Rebecca
As a freshman, many of your technical classes will be large lectures with small recitations. This may worry you, but don't let it. There is no need to have a small class for multi-variable calculus, and your TA will help you along the way. Some introductory class professors are available in office hours etc, but most students get help from TAs. As you get older, you start having smaller classes, and can get to know your professors. That is up to you though. You need to put in the effort to build the relationships that will serve you while you are still in school, and once you leave.
MIT has a very collaborative atmosphere. In my department (civil engineering), for example, students are required to work together on problem sets, projects etc. to imitate what the work environment will be like.
Studying is everyone's main activity. You can make time for other things if you are organized, but this is not a place to skate by.
Harper
It sucks. You learn to love that it sucks. You learn to party on Thursday night even if you have to stay up till 5am to finish that pset.
Sleep. Social life. School work. Choose two.
Piper
Freshman classes tend to be largest since everyone's required to take certain intro classes, and from there classes shrink. The nice thing is that the professors are only an email away. They're all required to have office hours, so you can see them in person. They're usually willing to talk before or after class, too. If you put in a tiny bit of effort, you'll be fine communicating with profs. Students are always having intelligent conversations, though not necessarily about a class because people read stuff about all sorts of topics and have tons to share. The nice thing is that since we don't have any class rank or graduation honors, competitive people are only competing against themselves, seeing how much they can push themselves. I haven't experienced any backstabbing nature like at other schools - everyone collaborates because that's what you have to do to survive. It's tough here because any given class will make you go more in-depth than you ever thought, so you'll learn tons just for the sake of learning, more than you'd probably need in a job. But in turn, you end up prepared for anything in the future.
Gina
There is no better place than MIT for math and science. I love most all of my engineering classes. Most of the professors are friendly and accessible. Everyone here wants to see you succeed so you can always find someone to help you out if you're having some trouble in a class (which is bound to happen more than once).
What I really like is that most students here foster an environment of collaboration rather than competition. Classes are insanely hard, so most students work together to get through them. We have group study sessions and our teaching assistants will bring juice and donuts for long office hours.
I also feel comfortable talking about classes outside of class. People here are genuinely interested in what other classes are studying. It's normal to overhear conversations about a student's lab project building a robot or extracting an important biological molecule. You can talk about things here that your friends back home would never understand.
Nico
Students study more than anything. It is competitive. Classes are interesting. I know of no professor who knows my name as I sit in a big lecture hall. The professors that do know my name know me because of other encounters not related to a class. MIT academics seems to balance the goals of learning for the sake of learning and learning for the sake of expanding one's career toolbox.
Chris
One thing to change about MIT is to loosen up the requirements for classes, because that would allow for students to actually take classes that they enjoy and are interested about.
Carrie
Your academic experience at MIT depends a lot on your major. I started out as a Course 1 (Civil and Environmental Engineering) major, and the classes were extremely small, though they were sometimes frustratingly disorganized. When I switched to Course 5 (Chemistry), the classes became much larger, but the lesson plans were well thought out, and I knew more of my classmates. MIT is too large, in general, for your professors to know you if you're not going to make an effort. You can definitely slip by unnoticed, or you can choose to be extremely involved in your department - organizing events, doing undergraduate research, and spending a lot of time asking questions and becoming familiar with your professors. Like many other aspects of MIT, its mostly left up to you; there is a lot of independence and responsibility - no one is going to look after you, which is usually a good thing.
KC
I spend a lot of time on homework, and I'm not beneath copying my friend's problem set if I'm still not done at 3 in the morning, so I spend less time than most people. Maybe I spend 18 hours a week? I think MIT's core required classes are good - then everyone gets a feel for all the sciences - if I hadn't been required to, I wouldn't have taken chemistry, but it's good that I know it now. Also, it's good to require so many humanities, because then there are more choices - then I can take a variety of classes that are not math/science but still not have to take English - I took anthropology last semester and now I'm in linguistics. I have not gotten to know any of my professors, but I've still pretty much only been taking introductory courses, so I don't think that's representative of classes that are smaller, in my department. I'm majoring in civil engineering, which has a pretty small department, so I'm confident that I will get to know my professors. But I do learn most of my interesting math/science tidbits outside of class, in conversations with my friends!
Lisa
It's hard. Really bloody hard. You'll be studying 24/7 here. Within your major you'll be well known to your professors and TAs in and out of the classroom. It's a great education and definitely prepares you for either a job or continuing higher education.
Casey
Academics are very rigorous here, but MIT pays enough attention to students in terms of making professors and TAs very easily accessible. Classes cover a variety of topics so that students can choose to take courses that they want to know more about for learning's sake, or purely for the transcript.
Michael
Professors: Very capable at research not always at teaching. Some are very good though.
Students: Study varies by person. Little competition between peers.
Ashley
In intro classes, professors do not know your name. As a sophomore, it's still hard to pick a favorite class because they're not EXACTLY what I want. So far, I've like organic chemistry and biochemistry. Some students have intellectual conversations outside of class but most of the time, when you take a break, you really want to take a break. Students are not that competitive. My philosophy is - "Don't Complain. Don't Ask About Test Scores. Don't Tell." Education at MIT is definitely geared towards learning. The school tries to teach you to think outside the box in a creative way. Therefore, biology is not just memorizing but it's seeing the big picture and being able to zoom in at the same time. It's our ability to analyze things that makes MIT students attractive to the work force.
Gene
Academics at MIT are really good (in science / math / engineering / business / etc.). (Don' t come here for languages or music, although if you try hard you can get those too.) We do definitely have intellectual conversations outside of class, all the time. Everyone here is very competitive (although not really with one another, just in general). People don't spend time with professors outside of class except for in office hours. I feel that MIT's requirements are very fair--they allow a lot of flexibility within degrees, knowing that many people will want to specialize in more specific areas or broaden out to get other majors / minors / concentrations. A lot of people here are definitely geared towards getting a good job when they graduate. The education here is geared towards making you really well educated in your field--for grad school, job, or whatever you are aiming for.
Emmerson
Classes are completely hit or miss, and the course catalog is not to be trusted. Trust the reviews of people you trust, and people whose interests more closely align with your own. Always remember: courses may be insanely better in one semester due to a prof switch.
Jenn
Let's face it, MIT is not easy. We have a rigorous number of required courses (general institute requirements) that include two semesters of calculus, two semesters of physics, and several other science/math based classes. Apart from that most of the school consists of students in either Engineering or Science. As such, the courseload for most students is very difficult. With that said we have some of the best faculty in the world. There is a great feeling of comraderie amongst students in the same major, and many like to work together to help one another succeed. An education at MIT can easily be considered one of the most intense and rewarding of any institution in the world.
Wally
Classes are long and tough. Hard core classes are HORRENDOUS.
Lee
Everything, from science to finance to engineering to humanities, is strong at MIT. Everyone knows that when you come to MIT, you sacrifice nothing in the department of academics.
Paul
Although this may or may not play a big role in your life as an undergraduate here, the research that goes on here is astounding. The guys that invented the world wide web and TCP/IP, those that discovered quarks and developed the theory of quantum chromodynamics and the MIT-bag model of quark interactions, those that seqeuenced a huge portion of the human genome at the Whitehead Institute, and one of the developers of the Black-Scholes equation in economics, they're all here. No matter what field you go into, you'll run into people who invented it. Seven of the people who won Nobel Prizes in 2001 studied or instructed at MIT. Stuff happens here, and it happens fast. And it's a pretty exciting place to be. And that's pretty cool.
John
The professors are generally quite accessible. As a freshman, I took classes with Chomsky, the guy who discovered the world's oldest rock, and the guy who discovered Uranus' rings. One of my classes was only 2 people. Getting UROPs (research jobs, $8.75/hr to start) is ridiculously easy; I emailed a prof saying I was interested in what he was doing, and within a week I was hired.
Anna
Do professors know your name? Do you spend time with professors outside of class?
Most of my professors don't know my name, the classes are in general too big for that. But there are ways to get to know the faculty-- you can do research in their labs, or meet them through extracurricular activities. All students also have academic advisers in their department who meet with them at least once a semester.
Tell us about your favorite class. Least favorite?
My favorite class was a biology elective. The class was small, only about 20 students. We read two papers from biology journals each week and students took turns presenting the papers. We learned from literature, not textbooks (which is how you learn in the real world) and there was a lot of discussion. Our professor was there to guide us and answer questions but not to lecture.
My least favorite class was definitely thermodynamics in the chemical engineering department. It's a very difficult topic and the teaching was pretty awful. The professors taught the subject very quantitatively, using only equations and no explanations.
How often do students study?
Students study a lot here. During the week, I usually spend 4 hours a day on homework or studying. I also study most of the day on either Saturday or Sunday and either Friday or Saturday night.
Is class participation common?
It depends on the class. Most professors are open to questions.. but lectures are primarily for professors to talk, not students.
Do MIT students have intellectual conversations outside of class?
Students like to talk about their projects or research outside of class. But we don't talk about intellectual stuff all the time. We like to have fun too!
Are students competitive?
Not usually. There are some rare exceptions, but most students rely on one another to work on homework and study.
How do you feel about MIT 's academic requirements?
MIT's science requirements are fair for a technical institution. The humanity requirements are pretty strict though-- we have to take 8 courses in the humanities to graduate. Students complain about this a lot, and it will probably be restructured in the future.
Is the education at MIT geared toward getting a job, or learning for its own sake?
This question depends a lot on the person and the department. In general, the engineering departments teach very practically, prepare students for jobs.