What are some negatives for MIT?

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>I’m going into nuclear engineering and I have a list of about 12 colleges right now. I want to reduce the list to 8 or 9. So I want to find out some negatives on each college to help narrow it down. I can find positives for MIT all day long. Its the negatives I can’t find easily. So what are some negatives?</p>

<p>I’d also appreciate any advice if you care to give any.</p>

<p>O and I am OOS… just for the record.</p>

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<p>just found out tonite they don’t accept AP test scores; if true, a real negativ.</p>

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<p>^ [MIT</a> Prospective Students: Advanced Placement, IB, and GCE A-Level Credit](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/firstyear/prospective/ap/index.html]MIT”>http://web.mit.edu/firstyear/prospective/ap/index.html) </p>

<p>They take

</p>

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<p>(Re: the above, although MIT doesn’t accept too many AP exams for credit, it’s possible to take advanced standing exams and receive credit for virtually any course, so if you’re well-prepared by your AP class, you should be able to pass out of the ASE in the subject.)</p>

<p>The biggest negative to MIT, in my mind, is that it’s a very unique place culture-wise, and there’s really no easy way to get through it. You should make sure before applying that it’s the type of place you could be happy and thrive – if the culture and the atmosphere don’t float your boat, there’s no point in going. MIT is a tough place to be if you’re unhappy.</p>

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<p>MIT is good at breaking you down and building you back up into something better. It’s a great result, but the breaking-down part can hurt.</p>

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<p>“The biggest negative to MIT, in my mind, is that it’s a very unique place culture-wise, and there’s really no easy way to get through it. You should make sure before applying that it’s the type of place you could be happy and thrive – if the culture and the atmosphere don’t float your boat, there’s no point in going. MIT is a tough place to be if you’re unhappy.”</p>

<p>could you expound on that? What do u mean by the culture and atmosphere?</p>

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<p>I’m the parent of a sophomore. He and I feel the main weakness is the food situation (no centralized dining halls open for 21 meals/week). To be fair, a vocal minority of students love to cook, and many are just fine with eating in cafes, from the trucks on the streets, going to restaurants, etc. The “problem” is really an issue mainly during freshman year; for example, this year, my son lives in a fraternity (there’s food in the pantry for quick meals, and there’s a chef for dinners).</p>

<p>Some also point out that the campus is not a traditional college campus with ivy-covered buildings, a nice football stadium, etc. Once you’re a student, though, I’d guess that it’s your home; the architecture becomes your usual daily surroundings.</p>

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<p>I can honestly say that I never once missed the football stadium.
I also appreciated not having to pay for a meal plan, as money was tight for my family.
So, what some might consider negatives, others might view as positives. You need to figure out if what MIT offers is what you are looking for, or if you’d be happier somewhere else.</p>

<p>The main negative right now, in my opinion, is the low, low acceptance rate.</p>

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<p>

Well, MIT’s an place full of smart people who love science and engineering. Everybody is into working hard and playing hard. The atmosphere is very intense – everything that people do, from schoolwork to research to extracurriculars, they do to the nth degree.</p>

<p>The dean of student life said something to the student newspaper once that I found very true:

</p>

<p>The culture is a little tougher to describe, because there’s a huge variety of places to live and groups to join, so in a sense MIT is very make-your-own-adventure. But there’s a common thread of quirkiness and nerdiness that runs through even groups like the cheerleading squad, to use an example I know well.</p>

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<p>They don’t have dining rooms in the dorms?</p>

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<p>No dining rooms???
Stanford has freaking soda dispensers in the dorms, MIT needs to step it up!
/sarc</p>

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<p>It is possible to ignore the aspects of the culture that will drive you insane, though. I’ve managed to learn to do that thus far :D</p>

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<p>

There are dining halls in some dorms, and if that’s important to you, you can choose to live in one of those dorms. Those dorm dining halls are open for dinner.</p>

<p>Students who don’t live in dining hall dorms can go eat in the dining halls, but many prefer to cook. Many people also order out frequently, as there are a bunch of good, cheap delivery places located in and around Boston.</p>

<p>For lunch, students eat on campus – there are a variety of cafes and cafeterias around campus (both run by MIT and independent commercial restaurants) that accept Tech Cash, the MIT meal plan money. There are also several food trucks that park around campus that mostly just take cash. </p>

<p>I lived in a non-dining hall dorm with a convenience store in the basement, and I preferred to cook with my friends most nights. It was healthier than dining hall food, with the added bonus that I picked up some actual life skills that I used when I graduated from college and moved into my first apartment.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Or making a sandwich (no cooking required there), or going to a dorm dining hall, or becoming a social member of a cultural house and eating dinner there, or getting on the meal plan of one of the FSILGs that allows non-members on the meal plan (like pika), or forming a cooking group (allowing people to rotate cooking, so you don’t have to do it very often).</p>

<p>Or joining an Institute Committee - seriously, they have some nice food at those meetings. :D</p>

<p>I know this thread is people giving their own opinions on negatives, so I’m not going to make it into another arguing-about-dining thread, but I’m pretty sure the majority of students do not consider the dining situation a negative - many WOULD in fact like a centralized dining hall, as neuron’s son apparently would, but not if it would mean that their other choices for food would go away to prop up that centralized dining hall financially.</p>

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<p>of course the road is going to be hard. I expect tos truggle. I mean its college… and not just any college, but MIT. I understand the point that the road sucks and the result is simply gratifying. </p>

<p>If I need to cook then thats nto a big deal. I’d prefer not to but like some stated, thats a life skill. Be nice to learn that too.</p>

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<p>the biggest negative is the amount of alcohol that is consumed, i thought it wouldn’t be a problem but i found out that about 70% of males live in frats and many of these frats have lots of alcohol available to people</p>

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<p>littlemikey4 – so how does that make MIT different from any other college –
work hard, play hard mentality. No one makes anyone drink.</p>

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<p>As a parent of a current junior, I never saw the absence of centralized dining to be a problem. My D was in Simmons Hall which has a very nice dining hall, and even a late night cafe. She would also occasionally eat in some of the other dining halls with her friends. So you certainty don’t have to cook if you don’t want to. Now she lives in a sorority where they have a chef. At lunch she eats at any one of the number of cafes throughout the campus, most often in the one in the Stata Center across the street from her lab where they have all types of healthy options.</p>

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<p>

The number is actually around 50% (the [IFC’s</a> page](<a href=“http://ifc.mit.edu/]IFC’s”>http://ifc.mit.edu/) says they have 1050 members, which is 46.3% of the [male</a> undergraduate population](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar)), so fully half the male student body chooses the live in the dorms.</p>

<p>You get to choose your living group at MIT, so if you don’t want to live in a fraternity, you are free to choose a different living group. Even if you choose to live in a fraternity, or in another living group where many people drink, you do not have to drink yourself.</p>

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<p>Pretty clearly, MIT cares about fraternities and alcohol not getting out of hand.</p>

<p>IFC Announces the Expulsion of ATO:
<a href=“http://ifc.mit.edu/docs/ATO-IFC-Press%20Release.pdf[/url]”>http://ifc.mit.edu/docs/ATO-IFC-Press%20Release.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;