For a student who has difficulty writing...

molliebatmit
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:39:04 +0000

I had a friend at MIT who was mildly dyslexic, and a boyfriend (now husband) who is a good writer, but abhors writing. Both were able to get through MIT successfully, albeit with very selective humanities course choices – my husband sat down with the course catalogue every semester and tried to pick the humanities course with the least required writing, and he was pretty successful in his picks. :)

As you are probably aware, MIT students are required to take 8 courses in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, and at least two of those courses must be “communication intensive” or CI. CI courses tend to require more written work than non-CI courses, but it’s not generally ridiculous.

MIT does have a writing center, as ColdWind suggests, and friends of mine used it frequently.

I also felt strongly that the required technical writing at MIT (research papers, lab reports, short answers, etc.) really helped me when it came to churning out non-technical writing, which I am not as happy to do. My writing skills improved greatly as a result of my MIT education, and I think this is also true of my fellow alums.