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I guess I'm wondering if effort always correlates with how well you do on exams and such, or if the rumors are true that the material is so hard, it's impossible to grasp it all.
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I think the answer to both of these is no. Efford doesn't always correlate with how well you do on exams, but problem-solving ability and the ability to understand how to use the tools you have to answer what the exam is asking generally do. MIT tests aren't usually fact-based (what is 7x5?), they're usually problem-based (if you found a bacterium with these properties, how would you go about finding whether it did x?). This is not impossible to grasp, but it does require honing your problem-solving abilities rather than just putting in as much time as it takes to memorize every word in the textbook.
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I was wondering if anyone knew more about it, especially if MIT is the right school to choose (advising, placement, etc) when considering this track? And if Brian and Cognitive Sciences would be a good major instead of bio?
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I think that MIT is a better choice for an MD/PhD prospective than a straight MD prospective -- MIT students have a fabulous record of getting into PhD programs, and professors generally know more about PhD admissions than MD admissions and are better equipped to help. When I was applying to biology PhD programs, my professors were an absolutely invaluable source of help and support to me.
If you're interested in neurobiology specifically, course 9 is a great choice. You're always free to take extra courses in the biology department to shore up your knowledge, of course.
I'd be happy to put you in contact with MIT alums who have gone the MD/PhD route -- one of my friends is doing her work in cancer biology, and one of my other friends (who majored in course 9) is actually doing his PhD work in neurobiology (in my lab
). Melis, the blogger, is also going to join my PhD program as an MD/PhD student once she finishes her Rhodes scholarship.
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I feel like I'd have more of a "regular" college lifestyle, eating at dining halls, etc.
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Regular is so overrated.
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Princeton people told me that I'd get more attention as a premed from professors because the school is so dedicated to undergraduate education and research, and that the opportunities at Princeton are equal to, if not better, than those at MIT.
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I have always found this veneration of Princeton for having few graduate students rather bizarre. I think that MIT's great graduate programs are a huge asset, because great graduate programs and great programs of faculty research go hand-in-hand. As a graduate student myself, I can tell you that nobody, anywhere, cares about graduate students, at all -- undergraduates are cared for and valued by faculty even at schools with graduate students.
MIT is dedicated to undergraduate education and research. Actually, at MIT, I always felt that undergrads were treated like graduate students and given a great deal of trust and responsibility and deep intellectual work. So perhaps MIT does just value graduate education -- but MIT treats its undergraduates exactly the way it treats its graduate students.
By way of a single data point, my PhD program at Harvard has 10 MIT alums in my cohort and one Princeton alum. MIT's PhD placement in the life sciences is absolutely untouchable, because undergrads have the opportunity to do meaningful work with high-profile professors.