What are some negatives for MIT?

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>It would be a lie to say MIT frats don’t offer alcohol, but I feel that all of the living groups on campus are generally very respectful of your individual decisions. That is, if you would prefer to stay dry, they won’t peer-pressure you into drinking. I have been to a few frat parties myself which offered alcohol shots, and simply declined. While at first some of the brothers suggested I try them, after I stated that I chose not to drink out of principle, they were willing to accept and respect my decision, and I ended up having fun by dancing and chatting with everyone. There’s more ways to have fun at a party than alcohol, and I’m pretty sure everyone on campus knows that.</p>

<p>As for non-centralized dining halls, I feel that the absence of any such entities gives us more of an independent view on living. Instead of centralized dining, we are offered options of going out, cooking, ordering in, taking a trip to one of the food courts, etc. It’s a lot more flexible, and I like it just the way it is. Unfortunately, some dorms still force you to pay required dining plans (Next House, McCormick, Baker, and I think Simmons too?)</p>

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<p>Personally, I feel that, as good as Boston food generally is, the food in the dining halls just don’t match up. I live in Next House, and having pay for the dining plan (which only saves money after you’ve eaten 17-18 weeks of dinners) makes me feel like I’m getting ripped off for meals that are clearly not worth $8. This past week, we had lasagna that was cooked with moldy tomato sauce, and whenever I want cooked greens, they’re either not there, or they’re partially raw. But that’s another story. </p>

<p>There has been this email circulating around Next House residents complaining about the deteriorating quality of the dining food lol.</p>

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<p>^ Yeah someone should repost the picture included on that email, it really shows how bad Next Dining has become. (I haven’t been in Baker Dining since frosh year so I don’t know whether Baker is similar).</p>

<p>So re: dining, just to jump on the bandwagon:</p>

<p>I don’t cook normally because I like to study away from my dorm, and it makes no sense to come back just for dinner, so I usually end up eating around MIT. Food near MIT is decent - you totally can get by just eating at places around MIT. I would be for a central dining hall (not dorm-based), but given the quality of some of the current dining halls, there’s a reason I’m happy that I’m not living in a dorm where I’m forced to be on the dining plan. It is a bit more costly to be eating out most of the time (I average $10 per meal), but given the convenience I’m really not complaining. I would probably sign up for a dining plan if the food was better (Next Dining is like 2 minutes away from where I live), but there’s really no point right now. </p>

<p>Back to the OT: what do I dislike about MIT?</p>

<p>This one thing just emerged for me finally after my third year here, and I don’t see this commented a lot normally, but I actually get frustrated with the lack of small classes. </p>

<p>I came from a high school where my graduating class was only 55 students, and growing up I’ve really enjoyed having classes with less than 20 people - there’s more participation all around, there’s usually better attendance, and you can “click” with the professor better. I thought this wasn’t a big deal for me when I was applying to college, since there’s only 1000 undergrads at MIT per year and all, but I’m actually really surprised at how literally NONE of the science classes I’ve taken so far had less than 100 people in it (there’s like 1 or 2 that had 50 to 100). Maybe this is a little bit too much to ask at a school where everyone’s taking science courses, or maybe the bio major is just a major where a lot of students from other departments also come in and take classes, but I felt that I really haven’t been in a small science class yet whereas I love the HASS classes here due to the small size and the personal attention (I’ve taken 9 HASSes already over 4 semesters). Granted, I’m just about to start taking upper division elective science classes (where there’s finally classes with ~20 or ~30), but I feel like this was something I should have paid more attention to during my college search because I don’t learn well in huge lecture halls, and actually the LAC approach to classes may have been a better fit for me.</p>

<p>(granted, MIT does have a small student body compared a lot of colleges (like cornell, berkeley), so i can’t really complain in that regard, but perhaps i should have gone to a even smaller college then. ps - i don’t know what class sizes are like at HPY which are also research universities that have entering class sizes similar to MIT - may be an interesting comparison)</p>

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<p>^Well, but then you would run into problems with having limits and lotteries for classes – IMO, the fewer lotteries, the better.</p>

<p>You can also mitigate the big-lecture thing somewhat by choosing a smaller department. Although I know course 9 has gotten bigger over the past few years, when I was there, most of the classes past 9.01 (at least on the molecular neuroscience side) were pretty small. As a 9/7 double, I felt like I got a good mix of big and small classes.</p>

<p>Other options: you can take one or more of the biology undergraduate seminars, which are capped at 6(?), you can take graduate-level seminars (I took 7.98, which IIRC was around 12-15 people), and you can specifically seek out electives that have historically small class sizes (7.31 is limited to ~25 or so).</p>

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<p>^ biology undergrad seminars are graded P/D/F =(</p>

<p>but the idea is great - we just need more of those. also, yeah, in the upper level bio electives there’s a lot more smaller classes.</p>

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<p>Yeah, but they don’t take 6 hrs/week, so there’s no reason not to take one on top of a regular courseload. They’re fun!</p>

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<p>^ oh i’m already maxed out on my schedule (each class i take have to count towards something) because i’m doing 7, 21H, and premed. i might try to fit in one next sem though. at the very least, i want to be a lot more proficient at reading papers than i am now =)</p>

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<p>I was also in a science department, and after the intro classes, most of the classes in my major had 20-30 people. The smallest science class that I took had 9. I think there are a couple of factors at play here. One is the size of the major - bigger majors tend to mean bigger classes, for obvious reasons. The other is the flexibility of the major. If there are half a dozen classes that everyone in the major MUST take, all half-dozen of them - nearly half a typical major - will probably be big classes. And like oasis said, if your department has classes that are popular outside your department (e.g. 5.12, organic chemistry, which is required by at least four departments that I can think of and popular among students from several others), those are going to be big.</p>

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<p><em>rolls eyes</em></p>

<p>First of all, it’s only about 50%, not 70%.</p>

<p>Second, I can guarantee you that there is more drinking in some dorm-based living groups than in some fraternities.</p>

<p>Third, MIT’s binge drinking rate is WAAAAAYYYYY below the national average for colleges, and slightly below the average for its “peer institutions”.</p>

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<p>Please don’t worry too much about alcohol - even if you’re not used to being around people who are drinking and have no interest in doing so yourself, after a couple of weeks you’ll stop feeling uncomfortable. This has definitely been the case for me. </p>

<p>Biggest negative? Expect to turn into a caffeine addict within a month of arriving, regardless of how little you consume now. Again, personal experience. :-)</p>

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<p>I never have coffee and rarely drink soda nowadays :slight_smile: (I was never much for coffee, though I used to drink soda every day.)</p>

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<p>My son is in his third semester at MIT, and in about half of his classes have been a total number of 20 students or less - even his first year. This is in part because he was in a special program - ? “ESE” - where the kids met separately and worked at their own pace. He’s a combined Physics/Computer Science major, not-unpopular majors at MIT. So it’s not the norm for all to experience big intro classes and then continued large class size as an upperclassman.</p>

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<p>The FOOD is definitely the worst aspect of MIT. Seriously.</p>

<p>If you come here with good cooking skills, awesome.</p>

<p>If you don’t have the time to cook, or prefer eating at a dining hall, then it really sucks. Dining halls here have really bad AND unhealthy food, at ridiculous price, and they are open only for dinner. For lunch, you are basically going to eat out around campus/student center, and will not reach sedentary lifestyle. I’ve been eating boxed lunches in the open air sitting on staircases… for 1 month now. It’s only been 1 month and I’m already pretty sick of the food…</p>

<p>From my observation, most MIT students eat crappily, skip meals every now and then because of the inconvenient dining system. I have friends going to other colleges, and they definitely get fed much better than we do for lower prices (unless you cook all the time).</p>

<p>And also, a lot of people will say, when you come to MIT you’ll get crushed by the workload and stuff… That’s not so true, at least for freshmen. It depends entirely on how well prepared you are. If you do olympiads in high school and stuff, you’ll probably find the GIR’s too easy, so don’t be too intimidated by the institute. Most of those complaints about the workload comes from upperclassmen, understandably, because 1st yr at MIT is not too bad with a good prep, but 2nd year and so on, as far as I’ve heard about it, is a LOT harder.</p>

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<p>@ neuron39 -</p>

<p>Your S was in ESG - which I think is an excellent program (freshmen, you should do it). It’s taking apart the GIRs into small learning communities, and I think that’s a really good approach to both teaching and learning.</p>

<p>I’m surprised at the statement that classes are small in Course 6. A quick glance at Course 6 surveys indicate that 6.002, 6.003, 6.004, 6.005, 6.006, 6.00, 6.01, and 6.02 all had 70-110 people, which isn’t that far off from core classes in biology (Course 7) either. </p>

<p>I ran a search in Course 8 and it seems to be the same too. 8.03, 8.033, 8.044, 8.04, 8.05 all had class sizes nearing 100. Again, once you get past the core prereqs, class size does decrease to less than 50.</p>

<p>When I referred to science classes with large student sizes, it was primarily the core classes for course 7 (7.02, 7.03, 7.05, 7.06, 5.12) - 7.02 and 7.06 are smaller. Just like any other major, the size of classes does taper off once you get into the more elective subjects in your major (and in courses like Course 9 where there’s a lot more freedom to “pick and choose” the classes you take because of the major requirements (there’s only three solid requirements in course 9 - 9.00, 9.01, and 9.07), there’s usually a smaller class size too - 7.0x classes are just large because Course 7, 10B, 20, and premeds all have to take it).</p>

<p>I don’t know if there’s any way around this squeeze in the intro classes. Offering options like ESG or Concourse for freshmen GIRs is a great innovation, but not really feasible in core prereqs for majors. I think a way to reduce class size a bit would be to offer more “flavors” of the same class (kind of like 7.05 and 5.07 - bio-based and chem-based versions of biochem), but given the constraints in budgeting, finances, and personnel right now I don’t know how realistic that is either.</p>

<p>I mean, I mention this here but then I hear from my friend at NYU and how her orgo class size was 500 students - I guess I can’t complain too much.</p>

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<p>Also, I’ve not found big lectures to be a problem. If you actually want to get to know professors/grad students, just hang out with them after lecture/recitation, and office hours, and sit at the front. They are mostly very passionate about their subjects, so if you approach them with a desire to learn, they will be mostly very nice.</p>

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<p>My daughter lives in Burton-Conner and cooks. I’ve received dozens of recipes from her and I’ve also learned about Trader Joe’s. Did you know what you can buy frozen croissants from Trader Joe’s (cheap!) that make the most delicious, warm, flaky croissants for breakfast? Just pair them with some fresh strawberries. Very little prep time. She buys soups and salads at various cafes around the campus. Dinner is out, perhaps at one of the dorms, or maybe it’s just a quick pan-grilled steak with a fresh salad and a bit of ice-cream for dessert. Yum.
To us, this is not one of the negatives of MIT. She is eating well, and by cooking for herself, she’s saving thousands of dollars per year.</p>

<p>When she was a freshman, she loved MIT. Now she’s a junior, a physics major taking junior lab. She still loves MIT. Physics and EECS courses are large, but the UROPs she’s participated have been small and intimate research opportunities – amazing experiences.</p>

<p>Taken together, the paid Undergraduate Research Opportunities and the cooking in the dorm will probably have saved our family between 60,000-70,000 dollars in costs by the time she graduates. On top of that, both of these experiences are very, very positive. I’m sorry, but our family can’t think of any negatives.</p>

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<p>I’ve found the freedom in eating options to be a good thing. My weird sleep habits lead to me eating meals at times which are not terribly compatible with standard dining hall hours, and it is nice to not be locked into a set meal plan that wouldn’t work for me in that sense.</p>

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<p>Which majors tend to be crowded as far as huge classes 100+…?</p>

<p>We have heard that there is tons of drinking in the dorms–so not all at the frats–
Is heavy drinking/binge drinking pretty common?
SOme schools have pretty big reps for that…</p>

<p>DO most students handle the heavy academics/stress well? Some interent research makes it sound like MIT students are crushed and depressed…</p>

<p>our student thinks this might be his first choice…so best to know the whoole story and go in eyes wide open<br>
thanks</p>

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<p>Which majors are crowded: I’m pretty sure Course 6 is the largest major… I suppose the classes are large, but I never think of them like that. I guess it doesn’t really affect how much I’m learning. Here are some enrollment stats: [Enrollment</a> Statistics: MIT Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar)</p>

<p>Tons of drinking in the dorms: I heartily disagree. There are parties on the weekends and stuff, at which there <em>is</em> drinking, but I very rarely see partying or drunk people during the week, and even when there is drinking at parties on the weekends, it tends to be with some moderation. I’ve only seen one person at a party here start throwing up from drinking too much. I would say that at MIT heavy and binge drinking are not hugely common (which isn’t to say that they don’t happen occasionally. We just don’t have a rep for it, because it’s not an everyday occurrence). </p>

<p>Do most students handle academics/stress well: This is a kind of tough question. I’ve definitely seen a lot of people here reach burnout and just have to leave MIT or take a semester off. However, on the whole, while MIT students are exhausted and too busy for their own good and stressed, I wouldn’t say that they’re crushed and depressed. However, MIT is not for the faint of heart. You need to love learning and love science, because you’re going to be doing a lot of it, and it’s not going to be easy. If it’s difficult and you don’t find it interesting, you’re not going to be motivated and you’re going to be miserable. If it’s difficult and you <em>do</em> find it interesting, the thing that will make you the most sad will probably be either the fact that you don’t really understand it or the fact that you don’t have time to learn it properly. But in the latter case, the payoff when you actually understand something awesome and new is so much greater than the pain of hours worked late into the night learning stuff that it’s totally worth it. :)</p>

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<p>

I think most majors have fairly large intro classes, other than the majors that are very small. You can see the size of each department at [url=<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar]this</a> page<a href=“hasn’t%20been%20updated%20yet%20for%20this%20year’s%20enrollment”>/url</a>. However, virtually all majors have smaller classes as students progress through the program – my upper-level classes in my majors were about 20-25 students.</p>

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There is drinking in all living groups, although MIT students tend to have lower levels of binge drinking than students at other schools (as I’ve seen in student surveys, although I cannot recall the precise source at the moment). However, there are reasonably high rates of non-participation, and MIT students tend to subscribe to a very live-and-let-live social ethos – nondrinkers aren’t pressured to drink, and it’s not uncommon to be a nondrinker. There are plenty of social activities other than drinking.</p>

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MIT is tough, and it’s tough for everybody, even people who were academic all-stars in high school. That’s why first semester is pass/no record, so freshmen can get used to MIT without having to worry about getting good grades. </p>

<p>Most people end up figuring out what they need to do to get the grades they want, and although the stress never really goes away, people get better at handling it. But it’s definitely not unmanageable, and I wouldn’t characterize most MIT students as “crushed and depressed”. It’s just that most MIT students want to work hard and do well and solve interesting problems and do a million things at once, and science and engineering are hard. But there’s also a strong support network for students, in living groups (picking your living group means you get to pick the people who will support you when it’s 4 AM and you have a paper due at 10 AM), in extracurricular groups, and academically. </p>

<p>The great thing about being at MIT is that, even though school is tough and you get stressed out, everybody else around you is going through the same stuff. Collaboration and commiseration go hand-in-hand.</p>

<p>EDIT: Sorry, la montagne – you must type a lot faster than I do! But I find it interesting that we said almost exactly the same stuff. :)</p>