<p>I dislike the 2-hour exam, mostly because it’s tiring and also because I take exams quickly. But yeah, you guys are quite opinionated about exams.</p>
<p>Also Jessie, neither of them is an MIT prefrosh… I think mathboy goes to Berkley? And I hope you know Chris.</p>
<p>Haha, I don’t even mean exams at MIT, I mean exams in general. The only opinion I have about exams is that I refuse to discuss them between taking them and getting my grade back (because there’s always that one exchange where you’re friend is like, “man, that trick question almost got me!” and you’re like “trick…ques…dammit!”).</p>
<p>Otherwise I just study for them and take them and move on with my life. I don’t THINK about them as a subject nearly as much as people in this thread seem to, and it baffles me.</p>
<p>^^ Ah, well I was like this even in high school, where there was a little variation among how classes were run. Now in college, I’ve seen several, several different ways. </p>
<p>Also Lauran, I guess the reason I thought about the philosophy behind running classes is just…classes are a huge, huge part of what I do daily. It almost baffles me how some don’t think about such things as much as I do. </p>
<p>As another note, I hated when people asked me about exams after we’d just taken them as well. The philosophy of exams is much more appealing than “How did you interpret __ on Question ___???”</p>
<p>To Jessie – I don’t know how to explain further, given your view on shorter exams seems precisely opposed to mine. But my point was the same as oasis’s – 50 minutes is a <em>pretty short time</em>. I can’t even solve a single problem on my problem sets in 50 minutes, usually. I think it may depend on major, too. In lower division physics classes, I think the norm at my school is to have 2 hour midterms outside of class. The 50-minute exams tend to be in upper division classes where they don’t make such a big deal about administering midterms…and frankly I’d rather they didn’t even exist. Actually, I asked one professor why he doesn’t get rid of them, and his frankest response is that homework readers don’t do their job in enough detail, usually; in classes with much smaller enrollment (e.g. graduate classes), this professor actually looks at work himself.</p>
<p>Oh and yes, I am not an MIT student or prefrosh, but who doesn’t want to talk about MIT :)</p>
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Heh, I found solving 7.20’s data analysis/experimental interpretation questions to be my strength. And getting through the class’s hundred-page psets my weakness…</p>
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<p>Oh sorry, I thought mathboy was a prefrosh for some reason.</p>
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<p>I hate talking about <em>anything</em> related to exams after we’ve just taken them. At that point, I want to talk about something different, like whether such and such movie is any good or whether we’re going to some party. Anything but the exam. ;)</p>
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You should be fine. I think this comes back to the discussion of living groups on this forum. The living groups all have different characters, and there are definitely some hardcore party houses, particularly in the FSILG sector (fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups). Nonetheless, MIT does not have any significant population of partiers who are not at all concerned with grades. Frankly, they would not get in. I do not think you will have any trouble partying hard and working hard. If anything, it is definitely part of the MIT culture.</p>
<p>Ok looks like we have covered partying how about eating? I remember there was a fairly good post about dining options at MIT does anyone remember where it was or how we can access it? MIT’s eating plan or lack of one… is one of the top things holding my son back from making his final decision for MIT… he has no interest in cooking or searching for food and the idea of a la carte eating will get expensive with the amount that he can put away! How do current students manage? At CPW this weekend he was told the best way to get regular meals is to join a frat…is this the only way?</p>
<p>Ok, joining the frat just for the meal plan is an unbelievably bad reason. In fact, I’m sort of angry with whoever told him that, it’s a pretty irresponsible thing to tell a prefrosh.</p>
<p>I’ll be totally honest, the dining system isn’t the best, by any means. If your son isn’t at all interested in cooking, there are still dining halls on campus. Hopefully someone who eats in a dining hall often can comment, so I don’t use them. But I know lots of people do, and they certainly survive. The system is far from ideal, but it’s not a huge problem.</p>
<p>I don’t use dining halls or live anywhere near a dining hall, but I live near Kendall Square (food court) and a computer (campusfood.com). CampusFood is so incredibly easy, as long as you have a credit card and a computer there’s no way you’ll starve to death.</p>
<p>Maybe he’ll realize that he likes cooking…I mean, he’ll have to learn anyway when he graduates and it’s a good way to meet people. And home-cooked meals make the best dates! I personally like our lack of a meal plan - I feel like it’s a better introduction to the real world, because honestly, when I graduate I highly doubt I’ll have enough disposible income to avoid cooking ever.</p>
<p>Most of the dorms that don’t have dining halls, are the neighbors of dorms with dining halls.</p>
<p>But really, it is <em>not</em> hard, and I say this as someone who can’t cook worth squat. Can he make a sandwich? Can he walk over to the Student Center, in the middle of campus, and buy food from one of its many options? Can he walk to the food trucks that are all over the place? You don’t have to search for food; there are food options all around you. And really, for most people, it’s cheaper to NOT be on the dining plan.</p>
<p>As a parent of a sophomore at MIT who does not cook, I don’t believe the lack of central dining or AYCE plans should be a concern at all. A number of the existing dorms have dining halls and any new ones being built will have residential dining halls as well. That is also the trend at many colleges where central dining is mostly for freshmen. MIT does not have freshmen dorms so there is no need to segregate them for dining. </p>
<p>Generally, the food choices and dining options at MIT are more varied and healthier than central dining at most other colleges and the annual cost is a lot less. The first year our D was at Simmons which has both excellent residential dining and a late night cafe open until midnight where students can get soup and sandwiches. As others have said there are also dozens of eating places spread across campus. My D generally has lunch in the BCS building cafeteria or across the street in the Stata building. She is now in a sorority where they have a professional cook but regularly eats on campus with friends at one of the various residential dining halls. </p>
<p>It may seem disconcerting at first not to have an AYCE plan but frankly the pay as you go system provides students with more choices and better quality food. Lamp heated lasagna and mystery meat burgers are just not that appetizing after a while.</p>
<p>Dining came up at one of the graduate meetings I attended recently. I was surprised to learn that in Ashdown, more graduates than undergraduates use the dining hall since dining became non-mandatory for the Phoenix group. Graduate students have no such meal restrictions and have their own ovens and microwaves. I think that eating at campus dining has a sort of stigma now with backlash over the whole dining affair. Undergraduates have a knee-jerk reaction against any sort of paternalistic administrative action in regards to their well-being, especially when it’s the result of an especially small group of individuals that causes admin to take action against an entire population. MIT isn’t the only place I’ve seen it, and it’s a tough burden to prove on the part of the student.</p>
<p>I think two things have bothered people about the dining plans: 1. The “dining membership” doesn’t pay for itself. I think if the cost per the plan was lowered so that students made their money back in half the semester, more would join. 2. The contrast in price-per-meal of meals you can make yourself vs. the cost per dining meal is jarring and rather visible because the system is completely transparent.</p>
<p>What people fail to consider is that they are not comparing spaghetti and meatballs vs. spaghetti and meatballs. They should be comparing spaghetti and meatballs vs meat, potatoes, rice, salad, bread and juice.</p>
<p>Anyway, moms worry more than the kids do about this one, and the kids have the money. There are six grocery places (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods (2), Star Market, Harvest, MacGregor Convenience, LaVerde’s) within a reasonable walk of campus and there’s also an Indian, and Japanese grocer as well. It’s really easy to spend <$30 a week on groceries. When 5 dinners a week at dining equals $40, cooking looks much better much more quickly.</p>
<p>Also, anyone from MIT can eat at any of the dining halls. You S can just pay $8 and bon appetit!</p>
<p>I prefer MIT’s dining system to an AYCE dining system, mostly for the variety of food available and for the flexibility the system provides. </p>
<p>I was pretty busy as an undergrad, and didn’t always have time to eat meals on a preset schedule, and it was a gift to be able to grab dinner at the student center before cheerleading practice at 8 PM, rather than being chained by a dining hall schedule. I can’t imagine not eating just because you happened to be busy between 5pm and 8pm.</p>
<p>I also liked being able to eat different things every day, and to be able to choose meals according to what I wanted on a given day.</p>
<p>I didn’t start off being a good cook, but I learned how to cook while I was at MIT.</p>
<p>Son can actually cook (makes great Sushi) but the thought of having to cook to eat bugs him, maybe its silly. When we visited the food court style of eating at the student center looked like it could get expensive… the kid can eat and eat and eat. Your point about the schedule makes sense molliebatmit as he does want to do a sport. I guess it boils down to we are not sure exactly what the food plans are. Will look again on website but if anyone remembers where that old post explaining the different options at MIT is on CC would appreciate a link. Thanks!</p>
<p>Yeah I went to the residential colleges panel discussion, and the student who was president of the fraternities group mentioned that students often choose fraternities simply because they can be up to 30% cheaper than dorm+meal costs.</p>
<p>Another question:
Do the single rooms in east campus or macgregor have a sink? Or in any of the other dorms?</p>
<p>East Campus rooms all have sinks, I’m not sure about MacGregor rooms. I honestly can’t speak a whole lot about Dorm Row dining options because I made my decision about living in East Campus pretty early, but if you have questions about EC / Senior Haus / Random dining options, I can answer them.</p>
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In MacGregor, some rooms are in a two-room suite with a bathroom across the hall, behind a locked door from the rest of the entry. That’s not in-room, exactly, but it’s definitely within personal space. Other rooms are in a 6-room or 8-room suite, with a kitchen sink on one end of the L-shaped suite and the bathroom (with 3 sinks) on the other end.</p>
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I had a blog post on food [url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/food_dining_options/more_on_food.shtml]here[/url”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/food_dining_options/more_on_food.shtml]here[/url</a>], although obviously it’s a little out-of-date now.</p>
<p>I can try to break it down somewhat sensibly:
Breakfast options. Depending on what you like to eat for breakfast, you could get it somewhere like MacGregor Convenience (cereal, milk), LaVerde’s (cereal, milk, yogurt, bagels, muffins, breakfast sandwiches), Dunkin Donuts (donuts, bagels, muffins), or buy breakfast supplies at the grocery store and have them in your room.</p>
<p>Lunch options. The student center has a food court with a Subway, a Japanese place, a Middle Eastern place, and an Indian place. The student center also has lunch food at Anna’s Taqueria, the Cambridge Grill, and LaVerde’s. People often eat lunch at the several food trucks that park around campus (though the food trucks don’t take Tech Cash). My favorite place to eat lunch is Steam Cafe, which has lots of veggie-friendly, healthy entrees, and apparently Cafe 4 in the Infinite has much of the same cuisine now. The Stata Center has a cafeteria with a deli, pizza, and hot entrees. The Au Bon Pain and Quizno’s restaurants on the north edge of campus take Tech Cash, and I think maybe the Cosi does too.</p>
<p>Dinner. All of the aforementioned actual restaurants (Subway, Dunkin Donuts, LaVerde’s, Cambridge Grill, Quizno’s, Au Bon Pain, Cosi) are open for dinner. The dorm dining halls are open from 5-8, and anybody can go to any dining hall – you don’t have to live in that dorm. Domino’s Pizza takes TechCash. Many other ordering options exist (though they don’t take TechCash), and many people order online through sites like campusfood.com. FSILG members eat dinner at their houses, and many of them have house chefs, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how succinct that is. 
There are a lot of options at MIT.</p>
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<p>Ahhh, a plea to check out the FSILG (Fraternity, Sorority and Independent Living Group) system, from that most unbiased source, the president of the FSILG council. Yes, the FSILG room and board bill can be cheaper than the dorms. It can also be more expensive. The key to any house in the FSILG system is that the house is self governing, and can set it’s own housebill. Most houses in the system require a great deal more in chores from its residents than the dorms. When a dorm hallway needs vacuuming, a unionised cleaner performs that function. When a FSILG hallway needs vacuuming, then a house resident does it for no money, or depending on the particular house’s approach to hygiene, it may not get done at all (though this is quite rare in the system). From the cost savings that this creates, most houses end up with a small social budget to spend on parties and/or toys - pool table, arcade machine, etc. Some houses however, decide that they want a very large social budget and pay for it with a much higher house bill for residents. Some houses hire professional cooks, some houses require a rotating roster of residents cooking, I believe that there is one house that does not provide food. </p>
<p>Most houses charge a house bill broadly equivalent to that of the dorms, but of course, YMMV. Certainly, when proffering an invitation to join a house, all responsible houses ensure that the financial information is clearly presented. However, I have certainly seen with my own eyes that a student offered admission to a house that he particularly wanted to live in, hears but does completely process much beyond “you got in”.</p>
<p>Some time earlier in this thread, several commentators commented on the fact that it was impossible to generalise about the various housing options available on campus. I also believe that that is true of the FSILG system. The most expensive living option on campus is usually in the FSILG system. The cheapest living group on campus is always in the FSILG system ( [mit</a> student house](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/studs/www/home.html]mit”>http://web.mit.edu/studs/www/home.html) Actually, when I was on campus, Student House was the only living group that considered financial need during rush, I have no idea if that is still the case).</p>
<p>Just as there is no “best” university, there is no best living group. Do find the living group that is right for you. Do not take your view of the FSILG system from “Animal House”, “Fraternity Vacation”, or similar classics of cinematic art. I looked at both Dorms and FSILG houses, and I was glad I did (I ended up at a fraternity). My brother who went to MIT ended up in a dorm where he was very happy. I am confident that given the diversity of living options on and off campus, that every student can find an environment in which they will prosper.</p>
<p>do all the dorms have a study area? Are there coffee shops nearby the dorms?</p>
<p>I think all or almost all of the dorms have common rooms that can be used for studying, and of course there are campus-wide study rooms in the libraries and the student center.</p>
<p>Coffee can be reliably procured at MacGregor Convenience (west campus), the student center (middle of campus) and in the Kendall Square area (east campus). There are also a bunch of cafes scattered through the academic buildings, but those aren’t open very late.</p>