LauraN

So, I'm not at all planning on going to grad school, and my GPA is less than impressive, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this, because I don't have the *actual* information. But anecdotally, I know lots of people here who get into awesome grad schools. Maybe they're all just geniuses, or maybe part of it has to do with the fact that they were planning to go to grad school, so they worked hard to get their GPA up.

Again, I don't have the real facts on this, but I do know that getting into a good grad school after MIT is certainly possible, and I know lots and lots of people who have done it. It's not *easy* and you're going to have to work hard to keep your GPA up, but it's certainly not like Harvard and Berkley are like "Man, those MIT grads have these awful GPAs, they must all be really dumb, we never take any of them!" *grin*

arwen15

My concern now is more towards how my UG choice will impact my
Grad school possibilities....

1) I know Course 20 is brand new...but is there any indication that course
20 UGs will not be allowed in to the Graduate program at MIT (for
example like the Science Courses like 7/5?)

2) Is there a place to view GPA distribution by graduating major or get a
rough idea of statistical trend? If not can someone post the potential
(guestimate) for something like 20 V 10B V 2 with BME minor please?

Thanks

jessiehl

No. If anything, the course 20 people are probably better-prepared for course 20's grad programs.

Meh? Grad schools, at least in sci/eng, are much more forgiving about grades than med or law schools are. They care less that you have really good grades, and more than you have adequate grades and really good letters of recommendation and research experience (and MIT should help with those). Even with sub-adequate grades, you can manage to get into a top grad program coming from MIT, it might just take longer. I know people in that situation who spent a year or two working as lab techs and such (and many schools will let you take cheap or free classes if you work for them, so some of them were building their GPAs too), getting research experience, an excellent rec from the supervising professor, and even publications, from it, who ended up in top grad programs. And people who got a master's first, somewhere else, and then got into top programs on the combined strength of their MIT experience and the recent good grades in their master's.

over30

Because my youngest went to MIT planning to major in Course 20 he asked the questions about grad school and was assured (by 2 different faculty in the department) that he not only could do his PhD there in Course 20, but would be an ideal candidate.

molliebatmit

If you are planning to apply to graduate school (master's/PhD programs), your MIT GPA is very close to being irrelevant, as long as it's close to a 4.0/5.0. What matters much more are your letters of recommendation and your research experience, both of which will probably be outstanding if you take advantage of the opportunities presented to you at MIT.

I got into all of the top PhD programs in biology with a 4.4/5.0 (which, I believe, is significantly below average for a biology major at MIT), and my class of PhD students has 10 MIT alums out of 70 total students. (More had gotten in and chosen to go elsewhere.)

Generally speaking, going somewhere like MIT will open more graduate school doors than going somewhere with fewer opportunities. (If you go to State U, for example, don't expect to get into the top grad programs in the country with anything less than about a 3.8/4.0.) I am pretty confident that I would not be in my current PhD program if I had gone to my state university. The opportunities and the challenges at MIT were absolutely fundamental to my success.

For the record, course 7 does accept its own undergraduates into the PhD program -- they started doing this in 2006.

Also, re: course 20 graduate admissions, the admissions blogger Bryan (who was obviously an MIT undergrad) is now a graduate student in the department.

collegealum314

^^I'm sure if you had a 1st author paper at a state school as an undergrad, you would have gotten into most if not all top 5 grad schools.

cheerchen

Molly, I know from other threads that you are in the PhD program at Harvard. Can you try to maybe compare the MIT undergrad experience with the Harvard undergrad experience in terms of likelihood to be accepted by grad programs? Do you think one school prepares a student better for grad school better than the other? Obviously, both are big-name schools, but does one stand out more than the other when a grad school admission officer is flipping through your files?

collegealum314

^^I'll let Mollie answer the main question, but it's important to understand that "grad school admission officers" don't really exist like they do for undergrad. Professors sit on the committee that read applicant files and decide who they want.

molliebatmit

Grad school admissions are done by field, so I'll speak for biology, but you can generalize this to anything that both Harvard and MIT are really good at.

In biology, neither school would be advantageous over the other simply for the name on the degree -- that is to say, basically 100% of each school's applicants will probably be admitted to one or all of the top programs.

The only difference in biology between the schools that I can see is that the majority of Harvard's biomedical research labs are not on campus (they're at Mass General Hospital or the Longwood medical area), while virtually all of MIT's are. This makes a difference in terms of the depth of research you can engage in as an undergrad -- the Harvard undergrads in my lab are in a lot less during the term than I was as an undergrad, simply because they have to commute from campus to my lab. When all the great labs are on campus, as they are at MIT, it's much easier to invest a lot of time on your research, and you're more likely to get more experience/publications/what have you.

For sure, but that's the trick, right?

For the real superstars, I think the choice between MIT and a less rigorous program is not so important -- the superstars will shine wherever they go. For the average admit, though, MIT is a better choice, because they're not likely to be the 4.0/first-author paper students anyway.

molliebatmit

...any other questions we can answer with May 1 just over a week away?

pebbles

Yeah, I hear MIT girls are ugly. Please testify as to the truth of this rumor.

molliebatmit

I might "accidentally" drop you at cheerleading practice tonight. Then you might be ugly.

curious8582008

Is it possible to double major in course 2 (mechE) and course 4 (architecture)? And maybe minor (or triple major?) in course 15 (management science)?...And be alive and sane at the end of my four years?

LauraN

So, they are changing the requirements for a double major, so I'm not sure exactly when the new requirements will be in effect, but under the current requirements, it's not even POSSIBLE to triple major. As in, flat out not allowed. Double majors happen, but they're crazy. Like Mollie. Mollie is a time management ninja. If you are not a time management ninja, double majoring is not for you.

That said, Course 2 has a "flexible" option- so you could major in 2 and get to take a bunch of classes in 4. You won't get the double major, technically, but as long as you're only in it to follow your interests and learn things (which is hopefully your main goal), that shouldn't matter to you.

molliebatmit

*time management ninja pose*

My advice for prospective double majors is to come in and take the classes you need to take freshman year assuming you'll do the double. Then sit down at the beginning of sophomore year, map out the classes you'd need to double, take the appropriate slate during first semester of sophomore year, and see if it makes you crazy. If it makes you crazy, screw the double major idea and just take classes in the second department without majoring in it. If it doesn't make you (too) crazy, do it up. But always have an exit strategy for graduating with one degree.

The most you're allowed to do at MIT is double major and double minor. I had a friend who did this -- double major in chemical engineering and biology and double minor in biomedical engineering and comparative media studies. Not for the faint of heart, but she got through it and UROPed and TAed and hung out with the rest of our group of friends.

EDIT: Also note, despite my threat in #42, I did not in fact drop pebbles at cheerleading practice tonight.