<p>Why do so many people consider the " MIT-Environment" to be unhappy, dull and lonely?</p>
<p>MIT stands for:
Magnificent
Institute
of
Thrill (couldn’t find a better word on the thesaurus!)</p>
<p>@ Deathstark – see my response in your other MIT thread.</p>
<p>No one I know considers MIT dull. Lonely is more common but still rare as it’s a pretty collaborative place and if you want you can find a close-knit living group. Unhappy is the most true of three even though most people here are pretty happy. Even though MIT isn’t cutthroat most people want to do well which creates a fair amount of stress. Also college students are at a time in their lives where these kinds of feelings are not uncommon.</p>
<p>I agree with UMTMYP – dull? Never.</p>
<p>But unhappy is a different thing. Everybody at MIT is smart, and almost everybody is used to being the smartest person in the room, often without having to work particularly hard at it. When that kind of previous experience collides with the MIT student experience, it can be pretty jarring. Science and engineering are tough anyway, and MIT is tough in particular, so people are often spending more time working on academics than they have in their lives, and still not acing their classes.</p>
<p>For many people, part of being happy at MIT involves finding a level of work that enables them to be academically successful enough to satisfy them, and finding a personal identity that doesn’t revolve around being the smartest person in school.</p>
<p>Having just completed my first semester at MIT, I completely refute the idea that MIT is an unhappy, dull, lonely place. In fact, it is the most collaborative and supportive environment I have ever experienced! If you are willing to work with others and struggle together through the tough science and engineering curriculum (mine being Materials Science), it’s a lot of fun! :)</p>
<p>Looking back over several decades, I would never call MIT unhappy, dull or lonely. Quite the opposite. It was fun, exciting and you were never alone (at least for very long, even if you wanted to be). </p>
<p>It was, however, one of the most stressful times of my life. But being stressed is probably part of most people’s college experience whether at MIT or somewhere else. You are challenged way more than high school with your classes and the amount of homework, it never seems to end. Always another assignment due. </p>
<p>But you do have some free time during the weekday (which you don’t usually have after you graduate and are working full time). I would go bowling at the student center with one of my buddies sometimes between classes. Other times, go sculling on the Charles at lunch to unwind for a moment. </p>
<p>Once I figured out that study groups were the best way to study, even psets became “fun”.</p>
<p>Although I probably wouldn’t want to go thru it again, I like to think that my time at MIT was one of the best times of my life.</p>
<p>There was… bowling???</p>
<p>Don’t know if they are still there; but there was both a bowling alley and a shooting range in the basement of the student center. I took a rifle PE class there at one point. If I were to guess, I would say that the shooting range is at least gone now.</p>
<p>^ There’s a shooting range in the Z Center or DuPont. I’d find it hard to believe there was ever one underneath W20.</p>
<p>In any case, I was certainly unhappy and lonely at MIT for long stretches of time. But I’ll reemphasize that “dull” makes no sense, unless you’re the type of person who can’t go outside or flip through the online list of student groups :P</p>