<p>@Gunit5,</p>
<p>First of all I want to apologise if I came across as offensive; I completely understand that I did over-generalise, but unfortunately this is a tactic that cannot be avoided when making decisions on insufficient information. I wanted to give OP a sense of the problems that were on my mind when I had to make a decision between MIT, Yale, and a couple of other schools. Again, I honestly believe that there are many MIT students who would crush many Yalies with their social adeptness and would not dream of confusing the mean for the individual.</p>
<p>Secondly, I understand that you do not attend Yale and consequently do not feel personally connected to the tragedy that befell our campus two years ago. It sickens me, however, that you seem entirely comfortable to cite, in an inconsequential argument about the social atmospheres at different universities, the heinous murder of Annie Le, the shock of which still lingers on the minds of those who knew her. You wrote so valiantly of giving thought to one’s words before uttering them–good advice, no doubt–yet you began your post with such a callous, insensitive violation of your own rule. I do not want to think of the possibility that you might in fact be sadistic and took delight in anticipating the despondence your words might inspire, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that, in your rage over school stereotypes, it simply slipped your mind that it might be grossly cruel–not to mention socially moronic–to attack others using traumatic memories. For your sake, in any case, I truly hope you learn to suppress this urge before your social conduct becomes of consequence in the real world.</p>
<p>Lastly, I wanted to clarify a few points that you may have misunderstood. I don’t think either I or the other Yalie poster ever insinuated that MIT students do not have a social life. It is fair to say, however, that the MIT social atmosphere is different from the Yale one, with which I am certain you would agree. In particular, since you brought up Greek life, the Greek scene radically varies from school to school. The fact that Penn State is more mainstream than Yalies does not make them better, just as the fact that Yale is more mainstream than MIT does not make us better. The OP has to find the place where he will feel most welcome. For many students it may as well be MIT and none of us intends to judge them for it. The Yale population tends to exhibit social grace because it is a highly self-selected group with hopes to enter politics, law, and business, and social grace is an indispensable skill for those fields. I have chosen medicine over those fields precisely because I find the definition of professionalism and success in those fields superficial and alarming, but it would be a damn lie if I claimed to be better than those students in social interactions. It is their trade, their way of life, and I do not feel ashamed that they best me at it. Being amazing scientific innovators is the MIT tag; you cannot and should not expect to be more social than Penn State, more aristocratic than Oxford, or more philosophical than Amherst, all while still being the best institute of science and technology in the world. It is up to the OP and all the other aspiring college students to determine the values that are most important to him/her, just as we did once upon a time, and it would have been more useful to him had you provided a more informative picture of what MIT has to offer rather than a simple criticism of the contributions that others have made.</p>