<p>As stated in the title line, would an artsy, literature-loving student who is very strong with math and science survive (or fit well--for a more optimistic outlook) at MIT? </p>
<p>Basically, is there an arts scene at MIT or would that person be out of place?</p>
<p>My D is a sophomore at MIT majoring in Brain and Cognitive Science with a minor in literature. She is also gifted artist and has won awards for her work. She has taken advanced poetry, art history, philosophy and creative writing classes with amazing professors while at MIT. Right now she is taking a medical ethics class taught by a Pulizter prize winner and they are only 3 (!) students in the class. It is like an Oxford tutorial meeting twice a week. It is great change of pace from the intensive science classes and even though the typical MIT student may not be as enthusiatic as she is about the arts and humanities, she has found plenty who share her interests. The school of architecture has amazing visual arts classes and you can also cross register at School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The MIT Public Art collection is one of the finest in the country. Next year, my D will spend a semester abroad in Paris studying neurobiology and art history. Senior year, she plans to take a couple of lit. classes at Harvard where she can freely cross-register. She definitely does not feel out of place!</p>
<p>That person would have to be comfortable with not everyone being an artsy type, but yes, there's an active arts scene at MIT. You can check out more at the [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/arts/%5Darts@MIT%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/arts/]arts@MIT[/url</a>] page. </p>
<p>There are many people at MIT who are interested in art of all types. I think, though, most people would describe themselves as science types who are interested in music or theatre or photography or what have you, rather than the other way around.</p>
<p>There are tons of artsy people at MIT. It just happens that they're all very strong in math/science (and like Mollie said, most of them consider themselves as scientists/engineers first and artists second, or at least with the two being co-dominant, rather than being artists first). </p>
<p>There is definitely an arts scene. You find it much more strongly in some living groups than others. I associate Senior Haus pretty strongly with an arts scene, though it is not the only place that has a lot of artsy people and not everyone in it is artsy by any means.</p>
<p>There are tons of campus theater groups - Musical Theater Guild, the Shakespeare Ensemble, Dramashop, the Gilbert & Sullivan Players, etc. The Student Art Association offers classes in various 2D and 3D art forms. There are dance groups, a capella groups, instrumental music groups, choirs, an arts-oriented pre-orientation program option, an arts-oriented freshman advising seminar, and more.</p>
<p>If this hypothetical lit-loving student loves fantasy and sci-fi, the MIT Science Fiction Society has "the world's largest open-shelf collection of science fiction". There's an annual student mural competition and an annual student origami competition, among others.</p>
<p>yah, I was admitted to MIT EA, yet I also have some talent in the arts. I plan to pursue my art interests as well math and science interest.</p>
<p>A lot of the artsy people I knew, myself included, felt kind of weird there. I've heard the same from people at Caltech, actually. I took all the classes cellardwellar mentioned and thought they were good classes with good profs. However, I just think the environment/atmosphere was kind of weird. I'm not sure if it was the campus or the people or what. (I know Molly thinks that the way the campus looks is a stupid consideration, but I think it can make a major difference.) I think if you like the way the campus looks (i.e., very urban), then you will feel ok there. I kind of felt like I was studying literature on the floor of a factory sometimes.</p>
<p>Trust your gut when you walk on campus. And don't think that taking Harvard classes is going to make up for it. As I said, it's not really the classes that were the problem. There may not be a perfect school for you, so you'll have to weigh the pros and cons.</p>
<p>Also, and this is sort of a subtle point, it seemed like the concept of "tooling" was antagonistic to the liberal arts philosophy. So whereas at another school studying physics may have felt more like studying philosophy, at MIT its a bit different. As they say, it's a firehose.</p>
<p>These are just my own personal feelings; I'm sure there are artsy people that disagree. Just make the decision with your eyes open and don't take a poll to see whether most people like yourself enjoy the MIT environment. Ask yourself whether you would find it rewarding.</p>
<p>My son plays multiple instruments, composes, and performs; he's won local, state, and national music-related awards. Last semester he was in an a cappella group and MITSO (symphony orchestra); he's still in the orchestra and is now receiving (free) private piano lessons. He's been recruited for another band as well. Being in the city of Boston allows him to see his favorite composer perform/conduct twice each year. Despite all this, he's taking 75 units/credits and has free time. He loves the campus, the environment, and the music opportunities available to him.</p>
<p>There's a HUGE art scene at MIT. Like most other things at MIT, it's kind of scattered and a lot of the different organizations don't talk to each other, so it's hard to get a wholistic sense of what's offered here. The SAA is a fantastic resource for pottery, photography, and visual art. I just began taking classes in it this year (senior year), and feel sorry I didn't discover it sooner. Instead, I wasted a lot of time w/ the course 4 (architecture) offerings in visual arts. And if you at all trust my judgment on this kind of thing, you'd stay away from it.</p>
<p>Oh, here's a good page to look at
arts@MIT</a> - Things to Do - Groups & Clubs</p>
<p>Also, RE: collegealum's post.</p>
<p>I consider myself pretty sensitive to environment but come on, it's not like humanities are being taught out of the boiler rooms here. I've had poetry/writing classes in beautiful seminar rooms with portraits on the walls and wood panelling and floor-to-ceiling windows where we sat around a long polished wooden table and looked out over the charles river, and I've sat on windowsills during lectures in other classes and leaned out into killian court, but i've survived philosophy classes in quirky classrooms in the stata center, and listened to professors talk about shakespeare w/ math equations still on the board behind them from the class before and honestly it hasn't made a wink of difference. It's purely a ivy tower movie fantasy to require that all artistic creativity occurs in the grass at the base of a big tree. But yeah yeah to some people it's a big deal, if you're one of those people with this issue maybe you should go to Yale or something and get over it there. :P</p>
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listened to professors talk about shakespeare w/ math equations still on the board behind them from the class before and honestly it hasn't made a wink of difference. It's purely a ivy tower movie fantasy to require that all artistic creativity occurs in the grass at the base of a big tree.
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<p>As a math student who likes literature...I will remark that I would appreciate being set at the base of such a big tree :) :)</p>
<p>While I'd not complain <em>too much</em> if the professor were discussing Crime and Punishment with particle physics left on the board, I tend to appreciate environment changes. I think if an English class were taught in a building like my school's math building, I'd feel sick.</p>
<p>@pebbles</p>
<p>Since I'm interested in course 4, I'm curious. What about course 4's offerings did you find displeasing/not up to par/etc? It's a bit difficult finding information on course 4 when it seems to be a minority among majors at MIT.</p>
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I kind of felt like I was studying literature on the floor of a factory sometimes.
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<p>that's cool. i like contemporary art, which is kind of connected with technology. i love mit's media lab therefore too. </p>
<p>but, if somebody finds art as a romantic poetry on a meadow, then maybe it's not the best place for "art" there.</p>