I’m a current freshman at MIT who has not liked his experience here at all. The student body is very geeky on average, and I don’t think that I fit in. The amount of coursework is also killing me, even though I managed to pull off good grades (3 As and one B ). Additionally, being from MD, the weather here is a lot worse in the winter further worsening my experience. I was aware of these potential problems when I applied, and the first semester here confirmed my worst fears. I know academically, however, that MIT is top-tier in my likely majors (18C or 6 most likely, possibly 9) of EECS, math/CS or brain and cog sci. As a hopeful future entrepreneur missing out on the network I would gain at MIT would also be tough to swallow. Which colleges have past students transferred to? I was accepted to Cornell and Columbia last year. Have MIT students ever had success transferring to colleges which originally rejected them? Stanford would have been my top choice and offers similar opportunities in my majors, but I was rejected.
What should I do and what prospects would I have as a transfer. Also curious as to whether schools I apply to would see my first semester (pass-fail) grades, which were pretty good.
As a current 18-C major, you have a couple options:
Toughen up a bit - it'll take some adjustment to MIT coursework. I did pretty bad on some GIR subjects (7.012, 5.111, 8.012), mostly because I had little biology/chemistry background, and 8.012 is hard. But once the GIR's are done, you can take classes from your major which can be more interesting. Additionally, it's a good idea to put in an easy class per semester (could be a HASS or a class in your major), just to balance everything out.
In terms of weather, the coldest it gets at where I’m from is around 30F or so, so no excuses! However student body is a different thing entirely.
If you do apply as a transfer, I don't think you can send first-semester letter grades officially (only P's show up on the official transcript). You can probably still send HS letters if applying as a transfer in freshman year, but I don't know much about transfer applications.
oh come on @JustoneDad, “very geeky” and “serious students” are hardly synonyms, and I understand what the OP means. @Kdurant35, wishing you good luck with whatever you decide.
Thanks for the advice everybody. I’m not certain I would transfer, but it might be worth taking a shot at a few colleges.
MITer94: I’ve managed good grades till now, but it’s taken a toll on me, and I’m not sure how much longer I would be able to keep up with the grind. In HS, I even slacked really hard one year because of the grind; and MIT is more difficult.
@gravitas2
Are you sure it would be worth a shot? that person seems EXTREMELY accomplished and probably would have got into Stanford as a freshman originally. I didn’t … I wasn’t even waitlisted and except for good grades, haven’t done much noteworthy since then. Not to mention I doubt they like changing their opinion.
@Kdurant35, perhaps the “geekiness” comes from the majors and living groups? 6-3 versus 9 is a big difference, I would think; and living groups (further east on campus, or ILG’s next year?) may make a difference. I wonder if Columbia or Cornell would be appreciably warmer weather-wise (I have my doubts)?
I would imagine you could transfer to pretty much anyplace that has room: I would use University Professors as LORs, as they are more recent, tell your current story better, and are more applicable as peers for a transfer decision.
I would suspect it is not that uncommon for students to transfer to a better “fit,” and that your prospects are excellent.
I wish you luck, but I am puzzled. You note that " In HS, I even slacked really hard one year because of the grind; and MIT is more difficult." Was this a surprise?
I think it is fair to say that most students go in understanding that MIT will be harder than high school. Indeed, I came nowhere near 3 A’s and a B my first term at MIT, as I had to redesign my study skills as what worked for me in HS was totally useless for me at MIT. But the Pass/No Credit system gave me the opportunity to make that reconfiguration while still exploring ways for me to blow off steam on campus (and MIT has many, many interesting ways to blow off steam). And while there are certainly times that the workload made me very unhappy, much of the time I enjoyed what I was doing.
My experience was that the nerdiness or not of the culture was largely living group based. I chose to live in a fraternity for most of my time at MIT, and even in the fraternity system there were a wide variety of cultures (or in some cases countercultures). My advice would be that before you transfer universities, look to transfer living groups. There are some deeply nerdy living groups and some that are the complete opposite. It is the people around you who define the culture.
I very much agree with @Mikalye’s comment about exploring different cultures in the various MIT living groups. I lived at pika, which is an independent coed living group. It was the farthest thing away from geeky or nerdy. Many of the living groups are fun supportive households.
I also agree with Mikalye. Not only is this something that can happen faster than a transfer, you’re not guaranteed that a transfer will solve your problems - you may be trading one set of problems for another. Given that, it makes sense to explore other options, and to do what you can on a time scale faster than a transfer.