players vs. environment) as professors generally encourage collaboration on psets (within reasonable bounds - no copying of others’ solutions for example).
That said, it can still get heavy at times - last semester I had a 6.005 project and a final term paper due on the same day, as well as 3 tests within that same week.
