<p>[25</a> Colleges With the Worst Crime Rankings - The Daily Beast](<a href=“25 Colleges With the Worst Crime Rankings”>25 Colleges With the Worst Crime Rankings)</p>
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<p>I suspect that many of the burglaries were bike thefts. I lost a few bikes there, despite them being secured by multiple U-locks. Cambridge is really bad with bike thefts. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the statistics are for violent crime or muggings.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I would trust this list. I don’t know how much research and thinking actually went into it. MIT, Harvard, Tufts, and Emerson all show up on this list, but Boston is not a particularly dangerous city: [United</a> States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate]United”>List of United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia) At the same time, a lot of cities that are particularly dangerous don’t get a mention.</p>
<p>Where do students keep valuable items such as musical instruments? Is it possible to keep them locked up in the music building or a music room or will they be safe in a dorm?</p>
<p>They’ll be safe in a dorm. I wouldn’t recommend leaving your door unlocked (though I did this on occasion when I was hanging out on my floor and nothing happened.)</p>
<p>I agree that the list is pretty arbitrary.</p>
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I would second this suspicion. Laptop/smartphone theft is also big, or at least it is at Harvard – apparently there are groups of professionals who go through the labs/buildings with offices and relieve us of laptops not locked down. My lab hasn’t been hit, but we’re very careful about keeping the office door locked.</p>
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The dorms are ID-card-access-only. Occasionally someone will manage to slip through, which is why it’s good practice to keep the door to one’s room locked, but theft from dorms rooms is relatively rare. </p>
<p>Ultimately, MIT is in a major American city. It’s not a particularly dangerous American city overall, as lidusha notes, but it’s wise to keep your valuables behind a locked door. When things like laptops or cell phones are stolen, it’s almost always because someone has left them out in a lounge/conference room/student center table and walked away.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in my ten years in Boston, Central Square (the major square just north of MIT) has gotten markedly safer, and Harvard Square (near Harvard, obviously) has seen more muggings, which is the opposite of what was true when collegealum and I were in school. Still, Cambridge is very safe for students, and you’ll be fine if you use common sense: don’t wear headphones or be otherwise distracted when you’re walking alone at night, walk with a friend if you can, stick to the better-lit major streets at night.</p>
<p>Well, my son will be coming from a major city in So. Cal. and our neighborhood is meh (we were robbed once in 18 years and we have several violent crimes a year here), so we’re used to city life, though on the opposite coast. I’m planning on buying instrument insurance for him anyways but I just wondered what other musicians do.</p>