What can I tell you that will help you make your decision?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
41

<p>haha my dad did grad at MIT family housing too - altho i was born there. :P</p>

<p>looking forward to meet u! : )</p>

42

<p>That's great Mollie, some of us who aren't going to CPW will still have a chance to meet you!</p>

<p>Also, what type of seminars can you attend at MIT? How often are they held?</p>

43

<p>Diff eq counts toward the calc requirement, right? Because I think I'll get credit for single-variable calc (from BC exam) and I'm in multivariable right now, so hopefully I'll place out of it...I hope...and I don't know what I'd take after, aside from diff eq.</p>

44

<p>why hope to place out of multivariate? It's decent for an intro class. I had fun in it and if you want to go into any of the theoretical intro physics classes you'll want/need a good solid background in multivariate.</p>

45

<p>...because I'm taking it now (U. of CO class). Although I suppose the MIT class probably goes into more depth. I'm just not a big math person (ironic, no?). :)</p>

46

<p>

Well, the biology and brain and cognitive science majors are very open-ended -- for BCS, you have six upper-division electives to distribute as you see fit, so you could take classes only in the areas that interest you (BCS classes are listed here</a>). I can't think of any biology nutrition classes, although one of my profs (who takes UROPs, of course) is doing research on the effect of voluntary nutrition on blood amino acid content/serotonin levels.</p>

<p>So your diploma wouldn't say "psychopharmacology" or "nutrition", but you would be taking your classes from those areas, which is ultimately far more important than what it actually says on your diploma. (This is my beef with people who want to do a "biochemistry" or "molecular cell biology" major -- it doesn't matter what your diploma says, it matters what courses you take.)</p>

<p>

There are two types of things you can refer to at MIT with the word "seminar".
1. A class, often 6 units (normal classes are 12), which is heavy on small-group discussion and often on reading primary literature (if in science) or building cool stuff (if in engineering).
2. A talk given by a scientist highlighting his or her research.</p>

<p>There are a lot of fun seminars of the #1 type, but you'd have to check the course catalogue because they vary from term to term. </p>

<p>As for the #2 type, I am not exaggerating when I say that you could probably attend at least one every single day at MIT. They go on all the time, and you can find out about them by watching bulletin board postings or by subscribing to email lists (the BCS department, for example, has a list called bcs-talks which exists solely to send out ads for seminars).</p>

<p>

Actually, if you get credit for single-variable and pass the advanced standing exam for multivariable, you don't have to take diff eq (unless your major requires it). Done. Finito. Although I agree with pebbles that 18.02 is fun. :)</p>

47

<p>It'll depend on your major.</p>

48

<p>These are the questions I had asked in another thread, answered by Mollie, Mootmom, over30, and killdeerfly. Thanks again!</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=1987976%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=1987976&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

49

<p>I have some questions about biology at MIT, particularly for Mollie, but I guess from anyone else as well. </p>

<p>1) How is the biology department in general? stupendous?
2) How does the biology major compare in rigor to engineering?
3) For UROP, do all labs accepts undergrads? Also, is there competition to get into certain labs or can you pretty much choose any lab to work in?
4) At this point I'm interested in an MD/PhD program. How many people from MIT follow this route and how successful are they?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

<p>And also, I thought I'd mention that I'm extremely excited for CPW and look forward to meeting everyone there.</p>

50

<p>Wow, this is an awesome thread. It's pretty much exactly what I need.</p>

<ol>
<li>What are the archeology (SP) opportunities at MIT like? Any chance of going on a dig?</li>
<li>How are MIT history classes? What is taught/what are the means (objective tests, essays, etc).</li>
<li>How hard is it to do well? I've done pretty well in high school, but I'm no genius.</li>
<li>How is the populace in terms of sci-fi? Are there people into sci-fi at all (I sort of want someone to talk with about the stuff I read/watch occasionally)</li>
<li>How are the dorms, particularly EC and Random? In particular, how are the bathroom facilities?</li>
<li>How is the guidance for postgraduate?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks!</p>

51

<p>

  1. I think it's a really super program, and my biology classes have been my favorite ones at MIT. In terms of academic strength, as sakky noted in another thread today, it's one of the strongest in the country (I don't think there's any point in discriminating between the strength of MIT, Harvard, and Stanford for biology -- all three of them are stronger than any other biology department in the country). There's quite a bit of flexibility in class choice (you take a prescribed set of intro courses, then take upper-division electives in subjects of your choice). All faculty in the department teach, and most classes are joint grad/undergrad classes -- so the strength of the grad department is the strength of the undergrad department, since you're taking the same classes and learning from the same faculty members as the grad students. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>In terms of grades, it's easier to get better grades in biology than in engineering. (I think I can make that generalization pretty confidently, although admittedly I don't have the data to back it up.) My boyfriend (aerospace engineering) says that it seems like my biology subject matter is as hard as his engineering subject matter, but not as tedious. Many upper-division classes don't give problem sets, so your grade is determined completely by your performance on class tests.</p></li>
<li><p>All labs accept undergrads, although not all labs accept undergrads at all times. (Sometimes a lab isn't looking for undergrads.) I'm not aware of a time when someone has really wanted a job in a particular lab and not been able to get one -- usually people are flexible enough that they apply to work in a variety of labs, and end up getting one or two offers. I suppose you might run into trouble if you had your heart set on one lab, then the faculty member went on sabbatical or something. Do you have any particular lab in mind?</p></li>
<li><p>I don't know the stats on how many people apply for MD/PhD programs -- certainly it's smaller than the number of people who apply for straight PhD or straight MD programs (but that's true nationwide). If you're interested, PM me and I can give you the email of my friend Jen '06, who will be starting an MD/PhD program in the fall -- I'm sure she'd be happy to give you any dirt she knows.</p></li>
</ol>

52

<p>Thanks Mollie, that was very helpful. In terms of UROP's, I'm really interested in RNAi and miRNA's. I know Phil Sharp is a leader in the field of RNAi, so I was thinking it'd be really cool to do research in his lab, but I know there are other people at MIT doing really interesting RNAi research.</p>

53

<p>

  1. So I don't know much about the archaeology program, but I'm hoping someone does and can speak up. Adam took a course in archaeology (3.986</a>) and enjoyed it, and there's a Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. But the only reason I know about that is that it's on the second floor of a building that I always walk through to get to work. :) I'll continue to try and dig (heh) up information for you.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I would say the majority of humanities classes at MIT have grades based on papers. A good number of classes, although perhaps not the modal class, have a final exam or possibly a midterm. Many of them have a small part of the grade determined by attendance (since they're small classes, they want you there so you can participate in the discussions). But this does vary class to class, and to some degree from department to department. You can get an idea of the usual grade determination scheme in history classes by looking through OCW/url</a>. I've had friends who [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/concentration/index.shtml%5Dconcentrated%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/concentration/index.shtml]concentrated[/url&lt;/a&gt;] in history and really enjoyed their classes.</p></li>
<li><p>It is hard to do well, but it is not impossible. Does that make sense? I mean, there's this baseline of hard work that we all have to slog through, but putting in effort goes a long way -- you don't have to be brilliant to succeed at MIT, and personally I think it's better to be a hard worker at MIT than to be naturally brilliant. If you're willing to put in the work (and I'm not talking about 100 hours a week or anything, just a dedicated, reasonable amount of hard work), you should be fine. </p></li>
<li><p>According to their group materials, the MIT [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/mitsfs/www/%5DScience"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/mitsfs/www/]Science&lt;/a> Fiction Society has the largest collection of sci-fi books in the world! Heh, so I think the answer to your question is "yes". :D</p></li>
<li><p>EC and Random are older dorms, but don't think of that as a bad thing -- since they're older, Housing is less inclined to care what you do with them, and there are awesome paintings and murals and room customizations. I'll let pebbles share about EC, since no doubt she knows it better than I do. I stayed at Random when I was a prefrosh, and I found the people there to be extremely kind and helpful. Campus stereotype is that they're a little "geekier" than your average MIT student. And as for the bathrooms -- you can check</a> their status online! (I thought the bathrooms were perfectly fine when I visited there.) Bathrooms across campus are cleaned regularly by Housing staff, so no need to worry about lots of ick.</p></li>
<li><p>Guidance for pre-professional stuff is handled through the Careers</a> Office, and students are assigned a premed or prelaw advisor to guide them through the application process. (The office also has workshops and resume critiques/mock interviews for people planning to get a job after graduation, and there are frequent job fairs on campus.) For graduate school admissions, you're expected to utilize your faculty advisor -- I found my faculty advisor to be an invaluable resource when I was applying to grad schools. Without him, I would have been one confused little puppy. You can also develop faculty buddies other than your advisor, so that when one of them tires of your grad school freakouts, you can go plop down in the office of the other. Or maybe that was just me.</p></li>
</ol>

54

<p>

Haha, so that's why you asked -- cause you want to work with a Nobel laureate. :)</p>

<p>I don't think I know any UROPs in Sharp's lab, but he seems like a terribly nice man. (I ran into him once. No, literally. And he didn't make a face at me for being a klutz.) When you get to campus, I'd advise dropping by his administrative assistant's office -- Nobel laureates tend to get deluged with email, and you wouldn't want your "please give me a job" email to get lost in the shuffle.</p>

<p>EDIT: That is a lie, what I just said. I remember one of Sharp's postdocs sending out an email about a year ago to the biology undergrads list asking for a UROP, so there are most definitely UROPs in his lab.</p>

55

<p>Another question:
Is there any whiteboard space or chalkboard space for students? I often like to work out problems on a whiteboard (sometimes it's easier to think that way). Do dorm rooms or libraries have whiteboards/chalkboards? Can we use vacant lecture halls? :)</p>

56

<p>whiteboards - my son bought one for $40 or so and installed it in his room</p>

57

<p>hey mollie.
i want to major in course 1- enviro eng.
i don't particularly like physics (no offense to anyone)
what's the least amount and easiest classes i would HAVE to take in order to graduate?
also, i got a 5 on the AP Lang exam. What is the FEE? And should I take the AP Literature exam to place out of stuff? (p.s. i actually like humanities)</p>

58

<p>

So the General Institute Requirements that everybody has to take are as follows: 2 semesters physics (mechanics and E&M), 2 semesters calc (differential/integral and multivariable), 1 semester chemistry (engineering majors usually take 3.091</a>), 1 semester biology, a lab (which would be satisfied by your course 1 lab), 2 restricted science/engineering electives (which would be satisfied by subjects you'd also be taking for your major, generally), and 8 semesters of humanities/arts/social sciences (HASS) classes. Most people take four classes per term, although taking 5 or 6 is not terribly unusual.</p>

<p>I'm really not a huge fan of physics myself, although I liked E&M more than mechanics. The good thing about MIT is that there will be large groups of people in your living group taking physics with you, and you can all help each other with problem sets and studying. Having a big group of people working together makes it a lot easier to get through classes you might not be particularly psyched about. If you don't have a big foam #1 finger in your closet that says "PHYSICS", I'd recommend taking [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/8.01t/www/%5D8.01%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/8.01t/www/]8.01[/url&lt;/a&gt;] and [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/%5D8.02%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/]8.02[/url&lt;/a&gt;] rather than the crazy hardcore pebbles version. :)</p>

<p>The course 1 degree chart is [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/catalogue/degre.engin.ch1e.shtml%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/catalogue/degre.engin.ch1e.shtml]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. I know it's possible to finish the program in three years, because one of the girls on the cheerleading squad did that very thing last year.</p>

<p>If you got a 5 on the AP Language test, you don't have to take the FEE (Freshman Essay Evaluation). Passing the FEE (or getting a 5 on AP Lit or Lang) means you don't have to take a particular writing class first term and you can take whichever humanities course you like. If you want to take the AP Lang exam, you can, but getting a 5 on it will only get you elective credit; it won't allow you to pass ahead in any subjects. (More to the point, many humanities classes don't have prerequisites, so there's really no way to "pass ahead" anyway.)</p>

<p>It's really to your advantage to come in with as many AP credits as you can, even if they're "just" elective credits and don't pass you out of anything. You can use those credits toward a double major (single majors need to take 180 units outside the General Institute Requirements, doubles need to take 270), toward graduating early, or just toward having the flexibility to drop a class you don't like without jeopardizing your ability to graduate on time.</p>

59

<p>my door is a chalkboard o_O</p>

<p>and it loves every second of it.</p>

60

<p>so what do u do when you graduate a year early? can i go study abroad? even if i don't graudate a year early, is it STILL possible to go study abroad other than the Cambridge-MIT program?</p>