<p>Entering freshmen might consider starting the first semester at MIT with only a minimal amount of extracurricular activities. Yesterday I returned from a campus visit with my son to the Claremont Colleges. We had the chance to talk with a freshman at Pomona about his experience. He’s a family friend who went to the same high school as my son, so the talk was quite candid. He was a NMF and top student at his high school who chose to major in computer science at Pomona because of its size, liberal-arts focus, beautiful weather, accessibility to high mountains, etc. I asked him, “When you think about the amount of time you spent doing homework at your high school, how does that compare to the amount of time you need to devote here at Pomona?” He said it was about the same. Then he asked about my daughter, who’s a freshman at MIT. I spoke with her last night and recounted this conversation. She laughed. "OMG, the work here at MIT is the same as all of the hours I spent on high-school homework PLUS all the hours I spent on math team, science fair stuff, clubs, and everything. It’s about triple. She turned away from the phone and consulted with other MIT students in her suite, and they all agreed. FYI.</p>
<p>Yeah, but that’s how you really learn: constant work. </p>
<p>That’s why I applied to MIT.</p>
<p>I had a friend with a system of capping his serious ECs at by his class year. So, he did a max of one serious EC as a frosh, two as a sophomore, three as a junior, and four as a senior.</p>
<p>I will say, though, that part of the point of having P/NR grading first term is to allow frosh to experiment with the different activities and such that MIT has to offer, and invest themselves in the MIT community, without having to worry as much about screwing up.</p>
<p>Although taking full advantage of P/NR first term at MIT is like taking advantage of the meaninglessness of report cards in first grade to avoid learning to read. It may be costly later.</p>
<p>Taken from <a href=“http://www.math.tamu.edu/~cyan/Rota/mitless.html:[/url]”>http://www.math.tamu.edu/~cyan/Rota/mitless.html:</a></p>
<p>10 Lessons of an MIT Education</p>
<p>Lesson One: You can and will work at a desk for seven hours straight, routinely.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>omg</p>
<p>but what about compared to a top prep school</p>
<p>coming from a top math and science high school myself, i really doubt you did school work 15-20 hours a weekend, and 5+ hours a weekday in high school.</p>
<p>I came from a public school with a very rigorous academic program, especially in physics.</p>
<p>I remember going from “Oh crap, I have ten problems and it will take me two hours to do” to “Oh crap, I have two problems and it will take me ten hours to do.”</p>
<p>Oh 8.05…</p>
<p>wow.</p>
<p>to all the mit students, good for you that you are willing to work so hard. i would probably start doubting the purpose of my education, thinking to myself… “is this really worth it?”</p>
<p>“Lesson One: You can and will work at a desk for seven hours straight, routinely.”</p>
<p>Ah, yes, I recognized that one. I took Rota’s class. </p>
<p>Here’s another Rota quote, “If you don’t understand, then I cannot explain it to you.”</p>