Professor Accessibility, TA's, and Relationships

CalAlum
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:32:26 +0000

My perspective is that of a parent of a MIT junior and a high-school senior who is applying to top LACs. I do think I understand both worlds, because I’m also a full professor at a small LAC.

On the one hand, MIT’s required general-education courses are huge, but on the other hand – and here’s where it get really interesting, in my opinion – MIT offers freshmen the opportunity to engage in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), where they can join a really small research group and work on cutting-edge problems. And I’d like to reinforce the earlier comment, that MIT faculty expect that MIT undergraduates are capable of contributing in substantial ways to research. For instance, the summer after my daughter’s freshman year, she worked in the Plasma Physics Laboratory, and her primary task was to install an $80,000 camera into the plasma physics apparatus. She was told, “Well, figure out how to install it, and also figure out how to program the camera, because we need it up and working in order to capture data within a couple of weeks.” That was it; no further instructions. She had it up and running within one week. Did she know how to do this? No. Did she believe she could figure it out? Yes. The professor and the graduate students assumed it would not be a problem, and I would say this empowered her to believe she could do it. Her subsequent career at MIT has included more of these sorts of challenges, and she has enjoyed meeting them.

My son is applying ED to a wonderful liberal arts college, but here’s what I know: He will never have the kinds of experiences my daughter has had at MIT. I’m writing the truth as I know it: the opportunities at MIT are really boundless, and they exceed anything available at a small liberal arts college or anything available at most other top universities.