<p>Also, has anyone here heard of HKUST? (thats in asia)</p>
<p>Depends on the field. I hear engineering majors find it not terribly difficult, whereas science majors are generally encouraged to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>I have not heard of HKUST.</p>
<p>As Piper said it depends a lot on the field. HKUST is certainly one of the better universities in Asia and although in terms of research it is still far far behind MIT I think the difference in undergrad quality is less stark. HKUST has enough resources to provide decent opportunities so I imagine it sends a decent number of students to top grad programs. Still I imagine it’s somewhat harder to get into a top grad program from HKUST than MIT being the research opportunities and professors who will write your letters of recommendations are not as well known. </p>
<p>School of Science departments tend to discourage MIT undergrads from going straight to grad school there. You might have to leave, before you can come back.</p>
<p>Example: an upperclassman of mine was a course 18 (math) major. He received the department’s award for best graduating math major. But he had to go get his masters elsewhere,(in his case, University of Cambridge in the UK) because the department only offers PhDs at the graduate level, and you have to have your masters already to get in. (He came back to MIT afterwards).</p>
<p>The 2013 Graduating Student Survey indicates that 188 out of the 1666 respondents were going to MIT for grad school (immediately after graduating). So, about 11%.of graduates were “returning” to MIT. (This does not include folks like the example I gave above, who left and would later return).</p>
<p>It is absolutely not true that you need a masters to get into MIT’s math PhD program. The math department discourages MIT undergrads from staying at MIT for their PhD but does admit some undergrads as well (this is for pure math I believe the applied math program is happier to take MIT undergrads). </p>
<p>I think you are combining undergrads and master degree recipients when you are getting the 1666 respondents as not that many SBs are awarded every year. I believe the percentage of undergrads staying at MIT is higher although most are engineers staying for a fifth years masters.</p>
<p>I do believe that the graduating survey does survey both graduating undergrads and graduating 5th year m.eng-ers.</p>
<p>Yes but I think the statistic we care about is what percentage of graduating undergrads are going to MIT for grad school not what percentage of graduating (undergrads+masters students) are staying at MIT for grad school/further grad school. Maybe I misunderstood you.</p>
<p>
Yes, MIT is the most common undergraduate origin of MIT grad students and the most common graduate school destination of MIT undergrads.</p>
<p>So my goal is to complete the Masters and PhD program for EECS at MIT (Yeah its a big goal). I’m currently doing something called the IB (equiv to AP in the US), and honestly I don’t have flashy awards, didn’t make anything impressive, all I had is a vision (which i suppose won’t help much).</p>
<p>What do you guys advice. Should I give it a shot to apply for MIT (However if I did my Bachelor in EECS in MIT, would I be forced to leave for somewhere else?)</p>
<p>Should i just stay in my home country for Bachelors, its not bad (HKUST #11), does it even matter if I produce quality research by the end of my course. </p>
<p>Would really love to do Grad in MIT. Thanks.</p>
<p>**UMTYMP student, you said </p>
<p>“I imagine it’s somewhat harder to get into a top grad program from HKUST than MIT being the research opportunities and professors who will write your letters of recommendations are not as well known.”</p>
<p>Im not here to challenge you 
but didn’t Google’s devs Sergey Brin and Larry Page both come from lesser universities like “UMaryland” and “UChicago” and still nailed Stanford’s Grad program, I mean their ranking is 40 ranks below us according to QS rankings (ok is it a reliable site?)</p>
<p>When I was visiting Prof. Wilson (he teaches 6.034) for a recommendation to grad school, he gave me some advice on writing application essays. </p>
<p>He said that, for undergrad applicants, they talk about how the school is right for them and how the school can benefit their lives.</p>
<p>But, for grad school applicants, he said that the schools don’t care about that. Instead, the applicants have to talk about what they can do for the school. It’s about what benefit the school can gain from the applicant.</p>
<p>*Winston</p>
<p>Like it’s definitely not impossible to come from a not top university to a top grad program but it’s probably a little harder. Also UMaryland and UChicago aren’t really comparable to HKUST (particularly UChicago!!). QS rankings are not reliable. Admittedly UChicago isn’t particularly good at CS but it’s still a top 10 university. </p>
<p>Going to HKUST for undergrad seems reasonable enough to me particularly if you prefer to stay in Hong Kong or it would be significantly cheaper (would I think would be the case unless you were poor) but I’m very far from an expert on Hong Kong universities although I probably know much more about them than most Americans. If you went to MIT you aren’t forced to leave if you want to study CS and in fact if you want a terminal masters in CS you must go to MIT for undergrad.</p>
<p>UMTYMPstudent are you a freshman in MIT 
more comments are welcomed btw guys</p>
<p>I am a sophomore at MIT :).</p>
<p>Great Btw, in your opinion, would you say the University of Toronto is a lot better then HKUST in terms of computer science. How likely is it for a UToronto student to do grad at MIT</p>
<p>@"UMTYMP student" Declare a major yet?</p>
<p>I highly recommend Prof. Eidelman’s 6.338. Technically it is a graduate level class, but you can take it as an undergrad. Awesome project!</p>
<p>Prof. Bales’ 6.070 is fun. Very popular. He often has to kick some out due to over-subscription.</p>
<p>16.S26: Meet astronauts and talk with scientists/engineers that sent probes (like Kepler) into space.</p>
<p>21F.063: A class on anime. Really! </p>
<p>22.011: How often do you get to go inside a nuclear reactor,… and as you leave, have your portable radiation detector show a marked increase in exposure… but then have the technician inside say “eh… it’s fine… probably just the detector” to you. AWESOME!</p>
<p>I’m admittedly not that familiar with CS but my guess is Toronto is somewhat better although I’m not sure it’s a lot better. </p>
<p>Haven’t all sophomores declared at this point? I’m 14+18.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ll argue that this is true for MIT as well. Undergrad admissions wants to know if you’re going to be able to get through an MIT education and if you have the drive to do something useful with it. Doing something useful with it reflects something great back on the school.</p>
<p>I’ll note that Winston is awesome. I took both 6.034 and 6.803 with him.</p>
<p>@PiperXP
Prof. Winston is awesome!
Loved how he remembered everyone’s name in 6.034.
@"UMTYMP student"
If you have not done so, take 6.034! Prof. Winston’s version… not the other one.</p>