<p>Like everything, it has its ups and downs. I saw a post like this in the Stanford and Harvard forum and thought MIT needs one as well. From everything I've heard MIT is a perfect place for me but what's not so good about it? Tell me what you think isn't so great about MIT.</p>
<p>*My intended majors are aerospace/aeronautical engineering and physics.</p>
<p>Well, with the lack of responses I guess MIT indeed is the perfect place.</p>
<p>Stress, depression. It’s hard to separate the effects of MIT from the effects of being high-achieving type As in our early 20s in the early twenty-first century. It’s also hard to separate the good from the bad.</p>
<p>It’s a very complicated subject and it’s taxing to talk about, which is probably why you aren’t getting responses. You can Google. Or Bing. This question has been asked before; I and others have answered it, in depth, here, on the admissions blogs, and in other places online. If you want to see a slice of my answer, or at least what my answer was a year ago, it is here: [Meltdown</a> | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/meltdown]Meltdown”>Meltdown | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>There is already a fairly recent thread on the topic… look through a couple of pages in this forum and you’ll find it.</p>
<p>There is an abundance of information about the negatives of MIT. Here are a few of the most common ones:</p>
<p>1.Students can seem negative. The favorite phrase of many MIT students seems to be IHTFP.</p>
<p>2.The workload and stress are significant. Many students enjoy playing a game called “I’m Hosed.” First one student complains about all of the things that they have to do (you are supposed to use the phrase “I’m Hosed” before your list of assignments and tasks). Then every other student present will attempt to stake a claim to being even more “Hosed” than the prior students, by trying to make their work load sound even more impressive. The most important rule of “I’m Hosed” is that you cannot admit that you are playing “I’m Hosed.” This seems to help students in the short run, by making them feel like they are not alone, but in the long run, it leads to a lot of negativism, and more students whose favorite phrase is IHTFP.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The parking situation is bad. It can be impossible to find an open place to park.</p></li>
<li><p>It is expensive.</p></li>
<li><p>I have heard a number of complaints about the Student Center being substandard (a student used the phrase “A pit”) compared to other schools. I don’t understand why they can use a little endowment money to make it nice for the students, but apparently the have chosen not to.</p></li>
<li><p>The boys sometimes characterize the girls as “smart, friendly and attractive”, but they wish there were more “Hot girls” on campus. All boys wish for that, at every school though.</p></li>
<li><p>Some students find it a bit disconcerting to have a bus loaded with Asian tourists pull up to the school and unload with people holding cameras who want to take your picture because you are “an actual MIT student.” lol</p></li>
<li><p>If you arrive at MIT believing that you are the smartest person you know, your belief is about to be crushed. This can be a real adjustment for students who have their identity and sense of self-worth wrapped up in that idea.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
Yes.</p>
<p>
Let’s just go ahead and flip boys and girls there to make it less horrifyingly sexist. But anyway, there are plenty, plenty of hot people of all genders at MIT. You can probably find what you are looking for, whatever that is.</p>
<p>Lidusha,</p>
<p>I didn’t intend it to be “horrifyingly sexist.” Just my experience that guys seem more likely to make the comment. Girls may be wishing that the admissions office only accepted guys that are Brad Pitt look-a-likes, but they seem less likely to comment on it. </p>
<p>Perhaps the higher number if boys on campus and their maturity level contributes to this somewhat. I don’t view, this in any way as an actual negative fact about the girls at MIT.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree, the student center definitely needs a revamp (especially the “food court”). Parking is also a pain, but that statement is true for most of Boston and Cambridge anyway.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I find that the boys who make these comments are precisely the boys who couldn’t date a hot girl if the world was about matching hot people with hot people :P</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nope, people are probably too busy to answer.</p>
<p>Look. MIT isn’t perfect. If I had the ability to do a redo, there’s a fair chance I would have changed my mind. But I do have a lot of personal problems, and lots of what I don’t like about MIT is highly influenced by my personal issues. MIT is stressful. Tiring. Difficult. Whatever. No one else can really predict what you’ll like and dislike about MIT.</p>
<p>Like, I’d be sad if the Student Center went under (more) renovations - not because I like the current Student Center (I don’t really care) but because, frankly, there are other buildings that could do with some tender loving care first.</p>
<p>And a lot of what you get will depend on where you are, within MIT. There’s lots of different little communities, you’ll probably get along better with some and not others. But each has their upsides and downsides, and the upsides and downsides depend on what you like as well.</p>
<p>So tldr: your milage may vary.</p>
<p>@Much2learn:
When I first read your post earlier today (#5), I was very surprised how negative your bullets were, and how many were unlike the MIT I remember or see today.</p>
<p>Can you clarify where the content for your comments came from?</p>
<p>^ I agree with every word Much2learn said, for what it’s worth. Especially #2. Oh god, #2.</p>
<p>I also recommend reading Lydia’s Meltdown post that she linked. That thing went viral amongst MIT students when it first came out because of how incredibly accurate it was. We all feel the same way, and she verbalized that experience so well.</p>
<p>Hi jpm50,</p>
<p>Sure. I am happy to. Please keep in mind, that it is not my intent to trash MIT in any way. My answer sounds negative because the question was asked in the negative. You did not say which items surprised you, so I will assume that it is Item #1 and Item #2 on the list.</p>
<p>Item #1: If you know MIT well and are not familiar with the ubiquitousness of the phrase IHTFP, then I would guess that you have not spent much time talking with or reading the comments of current students or recent grads. The phrase IHTFP comes up often and seems to symbolize the typical students love, hate relationship with the place. I have not seen it come up as frequently with any other school. To me this is surprising since MIT’s retention rate is so high, and most of these students could leave and attend any college they choose but instead, choose to come back. To me it implies that students are under pressure and get frustrated, but also appreciate the value of the experience. </p>
<p>Regarding sources for this information, just search this forum for the phrase, check college *******.com for the phrase, and read Lydia K’s (posts #3 and #6 above) Meltdown piece ([Meltdown</a> | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/meltdown]Meltdown”>Meltdown | MIT Admissions)) and you will see IHTFP used consistently by MIT students.</p>
<ol>
<li>Regarding the I’m Hosed game, my initial source was last year’s editorial about it in The Tech. Personally, I applaud the administration for attempting to encourage an open discussion about this issue as well. Here is the URL for The Tech editorial. [EDITORIAL:</a> Under Pressure - The Tech](<a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/editorial.html]EDITORIAL:”>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/editorial.html)</li>
</ol>
<p>Again, I hope this is information is helpful to you.</p>
<p>Graduated from MIT many moons ago so I have perspective of having forgotten most of the things that contributed to any IHTFP that I had. I never had much of a IHTFP attitude but a good friend of mine had it bad. Funny thing is that he is an EC for MIT now, so I guess he’s forgotten most of it too.</p>
<p>
Actually, the number of boys at MIT is about equal to the number of girls.</p>
<p>MIT does not have a lock on being a difficult school. Take any large group of bright teenagers who shined in high school, then put them together with their peers, and give them a challenging workload. Sure they will commiserate with the IHTFP chant. But ask them that same question on graduation day - you’ll get a different answer.</p>
<p>Like HPuck35, time has faded some of my MIT memories, but the IHTFP chant was definitely not pervasive.</p>
<p>The title of this thread is “What’s not so good about MIT?” Yet every “negative” argument I see in this thread is something I view as “What’s great about MIT.” When I interview job candidates, including MIT grads, I want the ones who have experienced all the bullets listed in Much2Learn’s thread. </p>
<p>If MIT doesn’t push its students to the limits, causing intense stress and consternation, so that they come out stronger on the other end, wouldn’t it be losing something special?</p>
<p>Jpm50,</p>
<p>You make an excellent point. It has to be challenging and students need to be pushed. However, there may be a point beyond which this does more damage than good. I think that the administration is trying to get a handle on that.</p>
<p>Other top schools put students under pressure too, but it does not seem to pervade the culture to the point that alumni recruiters are telling candidates in interviews how much they hated their time there. </p>
<p>I think that perhaps the administration can address some of the most serious workload issues and perhaps equally importantly, make more of an effort to create a feeling of unity and that MIT is the special place that it is among the student body, so they have a better understanding of the benefits and how much they are gaining instead of just feeling like IHTFP.</p>
<p>I get the idea that it’s an extremely few number of alumni recruits that are telling students that they hate their time at MIT. I wanted to come to MIT because it was the one school that I encountered where the students on a whole seemed to love! Also the fact that as a freshman it is impossible to fail, really helps a lot.</p>
<p>That being said, I am not sure that I agree at all that causing intense stress and consternation is a good thing. Thankfully, that is not what I’m finding. Yes, it’s hard and stressful at times, but I find resources and help in MIT at every turn. I don’t think they are pushing us to the limits because it will make us come out stronger, I think the type of student that comes to MIT pushes themselves to the limit.</p>
<p>If these things were easy to fix MIT would have fixed them already. The difficulty is that the bad is interleaved with the good, and they might be inseparable or even identical. What is personal growth, character building, learning to rely on others, becoming humble, gain of togetherness? What is stress, depression, loss of self-esteem, loss and eventual gain of self, understanding and facing yourself as you are, flaws, mortality, and all, and finding new, more important things to live and work for?</p>
<p>IHTFP has two sides, and one of them is as positive as the other is negative. I came here to be melted down and shaped into something better–it hurts, and it’s bad sometimes, but it’s not all bad, and it wasn’t a surprise. I am a different person because of MIT, and I am glad for it.</p>
<p>Are there actually students who find tourists to be a major problem with MIT? I realize people like to complain about them and they can be slightly annoying when they clog up the Infinite Corridor but it’s an extremely minor thing.</p>