Uncomfortable Question: Is MIT worth it?
le_coeur_chante asks: Is the MIT undergrad experience really as worthwhile as it's reputed to be?
The students I know there (you included, of course) are a brilliant and fascinating bunch, and the little time I've spent there has been fun and interesting enough to live up to the stories, but the environment seems to put an incredible pressure on all of you. I'm curious if you believe it to be worth the high stress level and enormous workload that I've seen in my MIT undergrad friends. Or am I seeing a non-representative sample and it isn't really like that at all?
Wow, that's a tough one. I don't quite know how to answer that question for myself, let alone for other people or a generalized person. Any seniors or recent grads wanna weigh in?
I'll have to go with "It depends what you make of it". What makes MIT different from a generic school with good academics is that you're constantly surrounded by people who are passionate and driven and interested and geeky and so on (as cliche as it sounds). And for many people, this is just what they need. You can learn something from, or be inspired by, anyone on campus, not to mention the opportunity to make useful contacts!. It can also be hell on the self-esteem, but most people seem to deal with that pretty well most of the time. It's more inspiring than pressureful.
What puts pressure on us is both the workload and the high performance of fellow students on that workload. Yes, the work is damned difficult and there is a lot of it. This is true of many academically rigorous universities, not just MIT. It's really disheartening to see other students seemingly coast through their studies. What I don't know is that either they already know the material (in which case they must have put in the effort somewhere else) or they're getting mediocre-lousy grades, if not failing. It's important to remember that other people struggle too, just out of our sight.
(And besides, learning to perform work-triage is a life skill!)
My greatest MIT-related fear is that I'll come out the other end with fine grades and plenty of knowledge but with no drive left. Cf. this line from The Horse and His Boy: "But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no-one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself."
(I'm well aware that "in college no one forces you to do stuff", but I have enough of a stereotypical-Asian mentality that I feel really guilty whenever I punt an assignment, even if it's for a good reason. This is something I'm learning to drop.)
I hope that I still have my drive when I graduate. I would suppose that most graduates still have their drive, as I haven't heard of a lot of people graduating and then doing nothing, burned out, for the next five years. Perhaps I have a non-representative sample; certainly I don't have very much data. But the seniors I've met are all still enthusiastic despite their stress.
I'd say it's worth it for me, and I'd guess that it's worth it for the majority of students. But others will have to answer for themselves.
The students I know there (you included, of course) are a brilliant and fascinating bunch, and the little time I've spent there has been fun and interesting enough to live up to the stories, but the environment seems to put an incredible pressure on all of you. I'm curious if you believe it to be worth the high stress level and enormous workload that I've seen in my MIT undergrad friends. Or am I seeing a non-representative sample and it isn't really like that at all?
Wow, that's a tough one. I don't quite know how to answer that question for myself, let alone for other people or a generalized person. Any seniors or recent grads wanna weigh in?
I'll have to go with "It depends what you make of it". What makes MIT different from a generic school with good academics is that you're constantly surrounded by people who are passionate and driven and interested and geeky and so on (as cliche as it sounds). And for many people, this is just what they need. You can learn something from, or be inspired by, anyone on campus, not to mention the opportunity to make useful contacts!. It can also be hell on the self-esteem, but most people seem to deal with that pretty well most of the time. It's more inspiring than pressureful.
What puts pressure on us is both the workload and the high performance of fellow students on that workload. Yes, the work is damned difficult and there is a lot of it. This is true of many academically rigorous universities, not just MIT. It's really disheartening to see other students seemingly coast through their studies. What I don't know is that either they already know the material (in which case they must have put in the effort somewhere else) or they're getting mediocre-lousy grades, if not failing. It's important to remember that other people struggle too, just out of our sight.
(And besides, learning to perform work-triage is a life skill!)
My greatest MIT-related fear is that I'll come out the other end with fine grades and plenty of knowledge but with no drive left. Cf. this line from The Horse and His Boy: "But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no-one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself."
(I'm well aware that "in college no one forces you to do stuff", but I have enough of a stereotypical-Asian mentality that I feel really guilty whenever I punt an assignment, even if it's for a good reason. This is something I'm learning to drop.)
I hope that I still have my drive when I graduate. I would suppose that most graduates still have their drive, as I haven't heard of a lot of people graduating and then doing nothing, burned out, for the next five years. Perhaps I have a non-representative sample; certainly I don't have very much data. But the seniors I've met are all still enthusiastic despite their stress.
I'd say it's worth it for me, and I'd guess that it's worth it for the majority of students. But others will have to answer for themselves.