<p>For the past three 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.</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.</p>
<p>-How difficult is it as a freshman to get a single dorm with a sink? (If it’s difficult, would MIT make exceptions for an individual with a medical disability?)</p>
<p>-What WiFi network does MIT use? 802.11 a/b/g/n?</p>
<p>I think this really depends on which dorm you live in. I know there are no sinks in any room in New House except in the GRT suites. Burton Connor and Next House mainly have sinks in communal areas that are close to the rooms. However, I’ve seen sinks in Simmon doubles and Baker singles. You might want to inquire into the specifics of each dorm before choosing one (your sink situation might leave you more limited in terms of housing choice, that’s all). You should contact the Housing Office if you have a valid reason of needing a single w/ a sink.</p>
Yeah, you’ll be able to specify any medical requests in the initial housing preference form. I should add that it’s not that difficult to get a single as a freshman, given that you’re happy living in one of a handful of dorms with a lot of singles (MacGregor, EC, Senior Haus). I know that MacGregor has some two-person suites with a sink in the suite – right across the hall, and behind a lockable door from the rest of the world. I don’t know if that would suffice.</p>
<p>Actually, if memory serves me correctly, I feel like this question was asked two or three years ago, although I can’t find the thread at the moment. Perhaps someone with better search capabilities than me…?</p>
<p>
The people at MIT are much like people everywhere, but on average smarter and nerdier. Still, there’s a huge variety of interests and passions in the MIT student body, so it’s tough to generalize much about MIT students, other than that they ardently resist generalization.</p>
<p>Senior Haus doesn’t have sinks, East Campus does. If you have a legit reason for needing a single (or if you just kind of want one and write something clever on your housing form), you will get a single. East Campus is awesome. You should check it out.</p>
<p>To be more general, the people at MIT are awesome. In my living group, I’ve never felt like anyone was judging me, I’ve never felt out of place or alone, and I’ve always felt like I was coming home to my family at the end of the day. I made more friends in the first month of school than I did in twelve years of being in the same school district back in elementary - high school. MIT is made up of a very special brand of people, and we will welcome you with open arms.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the only GIR it’s normally possible to get cross-registration to count toward is the HASS requirement. It’s easy to get a cross-registered class to count for 12 units of general credit, but to get a specific graduation requirement waived by taking that course involves petitioning the Committee on Curricula ([more</a> info](<a href=“Classes, Grades & Evaluations | MIT Registrar”>Classes, Grades & Evaluations | MIT Registrar)). Usually, other than HASS classes, the only classes students cross-register for are those which aren’t offered at MIT, into which category most of the GIRs obviously don’t fall.</p>
<p>So it’s possible to take a GIR at Harvard or Wellesley. The trick is getting it to count as a GIR.</p>
<p>Can a male cross-register for courses at Wellesley? </p>
<p>Absolutely yes, but be aware of the scheduling implications of this. It does take some time to get back and forth between MIT and Wellesley. Also be quite clear on why you want to take the Wellesley course. I know several classmates who have had very positive experiences with their Wellesley courses, and one who was not particularly interested in the subject but thought that it would be a great way to meet women. His was not a particularly positive experience, and not one he enjoyed at all.</p>
<p>In terms of workload, what is the average number of hours spent on a problem set per week? Do students simply get up, do homework, go to class, do more homework, eat lunch, go to class, do more homework, etc.? About how much time a day can be alotted to extracurriculars (for example, orchestra) while still getting 9-10 hours of sleep a night?</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, the average class is 12 units, which is supposed to represent one hour of time per week. Many classes meet for 5 hours (3 lectures and 2 recitations), leaving 7 hours per week for outside class work (homework and reading). Some 12-unit classes actually take more than 12 hours per week and some take less, but 12 hours per week per class is a good general rule.</p>
<p>Everybody has a different strategy for doing homework, but I can tell you that I only did homework after dinner – I was more productive when working in solid chunks at night. Of course, that block of homework time was frequently interrupted by watching TV or talking with friends, and freshman problem sets are usually done in big, social groups anyway, so that homework time is also partially social time.</p>
<p>The amount of time you’re able to spend on things that aren’t school depends on the schedule you choose to take and your ability to manage your time. I was a double major, worked about 15 hours a week at my UROP, was on the cheerleading squad (3 2-hour practices per week, plus basketball/football games), and did random stuff in dorm government. This left me enough time to get about 7 hours of sleep on the weekdays, and more on the weekends, which I guess averages out to 9 hours or so per night, but I personally couldn’t have maintained that schedule and gotten 9 hours of sleep every weeknight. That was a choice I made because I loved everything I did.</p>
<p>It’s really impossible to tell an individual that he or she, personally, will have enough time to do X and Y and Z at MIT. But the vast majority of students participate in at least one extracurricular activity – balancing schoolwork with extracurriculars is definitely the norm at MIT.</p>
<p>Getting 9-10 (or in fact, any x hours) of sleep is a personal choice here.</p>
<p>I feel like the biggest determining factor of that is how efficiently you work. For example, if you were 100% efficient, you probably can do all of your extracurriculars, take a heavier-than-average workload, and still have some free time to do what you want to do.</p>
<p>I am a terrible example of that, and I usually operate at around 60% efficiency due to too much Internet and random things that I run into, so I end up occasionally pulling all-nighters and generally only sleep for 6 hours per night because I don’t work efficiently enough and I try to do too many activities =p</p>
<p>So meh, all things are possible - it just depends on how disciplined you are. =D</p>
<p>case in point: I got sick of writing a paper so I’m commenting right now…-_____- haha</p>
<p>For MIT’s foreign language courses, if you get up to a level 4 course, would you be able to start reading novels and professional writing in that language?</p>
<p>and how good of a teacher is junot diaz? XD.</p>
<p>In my Spanish IV class we read the short novel Cronica de Una Muerte Anuciada by Garcia Marquez as well as a ton of short stories by famous South American and Spanish authors. </p>
<p>We also watched three films in Spanish - Mujeres en El Borde de Un Ataque de Nervios, Diarios de Motocicleta, and Machuca.</p>
<p>“Level IV” varies widely between language to language. For example, French IV and Spanish IV are much more advanced than Japanese IV and Chinese IV because most American students have taken more courses in Spanish/French in high school and/or have had more exposure to Spanish/French as opposed to languages like Chinese and Japanese. For example, I know that you don’t begin watching a Japanese movie until you get to Japanese VI.</p>
<p>I actually doubt Junot Diaz teaches much now, after this recent surge in publicity. He does co-teach two classes and I’m going to try to get into one next semester. =p</p>