MIT at a glance

Location: Boston (more correctly, Cambridge), Massachusetts, USA

 

Admissions Statistics

Number of people who apply per year: Roughly 13,000 (about 200 from Singapore)

Number of people admitted per year: Roughly 1,400 (about 4-5 from Singapore)

Number of them who eventually go: Roughly 1,100 (and you think those 4-5 would turn it down?!)

 

Most popular majors at MIT (in order):

1. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (under the same department, you can specialise in either)
2. Mechanical Engineering
3. Management
4. Biology
5. Mathematics
6. Physics
7. Aeronautics and Astronautics 

Summary Guide to Undergraduate Majors (note that Ocean Engineering has been eaten up by the Mechanical Engineering department.)

 

Approximately 15% of undergraduates do a double major. Alex Wissner-Gross was the last person to graduate with a triple major, in 2003. They have since been disallowed.

 

In 2001, 47% of admitted students were the top students in their high school. In 2007, that number rose to 49%.

 

The academic year is divided into 2 terms plus 4 weeks of IAP. Each term consists of 15 weeks of class (minus various holidays, that's 65 days of class), plus a couple of days to get ready for a week of finals. The 4 weeks of January are devoted to an Independent Activities Period, where various student and faculty groups organise a variety of events, short classes and seminars on campus. While some students opt to take an extended winter break, many do come back to participate in these activities, some of the biggest of which are Mystery Hunt, 6.270 and Battlecode (see below).

 

In keeping with the engineering spirit, literally everything at MIT is referred to in terms of numbers. This includes buildings, rooms and classes. It's not uncommon to hear someone say that she needs to attend 7.012 in 10-250 at 11.30.

 

Campus Life

 

 

Classes

Sad to say, classes and the resulting homework will take up a good fraction of your day at MIT. That's not to say the material isn't interesting - most professors will try to make their lectures as engaging as they can and are more than willing to talk about cutting-edge work if asked. Lecture sizes depend on the class. For classes required to graduate, which everyone takes, class sizes can be up to a few hundred. For most humanities classes and some of the higher-level science/engineering classes, there may be fewer than 10 students in the class. The large lecture sizes are complemented by recitations (the equivalent of JC tutorials), where a graduate student will go through questions which look suspiciously similar to those on the homework. Tests occur 2 to 4 times a term and are usually preceded by a revision session.

 

The graduation requirements include two terms each of Physics and Calculus, and one term each of Chemistry and Biology. A-Levels in Singapore can get rid of one physics term (if you have an A for H2 Physics) and one calculus term (if you have an A or B for H2 Maths). Sadly, they can't do anything about chemistry and biology. You may take advanced standing exams during orientation but the odds of passing these are low.

 

PE

Surprise! There're PE classes too! There's a mandatory swim test (swim 100 yards non-stop, or take swimming class), which you need to graduate (YES!) and an optional boat test (tread water for 10 min), which you need if you plan on taking Sailing PE, which is a Singaporean tradition. PE classes last half a term and you need 8 of them to graduate, so that's 2 years worth of PE.

 

A wide variety of PE classes is on offer, although they tend to depend on the vagaries of Boston weather. Some of the classes are pretty relaxed - for instance, yoga and archery. Some allow you to try out stuff you won't otherwise try for awhile - like golf. And some just let you relieve stress by beating people up, like the various martial arts.

 

During IAP, Skiing and Snowboarding PE are available, and the price is a bargain compared to what you'd normally pay to go on the slopes. Scuba PE costs USD$350 for certification, which is slightly cheaper than what you'd get for the same course in Singapore.

 

Extracurricular

Amazing as it sounds, people do still have time for extracurricular activities on top of all that.

 

Frats and Sororities

 

Boston life

 

Traditions

Top 10 MIT Traditions

 

Hacks

IHTFP Hack Gallery

 

Sodium Drop

 

A large block of sodium (traditionally 1 lb, about 0.45 kg) is dropped into the Charles River from Longfellow Bridge on the stroke of midnight during orientation.

 

Brass Rat

Wikipedia: MIT Class Ring

MIT Admissions Blog: The Brass Rat (this is mine)

MIT Admissions Blog: A Bevy of Beautiful Brass Rat Bezels

MIT Admissions Blog: The Years of the Rat

Class rings are an American university tradition, but few, if any, are more obiang than MIT's. During sophomore year, a committee is chosen to design the ring, incorporating elements that symbolise events which happened on campus, as well as in Boston and the world at large during the first two years that the batch spent there. The rings are handed out in a lavish ceremony at the end of sophomore year. After graduation, they provide a convenient way to recognise fellow alumni - such as Iron Man.

 

Mystery Hunt

Wikipedia: MIT Mystery Hunt

An IAP tradition started in 1980, in which hundreds of students, alumni and people in the Boston/Cambridge area (and beyond) participate. It's a multi-levelled treasure-cum-scavenger hunt which has grown in complexity until it takes about 70 hours for the fastest team to complete the challenge. The prize? The opportunity to organise the next year's Mystery Hunt.

 

6.270

6.370/Battlecode

These are two robot-building competitions that take place during IAP, and for the past few years, the Singapore team has done very well in Battlecode. 6.270 has robots built out of Lego and assorted mishmash taking part in 1-on-1 challenges, whilst Battlecode takes place entirely in the virtual world.

 

Integration Bee

is exactly what it sounds like.

 

Links

 

MIT pages

MIT Admissions Common Data Set - Facts & Figures + What they consider for admission

MIT homepage

MIT Admissions page (includes blog)

The First Year at MIT

MIT Singapore Students Society (updates are few and far between)

MIT on Youtube (includes video lectures)

MIT World | Distributed Intelligence MIT World is a free and open site that provides on demand video of significant public events at MIT. MIT World's video index contains more than 500 videos.

MIT Opencourseware MIT's effort to put all their course material online for public consumption.

Introducing the Class of 2013

 

MIT in the news

Caution: Geniuses at Work and Play An affectionate look at the wacky wizards of that Nerd World Country, M.I.T. (Readers' Digest, October 1985. Not much has changed since then.)

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star (New York Times, 19 Dec 07)

An Easy Ride Around the Crowd of Old Polluters (New York Times, 24 Dec 08)

At MIT, Large Lectures are Going the Way of the Blackboard (New York Times, 12 Jan 09)