Course 6 major in 3 years?

Tapper7
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 04:35:14 +0000

Definitely yes. I did the same thing because I was in the same boat. I thought I was going to be a chemist. shakes head at freshman self Anyway, I haven’t checked whether it’s officially possible, but I’d guess it is. It’s definitely unofficially possible. The most important thing to note is that 6.01 isn’t really a prerequisite for anything (at least not any of the 6-3 requirements). What you really need to know is basic programming (usually in Python). I had absolutely no programming experience before sophomore year. I took 6.00 and 6.042 sophomore fall and 6.01, 6.02, and 6.006 sophomore spring. I was completely fine. In my opinion, 6.00 also prepared me just as well as 6.01 for 6.004, 6.005, and 6.034 which I took junior fall. Taking 6.00 sophomore fall doesn’t need to put you any farther behind than someone who takes 6.01 sophomore fall.

If you’re seriously considering course 6 and want to take more than one course 6 class, I would definitely advise taking 6.042 (if you’re 6-3 that is). The only other required course you can take now that doesn’t require 6.00/6.01 is 6.004, but I think programming experience was helpful there. 6.042 doesn’t require any programming and Professor Leighton is teaching it this fall (he only teaches once every two years). He’s absolutely incredible. He’s easily one of the best professors I’ve had at MIT and that’s saying a lot considering the generally high quality professors in the EECS department.

If you haven’t programmed before, I would definitely try to space out the requirements as much as possible. Certain classes will be made a bit more unpleasant because you won’t have the exposure some of the other students will have had (looking at you 6.005). Assignments may take longer because you have to look things up that are second nature to some of your classmates. You’ll also want the freedom to take whatever upper division electives appeal to you and some of them are extremely time consuming. I just finished 6.170 which I never would have been able to fit in my schedule if I hadn’t just ignored official prerequisites. I’d just have too many classes left to fit in a time consuming (at least for me) class like that one. Many of the electives also have foundation and header subjects as prerequisites. You’ll want to at least get the foundation subjects out of the way as soon as possible, both to figure out what you’re interested in and to have an adequate foundation to explore your area of interest.

If you have other questions, feel free to hit me up, particularly if you’re thinking about 6-3. Good luck!