<p>Recently, a fellow student of mine, who is looking at MIT, told me that all the students at MIT are extremely stressed out and sometimes even depressed because the immense amount of work is so challenging. Is this a true statement about students at MIT?</p>
<p>Another student, whose brother TA'd at MIT, said that all the professors are near-geniuses, so they teach extremely fast and expect everybody to understand the material very quickly. Is this also a true statement about MIT?</p>
<p>They’re both true, sort of, but the degree to which they’re true is not absolute.</p>
<p>The work at MIT is challenging, and professors have a high opinion of the intellectual capability of the student body. The subject matter is inherently difficult, and the professors expect students to learn and understand the material and to be able to think independently about important questions in science and engineering.</p>
<p>As a result of the challenging nature of the courses, students at MIT often find themselves stressed and overworked. It’s important to note, of course, that students largely put themselves in this position – it’s possible to choose relatively easier courses or majors, to take the bare minimum necessary for graduation, etc., but most students don’t choose that route, because they are smart and motivated and want to work hard and do well. </p>
<p>But of course it’s not true that all of the students at MIT are extremely stressed all of the time solely because of the amount of work. It’s more accurate to say that most students at MIT experience periods of stress varying in intensity and duration, generally because they’ve chosen to challenge themselves with courses and lab work to the limits of their abilities. </p>
<p>But, of course, the sentence I revised doesn’t sound nearly as shocking and terrifying as a soundbite, which is why the sentence you wrote survives as a meme.</p>
<p>Yes, people are stressed, but are most people depressed? I don’t think so. MIT students tend do a lot of stuff on weekends besides studying, which will definitely ease the stress. </p>
<p>Usually, I tend to get stressed during weeks where I have 2+ exams but everything usually turns out alright as long as you stay on top of everything and have good time management. </p>
<p>MIT also has a lot of student resources for you to help you through tough times. For example, our student support services (S^3) will help argue your case when you’re extremely ill and can’t take an exam, even if professors specifically said no make ups</p>
<p>MIT hasn’t cornered the market on stressed out students. However, when you look at the type of person that you imagine is an MIT student, you think really smart, high achiever type. That type of person gets stressed out when it comes to getting things done, exams, etc. So, when it comes down to the question; Does MIT attract or cause high stress people? MIT primarily attracts them.</p>
<p>But are you stressed all the time? Most are not. There is so much else to do around campus and the Boston/Cambridge area. Go sailing on the Charles, very relaxing. Take in some music. Go out to eat. Take a walk around Boston’s historical Freedom Trail, lots of intersting places. Go skiing in the White Mountains even.</p>
<p>Secret to survival is balance. Good to learn this while in school as you will need to balance the same issues and more (spouse, kids, etc) once you leave school and are working in your profession.</p>
<p>^^ I agree wholeheartedly with this.</p>
<p>My son will forever appreciate his experiences and education at MIT but he often says that he would never do it again. He has done very well post graduation…thankyou MIT…but is sure that he would have done so regardless. He was always good with managing stress, and led a very balanced life during his MIT days but he would never consider attending MIT for grad school. The school is not for everyone.</p>
<p>momma-three,</p>
<p>I am sure that your son would (and will) do well regardless of whether he attended MIT or another college. If he was smart enough to get into MIT, he will be successfull at almost anything he tries.</p>
<p>That said, I, too, was glad to graduate and get out of there. MIT was my dream school and I was lucky enough to go. But it does wear on you. You aren’t stressed all the time, but enough of the time. </p>
<p>Some of my classmates were even more excited to be getting out with their diplomas and going out into the “real world”. At first the “real world” is mind blowing (at least it was for me). My job is designing rocket engines for NASA. I was working along side guys that had just finished the Apollo program (I graduated a “few” years ago!!!). These guys were sharp and I had a lot to learn. </p>
<p>I was given interesting and exciting tasks and was learning a lot. However, the deadlines were easy to meet and I was thinking that this was a piece of cake. However, after a few years, the tasks got harder and the deadlines shorter. All part of the job growth actually. New kids never got the critical tasks. It was just like the pressure I had at MIT except these were real deadlines that cost a lot of money if missed. Boy could your boss apply pressure like no professor ever could. The only thing easier was that at some point in the day, you could just throw down your pencil or keyboard or whatever and walk out the door until the next day. However, sometimes that wasn’t until very late at night.</p>
<p>So, you learned (again) to deal with pressure (and schedule tasks better). You still needed to balance your work life and your personal life. At this point I and my old MIT classmates, who couldn’t wait to get out, would talk about the “good old days” back in school at MIT. </p>
<p>I’ve matured enough to enjoy the pressure you get in the work environment. Because getting tough jobs done well under pressure is one of the most satisfying things at work. It also garners the most attention from your peers and from upper management. It gets you the best pay raises. It also gets you more of the same kinds of pressure cooked jobs and the cycle continues. </p>
<p>But after work, I still go hiking, I play on a sports team, I am a scoutmaster in Boy Scouts, I enjoy time with my wife and my family. I have a good, RELAXING, time. I wouldn’t change a thing.</p>
<p>My experience has been similar to HPuck35’s – my life hasn’t gotten less stressful after graduating from MIT, because I chose to do my PhD in a great lab in a top program in my field. It’s a pressure cooker, and I am happy and exhausted and working myself silly and obsessed and productive, and I would choose my whole life – MIT and what has come after – over and over again. I love what I do, even on the days it makes me want to scream.</p>
<p>If you want to work as a scientist or engineer, or to be an outstanding performer at any profession, you have to be a little bit crazy. And an undergraduate education at MIT will help you master your crazy and turn it into a finely honed weapon. Some people end up deciding that being crazy doesn’t work for them.</p>
<p>
Like no professor ever could to an undergrad. 
I can testify to the amazing ability of faculty advisors to crank up the pressure on their graduate students – I am under so much pressure to publish right now, I suspect that I may be creating diamonds.</p>
<p>[Additional</a> Stress Reduction and Prevention Resources - Stress Reduction and Management](<a href=“http://www.gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=15688&cn=117]Additional”>http://www.gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=15688&cn=117)</p>
<p>Bottom line: If you’re scared to come to MIT because the work is supposedly “too challenging”, then MIT probably isn’t for you anyways.</p>
<p>I say that because most students here are very motivated and are willing to put in that extra effort to accomplish something.</p>
<p>I’m a Sophomore (2014) at MIT.
Well it’s 3:20AM… early in my opinion. And I’m punting this essay due today(Monday) for a little while to browse the internet. I got back from Thanksgiving Break Sunday morning at 8AM (had a 6:30AM flight from New Jersey). I pulled an allnighter Sat to Sunday doing some schoolwork before my early flight. When I got back I went to brunch with a friend, listened to a reading of a musical some of my friends are writing and have nearly finished as I formulated the essay and did some last-minute research. probably won’t sleep much tonight but I’ll have that essay done. I have a 2.001 Pset due Tuesday morning in lecture. I have a 7.012 exam Wednesday morning, but haven’t been to lecture in weeks so I have to do some serious catching-up. And I have a 2.003 pset due Thursday evening. Also, I’m trying out for this musical Thursday evening.</p>
<p>Am I stressed? Not really, I feel just fine, and I’m doing well in all of my classes. </p>
<p>Spending time here, you really get to learn what your limitations are in terms of how much sleep you can forego in order to get work done or have fun. As a Freshman on P/NR you really can experiment with what works for you with little consequence. I went from going to every lecture and doing poorly to skipping lecture, learning from the textbooks as I did my psets and doing phenomenally while gaining the sleep I lost during lecture time. Whatever works for you here at the Institvte, you’ll figure it out.</p>
<p>I played varsity hockey for MIT. When we got back from Christmas break it was obvious we had had too much to eat and not enough exercise during the break. Coach called for two a day practices to get us back in shape. He called for morning practice to be at 6:00am. One of the players asked the coach, “Isn’t that a little late to be staying up for?”</p>
<p>Yes, you do learn to fucntion with an onging case of sleep depravation while at MIT (at least to some extent). But you also learn to cat nap and otherwise cope.</p>
<p>DJGCrusader, I’d advise you not to skip lecture as a matter of course. It may work for now, but in the upper level classes it might be dangerous. At the lower level classes you are learning right out of the textbook and you can do it. Not so for the upper level, more cutting edge classes. Not everything is in the book. Take advantage of being at MIT, learn from your professors real time.</p>