<p>Any information or opinions on Course 12 would be much appreciated. Is it considered an easier/ harder major? Do the students who major in it like (love?!) it? Are the requirements particularly hard to fulfill? Why are there are a disproportional number of girls majoring in it? Anything else… Thanks!</p>
<p>*disproportionate</p>
<p>Two of my friends were course 12, and both absolutely loved it. Both are now graduate students at MIT, one in marine biology and one in geochemistry.</p>
<p>I don’t feel that I can help on the other questions – I never felt that course 12 stuck out in my mind as particularly difficult or particularly easy, and it’s difficult to say why some majors have more members of one gender than of another. The School of Science as a whole is more strongly female than any other school at MIT, if I recall correctly – the last time I did an analysis, a year or two ago, the School of Science contained 29.4% of students, but 34.1% of female students.</p>
<p>Okay, well i’ll be honest, Course 12 is considered one of the slacker majors at MIT. Because it is quite flexible and can be made astonishingly easy. As a whole its courses are not very demanding. I hear think that is a pretty big contributor to “that lovin’ feeling” for Course 12. So that’s the low down on EAPS. On the other hand, I think earth science/astronomy is great, I’ve taken some Course 12 classes to supplement my own major. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve really had to do with the department, they’re a friendly, tight-knit group. If you’re serious about the field, in my opinion there’s no better place to do it than MIT, and there’s no better major for you. If you’re seeking rigor you’d have to look for it harder in Course 12, but a challenge can be found anywhere.</p>
<p>You can find rigor in any major at MIT. In some, it’s mandatory. In some, you have to be serious about the field to get it. But you can find it anywhere. And flexibility doesn’t mean “slacker” - in that case, I guess course 18 is the ultimate slacker major, no?</p>
<p>(Sorry, I am defensive - I was in a different highly flexible major, and the stereotypes of flexible majors annoyed me to no end, especially since it wasn’t even consistently applied across flexible majors.)</p>
<p>Course 12 has a rep of being very friendly and close-knit, like pebbles said. A lot of people switch to it from course 8 (physics), if their interests intersect, because it’s considered by almost everyone I know to be a far more humane and down-to-earth department.</p>
<p>I have a friend who’s a grad student in course 12 right now (in planetary science) and another who is an alum of course 12 (in planetary science) and was a department liaison to OCW for a while. I could ask them for their views, if you like. </p>
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<p>Who knows? Maybe the attitude of the department is very woman-friendly. I mean, one could ask this question about a lot of departments at MIT, in fields that don’t already have gender stereotypes about them. Why is materials engineering so disproportionately female? Why is environmental engineering so disproportionately female? Why is political science so disproportionately male? Why are women so much better-represented in the EE track of EECS than the CS track (41% vs. 21%)?</p>