<p>Get a map and check out the campus layout. When you arrive first thing please walk along the campus on the water side before you do anything else. Look at the dorms with water views before anything else. THEN id check out all the new contemporary architecturally exciting buildings. Go online look completely through the MIT website. Read about the school. The school is about the kids and their projects and read about the UROP. Read the admission BLOGS. THe personality of the school is reflected in the blogs. Read The Tech newspaper online. Some of the Ivy newspapers are so dumb you seriously wonder about the school. First year students participate in world class original research- trust me NO SCHOOL DOES THIS EXCEPT MIT!! The creative arm of MIT is amazing - MIT is no boring engineering geek school. Read about then check out the media lab and read about the newest inventions, projects of interest to you archived on the MIT site. I like the MIT side of Cambridge better than the Harvard side. The Harvard side is so seedy but thats me.</p>