<p>Hey March, you are completely wrong on most of those. I went to MIT CPW this past Spring and I anticipated a geeky atmosphere devoid of fun (you can find it if you want), but instead I found a group of fun-loving guys/girls that were surprisingly cool and partied hard (MIT has some of the best parties… They have Wellesley withing driving distance!!! and those girls are damn pretty).</p>
<p>It is cold.</p>
<p>If you’re smart enough to get in you’re smart enough to keep up (it is all about dedication.)</p>
<p>Screw those AA arguments. If you got in and graduate then that means you were more than adequately qualified.</p>
If you get in, you’re smart enough to stay in. The stories I’ve heard about students falling dramatically behind have nothing to do with their intelligence, but typically some outside factor that gets in the way of their education (or laziness… never unintelligence).</p>
<p>
Definitely not true. MIT is home to such great features as the Disco Dance Floor and the Burton Third Bombers. Heck, it’s BOSTON. Even if MIT is too geeky, there are about 8 other colleges within 20 minutes of MIT.</p>
You shouldn’t feel obligated to go to a school, but there’s no doubt that MIT presents incredibly opportunities for his students and graduates. Is this a bad thing?
Apply and see the financial aid package then, and then debate whether the price can make or break the decision. An application costs $50 (or none, if you have a waiver), you can always decide if its out of your price range after you get in (and see how much money you’d get!). I’ll be the first to say MIT has been very generous with their financial package.
Well, can’t really fix #6. You get snow to play in, which I know I’ll be enjoying. Number 7 is really dependent on your ability to make friends, not necessarily the people you’re around. There are all sorts of people in a city as big as Boston, if you can’t find fun friends, the problem is not the city. ;)</p>
<p>Lol, the same thing happened to me. I was on my way to a academic competition near the end of senior year with several students. The day before, my friend (NOT ME) had announced to the academic sponsor/teacher that I got into Cornell, MIT, and Rice. She simply replied: “Well, he is a minority.” On the bus ride to the competition, she announced several people who had gotten into “good” (it is relative and means jack shyt if you don’t do anything other than get in) colleges. She congratulated the asian (Rice, Dartmouth), the indian (Rice, Harvard), and the anglo(Yale) but not me. </p>
<p>It really ****ed me off, but I ignore it since I know I’m just as qualified (I was the only one to qualify for the AIME, I won some national/state competitions, etc). I’ve gotten those AA speeches over and over and it annoys me; just learn to live with it and let your actions/accomplishments speak for themselves.</p>
<p>First of all, the party scene is about as good as you’ll find at any good school. The only school on my list that had a hugely better party scene was Ohio State… and cmon, you can’t expect MIT to top that.</p>
<p>And about AA… if you’re worried about “only getting in because I’m _____”, you’re in good company. Rejected white/Asian males make so much noise about AA that over half the school is worrying they only got in because they’re black/female/mexican/extraterrestrial, etc. At the end of the day, everyone there can do the work and deserves to be there if they got in.</p>
<p>Finally, about not having any of your old friends coming up here… that’s a horrible way to make your decision. The thing is, even if you’re in the same city, you probably won’t hang out with your high school friends forever. You’ll make friends anywhere you go to college, don’t be too afraid to let go of your high school ones to apply to the schools you’re interested in.</p>
<p>…cause ima gonna bail out and liek kiss behind your ear drive off in the mini cooper OMG i think im dying in this liek car seat where ima gonna spend the next winter !</p>
<p>2) There is a party life if you want to participate in it. In fact, MIT fraternities have been known to attract more poeple than any colleges in the area. The atmosphere at MIT in general is kinda “geeky”, although I hate using that term because so many people try to hate on smart people by calling them that.</p>
<p>3) I haven’t seen much of this. I wouldn’t know from the side of noticing people treating minorities differently as much because I am white, but I have heard a significantly less amount of AA stereotypes and racist comments (which are not the same, but are probably somewhat correlated) at MIT than any other communities I affiliate with.</p>
<p>4) A rigid microeconomist would scoff at this notion, haha. But I know what you’re saying. If you got in and didn’t go you might regret it a lot. And if you don’t get in you may be sad because of that.</p>
<p>On a side note I would probably heavily advise you to go to MIT if you got in. The only reasons I wouldn’t is if your family was kinda well off to the point where it would be a financial problem for you to go. I know if you don’t have much money at all, you’ll get a substantial portion of MIT paid for through financial aid. But allegedly, and I have not seen the financail aid packages given, but if your family is kinda well off you might be in a bad situation with not enough aid for your family’s income.
Also if you go to MIT over LSU you will most likely be dealing with a substantially fewer number of attractive women. You will also be dealing with a lot more poeple who aren’t as intelligent, which you may not like because generally smart people like to hang out with smart people.</p>
<p>6) It’s so terrible and cold in the winter. I can’t believe people are residing on the east coast, except for extenuating circumstances like going to MIT, haha.</p>
<p>7) You’ll make very enjoyable friends, there are all kinds of people at MIT except for ones who are bad at math.</p>
<p>I’ll vouch for the “kinda well off” people not really getting enough aid. Makes it really hard to turn down merit aid from other schools when we’re JUST ABOVE getting financial aid… I’ll literally be paying every penny of $130,000 more (over 4 years) for MIT than I would have for Olin and other merit aid schools. Ouch.</p>
<p>I can’t say I know for sure, but just think, if you get in, people like you did too, so your fears are founded on general stereotypes. As for the AA thing, I can only say that MIT is a very competitive school, and wouldn’t let you in ahead of somebody solely on the race/ethnicity factor. The way I see it, if they have two identical students (theoretically) with the same standardized test scores, GPA’s, and all of those “stats”, including the off-campus volunteer service stuff, and EC’s, which is pretty close to impossible, they’d rather take the minority person, but if the non-minority person had even .01 of a higher GPA, they’d take them. (also coming from same backround, and all that good stuff)</p>