<p>Now that you’ve finally enrolled in MIT, what can you say about its facilities?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>labs</p></li>
<li><p>class rooms</p></li>
<li><p>libraries</p></li>
<li><p>computer rooms</p></li>
<li><p>dorms</p></li>
<li><p>campus environment/landscape</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Labs - most of the labs I’ve seen have been in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences building, which is brand new. The labs there are very nice and well-equipped. I’d imagine it would be the same for many departments at MIT, considering the university’s strong research focus.</p>
<p>Classrooms - overall pretty good. The lecture halls in the Stata center, Bldg 10, and the BCS building are all very nice. 26-100 and 54-100 seem a little run-down and have extremely uncomfortable seats, so they’re probably due for renovations. The smaller classrooms for recitations are pretty run-of-the-mill, but the classroom for my history course this semester is very comfortable and has a nice A/V setup for such a small room. Overall smaller classrooms are very well-maintained.</p>
<p>Libraries - renovations were finished to MIT’s Barker and Dewey libraries over the summer, so those are nice and spiffy. Hayden library has some nice study rooms and quiet places, and is well-maintained. The Lewis Music library and Rotch Architecture library are smaller, but well-kept and have some nice study places as well.</p>
<p>Athena clusters - oftentimes there’s a decent amount of paper strewn about, the printers have problems or backed-up queues, and some of the monitors are funky. But I’ve been to much worse computers rooms in my time. </p>
<p>Dorms - really quite varied, it would be best to check them out individually.</p>
<p>Campus environment - a TON of seemingly-endless construction going on right now all over campus…but come visit, MIT’s campus is very unique.</p>
<p>I’m not sure 26-100 and 54-100 are supposed to be renovated soon. I don’t find the chairs uncomfortable - they’re not soft squishy ones that you’ll fall asleep in. They’re just chairs.</p>
<p>I never used the libraries as a freshman - now, as a sophomore, I’m falling in love with the libraries and reading rooms scattered around campus. They are really good places to tool when I lack motivation in my room. </p>
<p>We do seem to have more construction this year, with the building across from Stata being built, the dome getting renovated, and the Infinite having construction done. I think the second two should cease soon? Maybe?</p>
<p>26-100 is fine for me, but maybe it’s just due to Eric Lander nerdgasms. And when all the construction is done, there will be pretty much nothing wrong with the campus. Even old buildings like 36 have nice rooms. The landscape is a bit dram, but then again the point of MIT is not to sit around and draw oak trees, isn’t Cornell for that?</p>
<p>“When all the construction is done.” So far, it’s taken them longer to fix water pipes under Amherst Alley than it has for them to complete half of an $100 million cancer research center. Who knows when construction will <em>actually</em> be done?</p>
<p>Answer: the construction will never be done. That’s the idea.</p>
<p>For the OP, keep in mind that the state of the labs is more a function of grant funding for each individual researcher, rather than being a function of MIT support. MIT provides space by building the buildings, but each researcher’s grant money funds his/her own equipment. So the fact that MIT’s research facilities are top-notch reflects the fact that MIT has top-notch researchers who have been awarded a great deal of grant money, mostly from the government.</p>
<p>And as for dorms, they vary somewhat in terms of superficial qualities, and (more importantly) in terms of the communities that inhabit them. You get to pick your dorm yourself, so you can decide which features are most important to you and pick a dorm accordingly.</p>
<p>I actually found very comfortable lecture halls to be a huge liability – they are very easy to fall asleep in. Have they reopened 6-120? I had 5.12 there right after lunch, and the seats were so comfortable that I was always in danger of taking a nap.</p>
<p>MIT’s campus definitely had to grow on me, but I eventually grew to appreciate its varying architecture (from classic to urban to really, really strange - much like the school). I do frequent Killian quite a bit, though, as its beautiful and grassy and tree-y :)</p>
<p>yeah, they reopened 6-120. I have 8.01L there, and I, too, have found myself dozing. Too-comfortable seats will be the death of me. I think 5.12 meets in Stata now.</p>
<p>6-120 is an amazing classroom, though I will agree that people have a tendancy to doze in it. I myself was almost the victim of a professor’s chalk-hurling experiment last semester (8.012!) for that very reason, haha. This year, I’ve been alert the entire time. If you’re worried about falling asleep, choose a seat up front (I sit in the first row). It really does help =)</p>
<p>As for the rest of the school… I definitely needed some time to get used to the architecture. When I pictured “college”, I pictured Gothic-inspired brick buildings, inscriptions on the walls, dim lighting, carpeted facilities, and a very warm feeling (think Harvard!) I instead got a cold-looking campus of concrete and plaster. I still whine and complain about the look of our buildings from time to time, but you eventually get over it.</p>
<p>HUGE con about MIT: there are no proper performing facilities at all. Kresge would be nice if it wasn’t a round stage (some performing arts groups can’t work with that, like my Chinese dance group). Little Kresge is just that - extremely tiny. Killian Hall is only really for music performances, not dance or theatre. La Sala isn’t even a performance space, but we try our best to make it one. As someone who’s really into the performing arts (I captain the MIT Asian Dance Team), I’m rather irked by the lack of performing space AND the lack of practice space freely available to students. If I just want to go somewhere on a whim and practice a little dance, it’s hard - the few facilities that are available are either always taken or require advance reservation.</p>
<p>I have differing opinions on each of the dorms, so if you want to hear them feel free to ask. Let me just tell you this - the grad students get it SO much better. I did NOT want to leave my sublet in Sidney-Pacific when the summer ended.</p>
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Some grad students get it better – have you ever been in Westgate or Eastgate? I lived in Westgate my first year of grad school, and it’s absolutely not a better place than any of the undergrad dorms.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>labs- Well, first of all, keep in mind what Mollie said. However, labs operated by research centers aren’t the only ones around. There are plenty of academic labs intended for use by various classes. As a MechE major, I encountered quite a variety of these (all owned/operated by the MechE department) and they were FANTASTIC. They are extraordinarily well-equipped and often the lab instructors/technicians who staff them are more helpful and knowledgeable and wonderful than the professors. =) MechE has 2 large machine shops, a materials lab, several controls labs (oscilloscopes, function generators, and simple actuators) and an incredibly well-equipped lab for the Measurement and Instrumentation course (there are numerous varied experiments along with all the specialized equipment for each one). They were all awesome. As I said, these are all Course 2 labs, so I can’t speak to the quality of the labs operated by any other departments. </p></li>
<li><p>class rooms- normal? Chalkboards or whiteboards, most have some form of AV equipment in varying states of antiquity, and an appropriate number of chairs and/or desks. Nothing special or fancy, but I guess I’m not sure how you could make a classroom special or fancy.</p></li>
<li><p>libraries- pretty good. There’s a wide selection of materials and lots of good studying spaces. The librarians are very helpful, and there’s even a librarian who specializes in each major. Also, if you can’t physically find what you’re looking for (as in, the library doesn’t seem to have a copy or something) don’t be shy about asking someone for help- they have inter-library programs and can often request material from other schools and will sometimes even convince MIT to purchase whatever it is that you need. </p></li>
<li><p>computer rooms- Hmm. Well the Athena clusters are often pretty crowded during the day, so it can be hard to use them except at night. Having the printers for student use is pretty awesome. The computers are kept fairly modern but they all run Linux, which poses a learning curve for most people. Most people have their own computer anyway, and just rely on the Athena clusters for printing or quickly checking on things during the day, or occasionally running software needed for coursework that they don’t have on their own computers and don’t feel like installing. (I’m pretty sure that any software you might need for coursework can be obtained from either IS&T or your department for free.)</p></li>
<li><p>dorms- This is not a relevant question. The dorms range from new and shiny to old and decrepit, but all of that is completely besides the point. Make sure to explore them during CPW and Orientation, then form your own opinions.</p></li>
<li><p>campus environment/landscape- You know, a lot of people have really varied opinions on that. MIT certainly isn’t Harvard or the typical old stone buildings in very green lawns that you see in movies. There are nice green spaces, like Kresge, but it is limited. On the flip side, there are lots of interesting looking buildings (which some find hideous, and others don’t) and special quirks (like the tunnel system). It’s certainly different, but I would hesitate to say “bad” or “good,” as it mostly boils down to personal preference. Lots of people claim to love MIT’s campus <em>because</em> of the fact that it’s so different and has a building shaped like a 30-60-90 triangle, etc. Personally I just never really cared much one way or the other. I came to college to learn stuff, not stare at trees OR buildings. (Although I guess if you’re studying urban planning or architecture, you might have reason to care. =)</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>As a counterpoint, I will say that I was much happier living in a community that I cared about, which MIT’s undergrad housing system is set up to enable, than I would have been living with random people in a “nicer” building. Also, a grad student friend wants me to mention that “Tang [a grad dorm] is composed of coffins with no air circulation.” :D</p>
<p>I have an old blog entry about the attractiveness, or lack thereof, of campus, that I still like: [MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Bed arrangements in dorms, and beauty on campus”](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/residential_life_housing_options/bed_arrangements_in_dorms_and.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/residential_life_housing_options/bed_arrangements_in_dorms_and.shtml)</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding too much like Eeyore, I will note that there is very little in life or at MIT where grad students have it legitimately better than undergrads.</p>
<p>…except for the housing system, actually.</p>
<p>A friend of mine from Brown sent me this link to an article in their newspaper.
[The</a> Brown Daily Herald - Jared Lafer '11: Dorm shopping](<a href=“http://www.browndailyherald.com/jared-lafer-11-dorm-shopping-1.1874169]The”>http://www.browndailyherald.com/jared-lafer-11-dorm-shopping-1.1874169)</p>
<p>It basically talks about their random housing system, then talks about MIT’s REX, then says:</p>
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<p>=)</p>
<p>It depends really - there are definitely more than one student who are screwed over by MIT’s undergrad housing system. I personally don’t like any of the undergraduate dorm cultures at all, for example (and yes, I definitely hung out at each one copious amounts during REX, with the exception of Bexley).</p>
<p>I’ve heard the horror stories about Tang, but I’ve been inside and it’s really not that bad =/ grad dorms aren’t necessarily meant to be close-knit communities like the undergrad dorms; I think for their purposes of housing, most of the grad dorms here are fairly adequate.</p>
<p>I guess this comes from a student who cares slightly more about the facilities than community.</p>
<p>Just wondering: even if you don’t like any of the dorm cultures (something I find extremely hard to believe), why do you think that you would like a randomly thrown together group of people any better? I can’t really see how anyone is screwed over by the housing system - given the diversity of living options, is it really possible for a randomized dorm to be a significantly better fit than any of them?</p>
<p>Also, the dorm facilities are actually pretty good. My dorm is probably the dirtiest and dingiest on campus, but it’s significantly nicer than dorms I’ve stayed in at other colleges. Anyone who has been to Penn State ARML will agree with me on this.</p>
<p>The dorm facilities here aren’t downright terrible, that’s for sure. I live in Next House, and it has fairly good accommodations for most of the things I need, save for kitchens (I’m sorry, but the Country Kitchen doesn’t quite cut it, especially when all I want to do is cook something really quickly right in my wing lounge.)</p>
<p>I am of the belief that even if you are thrown into a “random” group of people, you’ll eventually come to find friends (and enemies) in them either way. I was “randomly” thrown into Next House (it was nowhere near my top choice) and still managed to bond with a few people. If I had been thrown into, say, East Campus or Baker, I probably would still be living the same lifestyle I am now. Perhaps it’s just my personality, but I don’t think that dorm culture and community affects my life that much; because of that, I would rather maximize satisfaction in facilities/location/physical environment over satisfaction in friends and dormmates.</p>
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<p>Actually, yeah. I think in the grand scheme of things people just adapt into their surroundings. I mean, you might not <em>theoretically</em> be happiest than what you could have been, but how would you know otherwise? </p>
<p>Thus, I try to tell frosh at times that not getting into your first choice dorm doesn’t mean the world is coming to an end. MIT people are generally all pretty awesome. =D</p>
<p>I feel like meeting people is so serendipitous in life. I met this one friend who I got to know pretty well over this last year from emailing out to my dorm emailing list to borrow a scale because I wanted to weigh my luggage, and her roommate happened to have a scale.</p>
<p>I stayed in Next 4W, the people were exceedingly nice, but there wasn’t much in the way of cooking facilities, there were these really tiny triples, and there were all these cops walking around, I was like, ***. Plus the you know, the farthest dorm thing. Very clean, I must say.</p>
<p>You’re proving my point. No matter where you live, many of your closest friends will come from your living group. And in many ways, your friends shape your experiences - you end up joining the clubs that they join, going to the places where they go, and eventually to some extent acting the way they act. They transfer the personality of the living group to you through everyday interactions. You adapt to your living group’s personality not only by accepting it but by growing into it. The ways in which I’m growing into my floor are very different from the ways in which I would have grown into some other dorm. In some sense, when you choose a place to live, you’re choosing who you want to be at the end of your time there. </p>
<p>At least that’s how I see it from my limited frosh perspective . . . others should tell me to stop talking if I’m making no sense.</p>