<p>My dau (junior in high school) is very strong in math & science, & wanting to major in physics or another science that is yet undetermined. She will probably still be sorting out her major while she takes classes at college.</p>
<p>MIT’s academic & intellectual reputation sounds great. No questions about the academic challenge. </p>
<p>Question is more about the emotional & social life for students at MIT. </p>
<p>Do most students forge close friendships w others in their classes or dorms? Does MIT do intentional “bonding” activities such as for the freshmen at the beginning of the year & in their dorms?</p>
<p>Incoming MIT freshmen are given the opportunity to choose their dorms after visiting as many as they’d like, so dorm communities (and sub-communities like floors or entryways) tend to be very close-knit. The people who live there chose to live there, after all, and weren’t just randomly thrown together. MIT also has a very active set of fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups with which students may choose to affiliate, and those groups also tend to be very close. </p>
<p>Students don’t declare a major until sophomore year, and freshmen generally take the same set of courses, the general institute requirements. So strong bonds between students in a particular major don’t form until later – freshmen do, of course, form study groups and do their problem sets and studying together, often with other freshmen from their dorms or from their extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>As a case in point, maybe, my husband and I are attending a friend’s wedding this weekend, and my husband is the best man. I met the groom freshman year because he chose to move into my entryway in my dorm, and we became good friends. My husband met the groom in classes, and they eventually were in the same major and did research projects together. (The bride was neither in our dorm nor in their major, so I don’t know if that refutes my central thesis. :))</p>
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Yes, the orientation program run by the administration is very in-depth – I thought I read somewhere recently that it was one of the longest orientation programs in the country? But the bottom-up bonding done by students in their living groups and extracurriculars is much more effective at integrating freshmen into the campus community than the administration’s top-down efforts, IMO.</p>
<p>Mollie answered this in much better detail than I can, but as a current freshman (been here just over a month!), I figured I’d add my thoughts. </p>
<p>I did a pre-orientation program, which (I don’t have the numbers for, but I’d estimate that) a fair number of freshmen do. My FPOP was only 11 people, so I got to know them fairly well, and 2 of them in particular I still spend lots of time with. Orientation itself can be overwhelming; you’ll meet so many people, but you probably won’t get to know a small subset of them well until after orientation is over. </p>
<p>I definitely agree that living groups/extra-curriculars do a much better job integrating freshman into the community. For example, my entry likes going out to dinner, so we’re going to Fire and Ice this Saturday for dinner, and we’ve gotten sushi a few times too. </p>
<p>As for making friends in your major, well, I won’t really know for another year or so. But it’s really easy to make friends/pset buddies in your classes, since most freshman are taking essentially the same schedule.</p>
<p>Molly & Emily—Love Mollly’s response, “Oh, lord, yes”. Both of your responses are quite helpful. Hard knowing if my dau is a fit with MIT, but we’ll come visit & see what she thinks. Thanks!</p>