<p>I haven't posted here for a while since I got into college - I needed a break. I did a quick search of the MIT posts, and was surprised that this admissions blog post never came up: Meltdown</a> | MIT Admissions</p>
<p>This is true for me too, as is for so so so many people I know. Quite a few people I know have taken medical leave. MIT is not a good place for mental health, to say the least. You are under constant pressure - especially all of you, who have strived to be the best throughout all of high school.</p>
<p>I really love the community that I have found at MIT. It would be fair to say that I wouldn't have been able to stay here sane if it weren't for the support I have gotten from them. The courseload and the stress aren't a joke. If you do decide to come here, welcome! IHTFP, and you will, too, at some point, but MIT is still a great place with tons of opportunities.</p>
<p>Just wanted to hear your opinions on this piece.</p>
<p>For my first semester of Senior year, I went through the same stress that Lydia describes in her post. I was stressed out not only by schoolwork but also by studying for standardized tests, filling out apps, playing sports and applying for scholarships. I had some low points where I ended up crying until I fell asleep, but the worst part was that nobody understood how I could be so stressed out so I became very lonely. I was able to still accomplish my goals while maintaining straight As, but next time it happens I will try to look for some help.
Im prepared for that same stress at MIT but even more so because I know there will be people at MIT who will try to help me through my rough patches. I understand MIT is not for the faint of heart but I feel like I belong in a place that pushes me. Sometimes I dont know what to do in my life if Im not super busy.</p>
<p>Frankly, you probably didn’t. And that’s something most prefrosh fail to understand, until they get to MIT and the reality of how life here can be truly hits them.</p>
<p>Not to say that you didn’t experience stress, or that you didn’t experience a great load of it - most of us at MIT have experienced great stress before. Few experience anything as bad as MIT before they get to MIT. Most have no clue what they’re in for.</p>
<p>For one thing, you don’t know how much stress I was under so you aren’t the person to say that I won’t understand MIT stress.
And for another, if people at MIT usually put people down like this, then maybe I don’t want to go there.</p>
<p>Whats with all the drama? Are we to believe that MIT is Sooooo much harder than other top schools?? I bet CIT and the I’vy’s are pretty hard also. My nephhew is a PHD candidate @ MIT now. Challenging ? yes. Out of control hard= NO.</p>
<p>Caltech is similarly hard as MIT. No other school is. It’s just a fact.</p>
<p>The PhD program is not at all similar to the undergrad program, not at MIT and not at any college. To make arguments about the difficulty of undergrad based on the graduate program tells me they don’t have basic knowledge about what goes on at universities in general. The vast majority of PhD programs are RESEARCH positions; uncergrad is about taking classes. And if you don’t have basic knowledge, please don’t mock other posters for “drama.” Thanks.</p>
<p>My friends daughter is a fresman at Princeton after turning down MIT.I would also bet that many MIT and CIT admits don’t get into the Ivy’s because they’re not well rounded beyond math??</p>
<p>I think the original post is a very good idea, and thank you (and the blogger!) for that. I’m guessing that knowing that others go through the same “rough patches” helps to get through one’s own ones. </p>
<p>On another note, it does seem to me that MIT has a bit of a special cornflake syndrome. All I mean is there are other schools around the world with as bright and as hard-working students. And what’s wrong with that?</p>
<p>Whoa. I don’t think this was meant to be an inflammatory post or a claim that MIT is harder than every other school ever. It was just meant to spark a discussion about stress and its effects on students.</p>
<p>tara, I’m sorry you had such a rough semester. Hopefully, if you come here the fact that you have dealt with stress before will help you deal with it when you’re here. Stress at MIT may or may not be more pressing than what you experienced in high school but it will definitely be different, just because its a different place with different people. There were definitely things that were stressors for me in high school that are not an issue here and vice versa.</p>
<p>MIT is exceptionally stressful. The way I see it, which may or may not be off base, is that the minimum amount of work you have to put in to stay above water is higher than a fair number of other schools. This isn’t saying that there aren’t students at those schools who have as much on their plates, but just that it isn’t required to merely stay afloat. </p>
<p>If you’re a great student seeking a challenge, then wherever you are you can definitely take enough classes and be involved in research and jobs and clubs such that you’re as stressed as anyone anywhere*. But (based on personal experience via dual-enrollment at a different uni), you don’t have to be under that level of pressure to just graduate on time or simply keep up with your classmates. And I’m not saying this is true for all schools that aren’t MIT either - there are probably others that are equally stressful at bare minimum - but I think there’s a good many to which this applies.</p>
<p>On a non-comparative note, part of what I think adds to the stress at MIT is comparing yourself with your peers. There are times when it seems that everyone around you is taking more classes than you and doing better in them, or is publishing papers, or has x many offers from great companies and it can lead to a feeling of inadequacy. Like you’re doing everything you can but you’ve still almost fallen off the treadmill.</p>
<p>*For the record, I think it’s kind of stupid to compare stress levels in general. If you feel like you’re stressed, then you are (and it’s not a good thing). It sucks, and you should find a way to deal with it. Being the most stressed isn’t a competition you want to win or a badge of honor or something.</p>
<p>For sure However, the post I quoted below and some of the ones I encountered on this forum, while not inflammatory, do give the feel that its authors think that unless you’re at MIT, you don’t know what hard work is. </p>
Based on my experience in grad school (seeing Harvard undergrads up close and talking with friends who did their undergrad work at a variety of top schools), I would tend to agree. It’s not that there aren’t students at other schools who push themselves very hard academically, but that the floor is higher at MIT. </p>
<p>It’s also important that most MIT students are majoring in science or engineering, while the proportion of scientists and engineers at peer schools (other than Caltech) is not as high. Science and engineering are difficult by their very nature, and attract people who are willing to sacrifice quite a bit for excellence. Since most MIT students are passionate about and immersed in science or engineering, this particular flavor of workaholism strongly affects the MIT institutional culture.</p>
<p>I dislike being the bearer of bad news, but this sort of overwork combined with paralyzing self-doubt combined with enormous pressure combined with still trying to manage your personal life doesn’t stop when you graduate from undergrad. This is a feature of working at the top of a technical career that never goes away.</p>
<p>Whether or not MIT/Caltech are the most difficult colleges, I am fairly confident that they are more difficult than any high school. tara, I don’t think Piper was trying to “put you down,” but to be honest your post is a little worrying. If you are truly experiencing the same level of stress as a junior at MIT, in high school, the admissions officers may question if you can “do the work.”</p>
<p>Hey 314, What data due you have that MIT nd CIT are harder than every other school? Come on man.Are they very challenging? sure. But let’s stop the it’s harder sillyness.</p>
<p>Stop putting self esteem into it. The pedagogical philosophies at these places are different. The places are different. Whether or not the firehose philosophy at Caltech or MIT is good is a whole different story, but you won’t find many people at ivies that think that the workload (especially) and/or rigor at ivies vs. Caltech/MIT are the same.</p>
<p>Well, I took several technical classes at Harvard as well as another top 10 university, so I do have the benefit of some direct comparison. Did they have challenging, good classes at the other universities? Yes. Were they the same level of difficulty and rigor? No. It doesn’t mean that people from other universities can’t go on to do great things. There are drawbacks to having so much of your time dominated by class.</p>
<p>Also, probably 25-30 of my people in my high school went to top 5 universities. If you’re in academic circles for long enough you learn quite a bit about what separates the universities. For the record, I don’t think the graduate schools are significantly different (assuming their specific graduate school rankings are about the same.) But for undergrad, even the number of classes required for a specific major are greater at MIT and Caltech than at the ivies. MIT has scaled it back a bit over the last ten years, making it easier to take classes outside of one’s major by reducing the requirements, but still I think we’ve got more classes we have to take. </p>
<p>At Caltech, if you are an english major, you still have to take calculus with Apostol textbook and electromagnetism with the Purcell textbook–these are the more theoretical/rigorous version. At MIT, you have a choice to take the ‘hard’ version. At other top schools, it wouldn’t even be offered. The Harvard people who are advanced at math wouldn’t take calculus, so they wouldn’t offer such a class. At Caltech, everyone has to take the same quantum physics and statistical mechanics class too.</p>
<p>There are exceptions. For instance, Math 55 at Harvard is harder than the equivalent classes (or group of classes, since Math 55 is a fusion of several classes) at MIT or other top schools. Like at MIT, there are benefits and drawbacks to this firehose philosophy. A guy who was a theoretical math undergrad at MIT and then a grad student at Harvard said it would have been bad for him to take Math 55, that it would have crushed him. Similarly, the same is true at MIT for most majors–it can be too much and be counterproductive.</p>
<p>Hey 314, Way over my head. I’ll just have to take your word for it.I’ve got nothing but respect for MIT. My nephew is there as we speak getting paid a stipend 32k a year plus a full ride to get a PHD in miicro biology.</p>
However, the post I quoted below and some of the ones I encountered on this forum, while not inflammatory, do give the feel that its authors think that unless you’re at MIT, you don’t know what hard work is. </p>