<p>So I have room for ONE more school on my list…it’s between MIT and Brown. I saw both, and when I was there I wasn’t crazy about either but probably liked the MIT campus itself a little better. But I liked the fact that at Brown they have the open curriculum. Can someone tell me how easy it is at MIT, aside from the distribuional requirements, to merge disciplines? Say, study some history beyond the grad requirement if I was a MechE major? Or after the distributional requirements, is the curriculum pretty much set based on your major?</p>
<p>Thanks…</p>
<p>short answer: depends on 1) what majors you want to merge, 2) how much you know before you get here, and 3) how much you want to work.</p>
<p>with respect to 1): some majors have more requirements than others. for example, the requirements for a mathematics degree is simply “take 8 math courses,” and that’s it, so it’s not that hard to double in mechanical and mathematics – i know people who are doing that. you mention history, and that is even more flexible, since you have to take 8 humanities classes anyway, and those will count towards your history degree! it would not be tricky at all to pick up a degree in that. in contrast, if you wanted to double in mechanical and, say, chemical engineering, that is very hard, because those programs are more structured than others.</p>
<p>with respect to 2): you can get through the distributional requirements quickly, if you did a lot of stuff in high school. for example, when i got to MIT this fall, i took some placement exams and got credit for the entire science core, differential equations, and i had 36 units of ap credit on top of all of that. i also did a lot of physics in high school, so i’m taking junior-level courses in physics now… i could probably triple major if i wanted to.</p>
<p>with respect to 3): even if you don’t have a lot of previous knowledge, you can take more than an average workload if you’re up to it. i know people here who have taken 9 classes in a single term, when the average at mit is 4 or 5 (and still had a kickin’ social life!). this obviously makes doubling easier.</p>
<p>and of course, there’s the metaquestion concerning whether you really need a degree in something if you’re doing it just because you like it. if you just love (insert-discipline-here), is there really a point in stressing yourself out about requirements just so you can have a piece of paper that says “i did a lot of (insert-discipline-here)?” if you’re not actually going to pursue some specific field in the future, a degree in that field is not worth much.</p>
<p>I agree totally with what iostream’s saying, but I interpreted the OP’s question as wanting to take history classes along with a course 2 major, not necessarily as a double-major. In that case, it’s absolutely possible, and pretty easy – in most majors, there’s quite a bit of flexibility outside the requirements to take classes of your choice. It’s more difficult to double, but if you just want to take some extra history classes on the side, that won’t be a problem.</p>