| I think this debate does relate to the OP's question. I personally dislike the fact that there are relatively few humanities majors at MIT. My daughter, an MIT student, feels the opposite way. She chose MIT because she wanted to immerse herself in a critical mass of people who are passionate/obsessed/fascinated with all things related to math, science, and engineering. When she attended Yale's campus preview week, she returned home saying, "There were no math classes on the schedule. Where was the physics? We went to debates and glee club performances." Personally, I would have chosen Yale in a heartbeat, but I am not my daughter.
The mathematician Paul Erdos used to say that when a student or colleague left the field of mathematics, the individual had "died". To some extent, a student who enters MIT committed to the idea of becoming an engineer, physicist, or mathematician and who then finds that he or she does not quite have the skills to attain that goal will probably find it psychologically difficult at MIT. It's easier to leave U.C. Berkeley's School of Engineering and major in business in the context of a campus of more than 30,000 students. It's easier to switch from a math major to literature at Harvard or Yale. In those schools, one can join a fairly large group of colleagues highly committed to the liberal arts. At MIT on the other hand, a student may trudge on through the math or engineering major simply to avoid the stigma of having "died." I do know of at least one MIT alum who did this, although this was several decades ago.
As for the "hardcore" issue, I'd say that my daughter wants to take a million classes, not because of any desire to be "hardcore" but because she's interested in several subject areas. Up until a month ago, she was going to double major in EECS and physics, but that has changed. She decided that physics was far more interesting, interesting enough that she'd like to go deeper into that field and sample related coursework along the way. Apparently no students have decried this decision as not "hardcore enough." That culture does not exist in her living group.
Switching to physics from a double major with EECS could be seen by some as a move that lowers her future earnings power. But our family, like others that have already posted here, believe that she should follow her own interests and dreams. |