What are some negatives for MIT?

[yagottabelieve]

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Although almost everyone in the class was used to getting 90+% on all work in high school, the class average grade on anything at MIT in the first year was usually more like 50 to 60% (and that was on a good day!). I still recall one of the first problems on my first physics (8.01) problem set handed out at the first class: How much material comes off of a car’s tire in each revolution? No other information was provided. I think no one in the entire class of 250+ students got it correct.

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<p>By any chance did you take 8.01 in the fall of 1978? I took it in the fall of 1979, and was told by people a year ahead of me that 60% of the 8.01 students failed it in the previous fall. The professor made the course extremely difficult, and refused to reverse the grades she had given out.</p>

<p>FWIW, this may be an extreme situation. I don’t think 60% of the people failed it when I took it. I have heard of similar things at other schools.</p>