<p>For the past eight million (okay, six) years, I've started a thread around this time dedicated to the last-minute questions people need to have answered before they can whether to come to MIT or not. It's pretty late at this point, but I'm sure there are still burning questions out there.</p>
<p>The first year I started the thread, I said
[quote]
The title says it all. This was a question I was asked frequently in graduate school interviews, and I really like it -- cuts all the crap and gets right to the heart of the matter.</p>
<p>What do you really care about in a school, and what don't you know about MIT that prevents you from knowing whether or not you want to spend four years here?
[/quote]
So what do you need to know? All questions, no matter how big or how small, are welcomed. Just be aware that if you make them too big, they're hard to answer succinctly -- the more directed your question, the more likely it is that we'll be able to answer it informatively.</p>
<p>Two questions. What are the benefits of taking seminar advising? Can anyone speak about living in Random Hall as a freshman? I am concerned about being somewhat far off campus, small, and cooking. Also, s is varsity athlete. Does that change your thoughts? Thanks.</p>
<p>Living in Random Hall as a freshman was a blessing. I stuck myself in a committed relationship first semester, and I was lucky to have such accepting people around me when it fell apart and I realized I hadn’t really made any friends. Random Hall is like a big house, and the community is like a big family.</p>
<p>Random Hall is not far from campus. It takes longer to walk to 77 Mass Ave from some of the West Campus dorms. Some people rollerblade or scooter to class to make the walk faster, but most people are fine on foot.</p>
<p>Random is 30 seconds from a grocery store, so food is very accessible. We’re also surrounded by restaurants, a gas station that sells milk and snacks, and, as of very recently, a taco place. There’s also foodler.com for ordering out. I’ve heard that eating out costs as much per meal as being on the dining plan.</p>
<p>I lost 15 pounds my first semester, but that’s just because left alone, I wasn’t interested in eating things that weren’t skim milk. I don’t think a meal plan would have helped me.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about being a varsity athlete. I know one girl who is in crew in Random Hall; she has to have more self-control about organizing her time, especially when it comes to going to bed at a reasonable hour. She lives on the quietest, sanest floor in the dorm.</p>
<p>I got really lucky with my freshman advising seminar. We studied materials fatigue and failure, especially in planes, and talked about our lives, and then toward the end of the semester we went out to a flying school to fly (including takeoff and landing) small planes (two students per plane, with a copilot).</p>
<p>Lidusha! After looking at the dorms at CPW, Random is my first choice! Followed by possibly senior house. Now with the way that the dorm assignment lottery works, how likely (on a scale of very likely, very likelyish, maybe, not likelyish and not likely)or whatever, am I to get into Random if I put it as my top choice? (and senior house as 2nd). Basically how popular is Random usually, and then if you or anyone knows about how hard/popular it is to get into Senior house that would help too. Thanks!</p>
<p>Mollie - thanks for offering to answer questions and for all your help over the last couple years. My son finally made a decision and we just accepted online so he’s excited to be at MIT in the fall! I’m excited to finally have a decision from him!</p>
<p>IsaacM: Yay! Random is super-awesome. The lottery is strange and unpredictable. I listed Random Hall as my second choice after EC and got put in Random Hall; meanwhile a male friend of mine listed Random as his first choice and got put in EC. It varies wildly from year to year. Be honest with yourself about your first and second choices, keep an open mind, and be aware of the adjustment lottery during orientation if you don’t like where you’re placed (this year it’s going to be opt-in, not opt-out).</p>
<p>I really liked the “East Campus” (as in East vs West) feel. But EC the dorm was a little too crazy for me, not in the nerdy weirdness but in the “hrm, I don’t really like this slab of dry wall here so IMMA JUS CUT IT OUT” craziness lol. But yeah, Random did seem like one big house with a family and all so Hopefully the lottery will be kind to me!</p>
<p>@IsaacM - What halls did you visit in EC? As a former EC resident (now Randomite), I often felt that Senior Haus would’ve been too crazy for me EC varies a lot floor-to-floor, so you may have visited a few that weren’t your thing. I suspect if you like Random and Senior Haus, you’d be able to find an EC hall that you like, too :P</p>
<p>You’ll be sent info on dorms sometime this summer, including i3 videos that display dorms’ personalities.</p>
<p>Roommates happen at the end of orientation. You’ll have a week-long opportunity to meet people and find someone you’d like to room with. If you are both in the same dorm, you should be able to room together no problem.</p>
<p>I’ve heard (and this may or may not have any basis in fact), that if you put certain dorms - like Senior - in your top few you are very likely to get them because not that many people rank them highly. Random and Senior are, in my opinion (which also may not have a strong basis in fact) very different places. The way I see it, they are both “East Campus” but on opposite sides of the “East Campus” spectrum of sorts. If you really like Random, Senior might not be the best place for you.</p>
<p>Also, if you really like Random, you may want to put dorms that are more popular than Senior (and that you would also like to live in) right after. I would personally suggest the likes of East Campus (which I think has sections more similar to Random than Senior), Burton-Conner, and MacGregor (the last two have cultures that vary greatly from floor to entry). I think that these dorms are both more similar to Random (or have sections that are) but also if you were to rank them highly you would be more likely to get Random as I think they are also generally more popular selections than Random as well.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessarily a great idea to try and game the lottery – better just to put your genuine top choices as your top choices, whatever they may be.</p>
<p>
As lidusha said, there will be a book with information about each dorm, along with a video made by students in each dorm, sent this summer prior to the summer housing lottery deadline. Then during orientation, there is a multi-day residence exploration period before students make their final dorm and roommate decisions.</p>
<p>MIT’s Meal Plan program, there are only dinners and breakfasts at
Baker, McCormick, Next House or Simmons. Where do students go for lunch? If they live in Bexley Hall and have the ANY 14, can they go to Maseeh for lunch and dinner every day?
Can they use the Meal Plan at Student Center?</p>
<p>@PiperXD, I’m not sure what halls they were specifically, I think I saw 2. One of them had a Mario bathroom. I think that I prefer the suite style set up of Random and then Senior was also suite-ish although not as much as Random I guess. I really liked the family/smaller feel of Random. But Senior also seemed to have cool people who seemed to be really open and nerdy and stuff like that. I could see where it could be a little crazy, like the whole “anarchy” theme too though, so maybe I wouldn’t want to put it as my 2nd choice. </p>
<p>I was tempted (right word?) during CPW in Macgregor and I thought I would like that best, but I actually really did not. I didn’t really see anyone out doing anything there (and granted it was CPW, so maybe they were out doing that). Also, I was not a fan of the bathroom situation there (in fact, I don’t think I would be comfortable in a dorm where I couldn’t have a little more privacy in the bathroom. I don’t mind the coed thing, but I would like more than just a shower curtain separating me from everyone in the hallway. </p>
<p>I know that Burton Connor is also suite style, but I didn’t get a chance to tour it. I was there for like half an hour for breakfast one morning. </p>
<p>On the opposite side of the spectrum, I did kind of like Next and Simmons, but those have meal plans, which I am trying to avoid for $ reasons. But still I liked the nerdiness of Random way more.</p>
<p>You can upgrade the plan to the Any as you said or add lunches and eat at Maseeh - actually they can eat any meal at any dining hall (within the limits of their plan, so the normal plan wouldn’t include lunches). However, I’d wait and see how your student does first. My son’s schedule worked out both semesters so that he had classes at like 11, 12 and 1 on at least 3 days so he couldn’t make it to lunch then anyways (he did plan it that way to reduce travel time back and forth from his dorm). He usually ate breakfast (all you can eat) around 9:45 anyway and then did an early dinner around 5 when the dining hall (Simmons) opened. He found that more often he would buy something around 11pm rather than 11am anyway and when he did need to grab something for lunch, usually did at the Stata Center or Subway. </p>
<p>They cannot use the Meal Plan itself at the Student Center, but you can use Tech Cash at nearly every place there I believe. My son had the Basic 14, but then we put money on Tech Cash for him to use at Subway and various other locations when needed, but really, even for a teen boy, with 2 AYCE meals a day, he really hasn’t used that much of it other than when he misses meals for some reason.</p>
<p>Really upset as a mom, my daughter went to CPW at MIT and her “host” was HORRIBLE! She made my daughter feel so uncomfortable and unwelcome. This experience made my daughter not accept the admission offer to MIT and she now regrets it. People that do the hosting should be screened. Thanks.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear that. My son hosted 2 prefrosh this year and I know he had to volunteer and go to a brief/training so it wasn’t like your daughter’s host was just stuck with someone unwillingly. I thought my son even said they had more “want-to-be” hosts than they had prefrosh coming so I just can’t understand why someone would volunteer to host and then treat a prefrosh badly. Did you or she let MIT know of the experience in your evaluations afterwards?</p>
Hopefully the lottery will be kind to me!</p>
EC varies a lot floor-to-floor, so you may have visited a few that weren’t your thing. I suspect if you like Random and Senior Haus, you’d be able to find an EC hall that you like, too :P</p>
My son hosted 2 prefrosh this year and I know he had to volunteer and go to a brief/training so it wasn’t like your daughter’s host was just stuck with someone unwillingly. I thought my son even said they had more “want-to-be” hosts than they had prefrosh coming so I just can’t understand why someone would volunteer to host and then treat a prefrosh badly. Did you or she let MIT know of the experience in your evaluations afterwards?</p>