<p>Trying to answer the original question and having the perspective of having graduated over 30 years ago and having that number of years as a professional engineer:</p>
<p>The key to the answer is in the original post; i.e. “constant”. I’ve had more pressure on the job than I ever had at MIT but it was never constant. In fact, those high pressure items were fairly rare. A lot of low pressure (usually schedule driven) stuff to do but you learned to deal with it. You could usually leave work and relax at home and the job was still there the next day. In fact, it was good to clear one’s mind once in a while. I always took the attitude that getting it right was more important than getting it done on time, but wrong. (Obviously you needed to get it done on time most of the time or you wouldn’t be there for very long. But problems did come up and it sometimes did take longer than the schedule was set for.)</p>
<p>However, in school, you went home and there was the next problem set to do. Finish it and there was another. And the quiz the next day too. Combine that with the peer pressure that comes with so many other smart kids around you. The constant pressure can be intense. Not like in high school when you could breeze thru it and still be the top dog.</p>
<p>I also found that good time management went a long way to help the pressure issue. The times that I played varsity sports made me focus my time management skills and I actually did better in class. The sport also gave me a physical outlet for my pent up energy and that I was more than willing to let my poor, tired body just sit at my desk and study once practice was over.</p>
<p>MIT certainly hasn’t cornered the market on pressure, but it deserves a top tier rating. Most do survive and go on to have successful careers and lives. Ironic that some of my friends that the pressure got to the most are now educational counselors for MIT and recommending the school to others. </p>
<p>I found Pepper White’s book a few years ago and reading it did bring back a lot of memories; some good, some not so good. I do recommend that parents and students read that book. Might help all understand the pressures one can be under at a top tier engineering school.</p>
<p>I find this thread to be slightly negative.</p>
<p>I mean… surely, if MIT pressure was so overarching and so overwhelming, no one would love it right?</p>
<p>MIT is my top choice right now but this thread is kind of turning me off. Not that I don’t think that I could handle it, but I guess its just a little depressing reading post after post of how bad the pressure and stress is.</p>
<p>Any positives haha? (<---- obvs kidding, I know that there are MANY positive things about MIT)</p>
<p>A lot of stuff on College Confidential and the Admissions blogs are ****ting rainbows about MIT. There’s a lot of positive and awesome stuff about MIT, but that’s not proportionally represented. (This is in part because, well, most people don’t go “I just went through a hellish pset this is so exciting I want to tell the prefrosh!” Bloggers blog when they feel like blogging about a subject, which is usually when they’re feeling awesome about something.) </p>
<p>It’s important that you realize MIT, and all colleges, are generally putting their best feet forward. They tell you the best, most awesome things about themselves, because they’re excited about those things! But you need to know the negatives in order to make an educated decision. You need to know that, despite getting an awesome UROP and building cool robots or getting into whatever it s you like, you will also have nights where you cry over a problem set and wonder if MIT was the right choice. You need to know the negatives of other schools, too, though those may be harder to come by.</p>
<p>This thread is more than slightly negative.</p>
<p>If/when you get in, visit over CPW. Make sure to talk with some upperclassmen–talk for real, one-on-one or so. Don’t just go to the events and soak up the culture. Try to get underneath the fun. You should be able to get a good picture of the good and the ugly.</p>
<p>The stress isn’t all bad. It sucks sometimes, but just as often you’re riding a beautiful high, on top of the world, everything fantastic. For every bad moment there’s a good one. If you keep yourself healthy, socialize, enjoy your classes, lab work, clubs, etc. without spreading yourself too thin, and accept bad experiences as life lessons, forgive yourself, and move on, you’ll be happy.</p>
Piper I think you’re being a bit intense. There has never, ever been a night when I wondered if MIT was the right choice. I love this place, every day, and I’m the emotional amusement park.</p>
<p>That’s good! And maybe I am overstating it when I say that that is a definite. </p>
<p>But from the number of Randomites and others that have come cry on my shoulder about wondering if they should’ve gone here or somewhere else, I don’t think it’s uncommon. (Or Random has a bias towards this, which is possible.) </p>
<p>It might also be a bias with people who have faced CAP.</p>
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<p>Not what I was spelling. College Confidential put stars there for me ;)</p>
<p>You’re right. Whoever disagrees with you, I don’t know, but I don’t. I’m constantly impressed with Indian students who not only survived the IIT system, but made it to strong graduate programs and thrive intellectually. Same goes for some other foreign systems. There are systems with so little freedom that it makes me all the more impressed when the students in question don’t end up with lacking background, because they shouldered the burden of doing the requisite learning while still acing their classes.</p>
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<p>Schools just have different styles. Harvard has exceptionally bright minds, but doesn’t apparently adopt a firehose mentality to its instruction as much as some other schools, whether foreign or US, do. But it does in Math 55. Part of the appeal there is that in particular fields, certain schools have the market cornered. The brightest students all want to be in the same place often, and one way of bringing them together is to build a unifying mechanism – a core as hard as Caltech’s, a math 55 type boot camp, Honors Analysis in University of Chicago, etc that really makes that program feel elite and the right place to be. </p>
<p>Personally, I think it was better for me that I didn’t go through such things, and if I did have the choice, I’d probably not go for the Math 55 model. I think part of whether one would enjoy that is personality.</p>
<p>I agree that this thread sounds somewhat negative. MIT is a great opportunity and no great opportunity comes without the pressure. You do learn to deal with the pressure. My primarily outlet was sports. I also did some hiking up in the White Mountains and out in western MA. </p>
<p>Other people find other outlets. One fraternity brother of mine would play the piano. You’d wake up in the middle of the night and listen to him literally banging on the keys. You could just feel the “energy” he was putting into it.</p>
<p>Having no pressure is boring. I’ll always go for too much pressure than too little.</p>