I can’t speak about U of M, but I went to UC Berkeley for one year, then transferred to MIT, and I was much happier at MIT. It’s not a really small school, but it’s small enough to feel much more cohesive. The way I used to describe it to people was that if I started talking to someone on an airplane and discovered that they also went to Berkeley, I still didn’t really have anything to talk to them about. If I discovered they went to MIT, we could ususally fill the rest of the flight with conversation easily.
I took two of my humanities courses at Harvard - basically, you can take almost anything there if it’s not offered at MIT (or at least you could when I was a student - I graduated in 1990).
You should definitely apply to both, though - lots of really good people don’t get into MIT, so you don’t want it to be the only school you apply to.
I read this entire thread with great interest because my daughter is in the same boat as you (except the schools other than MIT she’s interested in are U Chicago and U Penn). As you can tell she’s looking for a large city and loves Boston.
Do you think her experience at MIT would be i) better, ii) worse, iii) no better, no worse- just different from that of a male?
I’m a recent UM grad with degrees in both humanities (history) and physical science (astrophysics). I agree with CrankyAsAnOldMan and can say that the history department here is top-notch, if that’s of any importance to you. Physics and math are both extremely good, from my experience, though our astronomy department is in sort of a “rebuilding” phase, if you want to call it that. If you’re interested in enrolling in the Engineering school they have a very good program in Engineering Physics as well. Also, from a standpoint of finances it’s going to be a hell of a lot cheaper if you stay in-state than going out East.
Aside from classes Ann Arbor, as most people have said, is an amazing town (especially in the summer when the students leave!!). I’ve never been to Boston, but I don’t think you will unhappy if you decide to come to UM.
Just to clarify – I believe the weather in Ann Arbor and the weather in Boston are nearly identical. In both places, you can nearly guarantee that the first snow falls before Thanksgiving.
Disclaimer: I live in Ann Arbor, but I didn’t go to U o M.
You should ask yourself: Is the “big school” environment what I really want out of my college education? Do I want to attend freshman classes with 600 of my closest friends?
Have you considered applying to any smaller schools?
I have quite a few friends who sort of “slid through” UoM without really “getting” anything out of the experience. This is only too easy to do, because the school is so large it is easy to avoid being noticed. If you want to get to know your professors, YOU are going to have to make the effort.
If you are self directed you probably won’t have this particular problem but I wanted to bring it up (and have you considered the Residential College at UoM? Its sort of a school-within-a-school).
MIT has a different kind of intensity, and a different feel on campus. UoM is very sports oriented, has a really “typical” frat scene… it is a “name brand” school but nowhere near as hard to get in as MIT. MIT can be capricious in their admissions – they are looking for students who add something special. A student from my high school got in with about a 300 on his English SAT… this kid was sincerely a mathematical genius. If you are “averagely exceptional” (real smart kinda like all the other smart kids) you may be surprised at how hard it is to be accepted.
You didn’t ask for this advice, but I’d also suggest applying to at least one other school – something a bit more “in between” UoM and MIT.
I strongly suggest visiting both campuses before making your decision. Most colleges can arrange for you to stay overnight on campus.
There are enough women at MIT now that I really think it’s not a big deal. In fact, it’s a wonderful place for meeting other women who are interested in math and science stuff. I think I had a significantly higher proportion of women in my technical classes at MIT than at Berkeley.
All of you should come try the ballroom dance team when you get to MIT. I’ve been coaching it for about 6-7 years, and it rocks!
I would like to second the above. And I can’t stress it strongly enough. (Except for the part about hating Boston, which IMHO is a fine small town.)
If you’re smart enough to even be thinking about applying to these two schools, more than likely you’re smart enough to handle either. However, to be successful at MIT you must be driven. MIT is not very forgiving to students who take a casual attitude towards their work. And in my experience this includes many extremely bright people. The kind of people who are used to being able to do all their work with one hemisphere of their brain tied behind their back, the kind of people who have never really had to work their butts off just to keep their heads above water are the kind who get clobbered at MIT.
I would really only recommend MIT to people who can think of it in terms of Graduate School Part I. You really have to be the kind of person who knows what you want, and is willing to persue it doggedly. No one is going to give you any handouts there.
Another word of advice if you do wind up going to MIT: take as many placement exams as you can. AP classes may not be credited and every class you can get out of the way helps. Most majors require a very full schedule, plus there are many institute requirements. Studying for and taking these placement tests may mean that you can’t spend as much of your summer relaxing or do as much fun stuff during orientation week, but it will be worth it in the long run. Besides, it’s better to get into the hard work habit before you start at MIT than halfway through your sophomore year when your advisor asks you if you wouldn’t be happier at a community college. Not that I’d know anything about that.
Just to reiterate, it’s doubful you’ll pull down the same grades at MIT you’re used to in high school. During one freshman orientation event, the speaker had all valedictorians stand up - that was about 1/3 of the students. Then he added the salutatorians and it came to about half the class. Now, obviously not all of those people are going to #1, but you need to decide if that’s important to you. For me, it was kind of a relief that I didn’t have to worry about staying on top anymore and could concentrate on learning, but it can be quite a shock for some.
I had a great experience, and that was 7 years ago. When I was in high school, all I heard was how it would be bad in college, then in college I heard about how it would be bad in the real world, but I’ve had no problems. That doesn’t mean that there’s no issues - any large group of people has a few jerks in it. Like ENugent said it’s nice to meet other people, particularly women, like yourself. For me, that was the best part about MIT.
Ask yourself, are you unique (not just in your own mind, either), or at least original? Did you come up with interesting theories in, say, economics that at least sounds plausible? Did you conduct original research in, say, archeology? Did you plan and complete projects in building earthquake-resistant homes? Did you write a thesis on scalar gravatic magnetism? (just kidding :D)
[quoteJust to reiterate, it’s doubful you’ll pull down the same grades at MIT you’re used to in high school.[/quote]
Very true. My first week at MIT I tool the AP exams for Calculus (which I pretty much aced in High School) and just barely passed them. I did ace my physics classes in HS, but found that I had to go to the tutoring help sessions in order to get by at first. As a famous piece of grafitti at the 'tute has it, “MIY is a great place to learn what it’s like to have an ID of 100.”
