I am a recent MIT B.S. graduate, AMA.

newmitgrad
Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:25:53 +0000

Is it hard to maintain a UROP and get good grades in your classes at the same time?



It’s not too bad if you plan ahead and know that you will be busy. I did not do this my freshman year, and really didn’t get anything accomplished with my UROP… I know of people who still UROP during very intense semesters, you should be the judge of how rigorous your classwork is since it will vary between terms. Your supervisors are in general very understanding of your academic needs; you’re there to study, not do research as a priority. That said, horror stories exist of grad students/post-docs riding their UROPs. In those cases, quit, it’s not worth it.



Firstly, Thanks for being so thoughtul to help out. I was wondering is there a limit on how many units u can take per semester? Like at my current university there’s a limit of 21 units per quarter (we have the quarter system) so I was wondering does MIT have a limit too?



No problem at all. There is no limit at all as another poster said except for freshmen, but if you get sophomore standing, you can bypass this. In general, your advisor will try to discourage you from taking too many, but they can’t techncially stop you if you feel up for the challenge. In fact, a well-known secret is you can sign up for any class, regardless of pre-recs. I have definitely done so and done fine in them. Obviously, don’t sign up for a high-level senior class without taking differential equations, for instance, but again, no hard system that actually restricts you.

The most I took in a term I think was 81 units and I had a 63 unit term as well because I was a being a crazy ■■■■. Ironically, those were my highest GPAs… figures… But in general, you take 48 or 60 (4 or 5 classes), and the minimum for full-time enrollment is 36.

Another lesser known treat about MIT is you can sign up for graduate classes as an undergrad. I took several 6-unit seminars, grad biology courses, and MBA classes at Sloan. Easy A’s btw, those Sloan classes. Very interesting too, it’s a good break from hard science if you’re planning to do a STEM major.