<p>this probably varies radically from person to person, but do people go into Boston much? (particularly those that don’t actually live in Boston!)</p>
<p>It does vary a lot. I have friends who go to Boston every weekend, while I have been averaging ~2 trips/semester.</p>
<p>
For me, it was definitely trial and error. But luckily, I got to experience the error part on pass/no record, and by second semester, I had figured out what I personally needed to do to get the grades I wanted. :)</p>
<p>
Since most freshmen take the GIRs first semester, it’s pretty easy to find people who are taking the same classes that you are. So people will form study groups with people from their living groups, or their extracurriculars, or whatever. </p>
<p>
Your choice. I couldn’t work anywhere other than my room, but other people can’t work in their rooms. There are often rooms in the dorms that are suitable – in my dorm, for example, each suite had a small lounge that was often used as a study room. The libraries all have rooms for working, and there are always classrooms open or the reading room in the Student Center if you prefer going somewhere else.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reassurance Mollie. I did some research on Course 3C a while ago, but it seems hugely engineering-based. With a degree in 3C, will I still be able to get into grad school in pure-archaeology? Also, since hardly anyone at MIT major in course 3C, is it disadvantageous to do so?</p>
<p>Mollie and Chris,
My son is having a hard decision between two schools… leaning heavily towards MIT BUT it’s still a toss-up. He’s hoping to major in physics (is it course 8?). He went to CPW , still had a few questions BUT still wasn’t convinced.<br>
He’s tried to reach out to faculty but has never received a reply (before acceptance and then just recently to 2 faculty members, one of whom’s class he sat in during CPW). Is this typical or unusual. After CPW he’s been very busy at school making it difficult for him to communicate during his school hours (he’s at a boarding school commitments from 8AM-8:30PMish usually since varsity sports in heavy swing now).
How can he contact faculty now… he’s tried e-mail and will try to call the department today during he’s lone free period. He’s reached out to his contact person at admissions who just told him to contact dept. and not a specific person… time’s running out.
Worst case scenarios is that DH will take son back up to MIT on Thursday to take a final look… he’ll miss class but we feel it’s necessary to make an informed decision.
Chris, will there be someone at the admissions office to speak directly too (perhaps you could pm me since I have some specific questions).
Thanks Mollie and Chris for all all the helpful information throughout the admission season.</p>
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<p>This really is a factor of personal choice. Like we like to say, all pain you experience here is really truly self-inflicted. For the majority of majors, you will graduate in four years just taking 48 credits (the “usual” load) every semester. However, more often than not, you see people taking 60 or even 72, because they want to and they think they can. Do they need to put in more hours in a day to studying? Yes, of course - but they also made the conscious decision to take 5 or 6 classes. I don’t want to lie, but certainly there are maybe 10% of the class that still struggle heavily with 48 credits and really have to study all the time to make the grade, but that is pretty rare and most of those people usually figure out what works for them eventually. </p>
<p>Subjectively, I spent far less time in class than in high school in college, and I enjoy the way that I structure my time in college a lot more. I would go to a few hours of class a day (usually much less than four), spend about 5-6 hours on extracurriculars, and then do another 5-6 hours of studying/procrastinating at night. Of course, the balance shifts heavily towards studying the 1-2 days before an exam, but that’s normal. I never thought that I was “studying all the time” here…it also depends on who you talk to, because for a lot of frosh, there is a “learning curve” on managing time when you first come in, and then you gradually get better at it. </p>
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</p>
<p>I actually take Cantonese classes in Boston, so I go to Chinatown at least twice a week (granted, I’m also a lot more free now as a second-semester senior). Even so, I’m too restless to stay in one place. I go to Boston at least once, if not twice every week consistently throughout college.</p>
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</p>
<p>Well, I woke up one day and decided that biology was getting too boring, so I declared another degree in history. I don’t know about archae/paleo, but MIT has a phenomenal history department that seems to be never discovered by people (it’s truly a shame), and I’ve been on a crusade to bring more attention to the department. Did you know that there are nearly 20 tenured full-time professors in history at MIT? Did you know that a ton of them did their History PhD’s at Harvard (which means they’re all top-notch)? Did you know that we successfully swayed history professors to leave their jobs at Ivies, top Liberal Arts Colleges, and Harvard for a position at MIT?</p>
<p>I would argue that it is even more advantageous for you if you intend on pursuing a double major or a degree in an unpopular major here, because the attention that you get from the faculty in the department is immense. For example, I was able to get a huge amount of individual attention from the history faculty, because I am one of two students who will be graduating with a history degree from my class. Now, if I was at Harvard, I would simply be just one history student among many, and I would certainly not be able to establish so many personal connections with the faculty. Additionally, it’s just cool to be a strong humanities student in addition to taking science classes at the finest technological/science institute in the US, so I thought it was the perfect balance.</p>
<p>I am going off-track a bit, but there’s nothing wrong with going off the beaten path here. MIT does a really good job of selecting its faculty, and even the 21F (foreign language and literature) instructors are excellent…I had some of my best classes in there, and MIT is certainly not supposed to be known for its Japanese instruction, right? ; )</p>
<p>oasis, thanks for the post - it definitely gave me some insight on how an mit student structures his/her day - I had no idea how important ECs can be, but it’s good to know that you have time for all these things :)</p>
<p>also, could you or someone else in the forum describe an average day - say tuesday at MIT? :)</p>
<p>Is it looked down upon to spend five years in college because you were a junior transfer to MIT (i.e. you needed three years to complete MIT)?</p>
<p>^No, not at all. Graduating in 5 years is not looked down on even for normal MIT undergrads. Many people switch majors, even more than once, so that can slow down graduation.</p>
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</p>
<p>I don’t know how average my Tuesdays are, but here’s my plan for tomorrow:</p>
<p>10am: wake up, take the T to Porter Square to run an errand
1pm: 6.033 recitation (computer systems)
2:00pm: grab a quick lunch with a friend
2:30pm: 6.045 lecture (theoretical CS)
4:00pm: buy produce at the produce stand
4:30pm: 6.004 staff meeting (the class for which I’m a lab assistant)
5pm: gym class
7pm: get out of gym, eat dinner
8pm: 6.004 lab hours
midnight: get out of lab
3am: sleep</p>
<p>I think I tend to be a little more night-shifted than the average MIT student - generally on Tuesdays, I sleep until about noon (and on MWF, I sleep until about 10am). I also work during the week so that I have my weekends free - if you don’t have a job, your schedule will be a lot less packed than mine is :)</p>
<p>Have you ever stopped an elevator, climbed on top of it and ridden it up and down? Would you be punished if you were to do so?</p>
<p>This. This is why I like MIT. This is why I want to apply. This is why this is my first choice. Not because of the name, not because of the US News rankings. Because threads like this exist. Because MIT folks will actually start threads here. Because MIT folks eagerly reply when asked a question. MIT could have just sat back and done nothing but instead starts threads like these, where people answer honestly. Threads that ask “How can we do better next time?” Blogs of current students or admissions officers. Dedicated Alumni. Dedicated students who enjoy answering questions. The want to take what is already amazing and make it even more so. </p>
<p>Haha…this is going to make me cry when I get rejected in two years.</p>
<p>
I did a blog entry on a day in my life when I was a senior – the fact that there was cheerleading practice indicates that it was either a Tuesday or a Thursday. I hope a Thursday would be acceptable for you. :)</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “An actual day in the life”](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/workplay_balance_at_mit/an_actual_day_in_the_life.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/workplay_balance_at_mit/an_actual_day_in_the_life.shtml)</p>
<p>
It depends on the specific faculty members in question, of course, but it can certainly be typical. Faculty members who are MIT-level tend to get enormous amounts of email – my graduate advisor, who’s a Harvard professor but an MIT alum, swears he can get upwards of 100 emails an hour – and emails from students they don’t know can get lost in the mix. (And I should add that younger professors, at least in my experience, are more likely to magically discover the emails in their inboxes. I don’t know if it’s because they’re better able to handle the onslaught of emails.)</p>
<p>I have always (as both an undergraduate and a graduate student) found my professors more accessible via in-person meetings than via email. Alternately, if you can find the email of the faculty members’ administrative assistants, it might be easier to get an appointment or get them to respond to an email if it comes through their admin assistant – the admin assistants are the ones who really keep the academic world revolving. :)</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to contact the department, and I hope they were able to put him in touch with the right people.</p>
<p>Would you like us (us being the CC folk and bloggers) to put him in touch with a physics major? We could try to find somebody perfect if you give us some more details.</p>
<p>So, in my first year at MIT, I want to explore some CS and economics. Do I have the time to do that? (by not exceeding 4 courses firsrt semester, and 5 courses second semester?)
Would it be wise to study in the summer and get out of the way some GIRs that I am not really interested in? (Or should I divert my time to studying courses I am interested in, i.e. math and physics and take them in a more advanced level?</p>
<p>What do we do in IAP? Do we take courses, or try to find a UROP, or a combination?</p>
<p>(Finally, this is not related to the topic of the thread really 
- when do we have to be on campus if we are internationals, and when would you think it’s better to arrive at MIT?)</p>
<p>I don’t recommend taking more than 3 math/science classes the first semester. If you take 3 technical classes a semester and you don’t pass out of any GIR’s, you won’t have any time to explore other classes freshman year. </p>
<p>Some GIR’s are easier to pass out of than others because for some an AP is sufficient and you don’t need an advanced standing exam. I don’t know how they work it for internationals–you may have to take an advanced standing exam.</p>
<p>
You can definitely take economics courses to fulfill your Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences requirements – most people take one HASS course per semester, since eight are required overall, so you could take 14.01/2 (the intro econ classes) to serve as your HASSes and explore the department. (I know nothing about how EECS is structured anymore, because they changed the requirements a few years ago.)</p>
<p>
Up to you – people definitely do both. If you know there are GIRs you’re not interested in taking but could get credit for, I’d say go for it, as this will free up time in your schedule freshman year. More credit gives you more choices later on.</p>
<p>
Whatever you want! I think it’s more common to work at your UROP or an externship (an internship program run by the Alumni Association that finds month-long internships with MIT alums for the month of January), but most people end up taking a class at least one IAP. There are fun events like Charm School and watching the engineering competitions, and many of the classes offered are fun, too (like the course 9 sheep brain dissection class). Some people just spend the month relaxing.</p>
<p><a href=“Finally,%20this%20is%20not%20related%20to%20the%20topic%20of%20the%20thread%20really%20:P%20-%20when%20do%20we%20have%20to%20be%20on%20campus%20if%20we%20are%20internationals,%20and%20when%20would%20you%20think%20it’s%20better%20to%20arrive%20at%20MIT?”>quote</a>
[/quote]
You’ll be required to arrive in mid-to-late August (like ~Aug 20), because there’s a short international student orientation before regular orientation.</p>
<p>Thanks Mollie and collegealum314! :)</p>
<p>Yes, you can definitely explore EECS your freshman year - a lot of students take 6.01, which is the first course in the new Course 6 curriculum, their freshman spring (that’s what I did). You can also take 14.01 / 14.02 as your HASS classes, although neither one of them is a CI-M so if you want to get sophomore standing, you’ll have to take something else first term.</p>
<p>thanks k4r3n2! could you explain what is sophomore standing?</p>