TIO

I'm starting honours in CS next year, and after that, there's a reasonable chance I'll start a PhD. The thing is, my university is a good one, but not a world leader in my field. So I'm thinking about applying around to places like UTexas, ANU, Berkeley and a few other places. But my dream would be a PhD from MIT. Is anyone here from MIT? Can you offer me any tips for getting in there, or let me know what it's like?
Particularly, if there are any MIT postgrads around; exactly how hard is it to get in? Are there many postgrad scholarships around?

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Strewth

sailor

Well, I dont know about graduate, but I know several *incredibly* bright kids who applied to MIT as undergrads.

Not the first one got in. In fact, I dont know anyone who has gotten in. In the whole of Charlotte NC, population 1 million, I couldnt find the first person who got in there. And I tried. Oh how I tried. I asked everyone I knew if they knew anyone (who knew anyone who knew anyone who knew anyone) that got in. The valedictorian of one of the best high schools in the area with a perfect SAT score didnt get in. See, like you, MIT is my dream school.

Not to be overly pessimistic... But good luck. If I had to guess, I would say go get your masters from the best school you can get into, bust your ass like its your job, and pray.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Rodney

I wonder about this myself. I kicked around high tech for a number of years and met only one MIT grad; and _he_ was a political science guy -- heavy into statistical algorithms, though, it must be said. I'd be curious to know if MIT is kind of like an exclusive Ivy League school -- if you're not connected into academic circles in the Northeast, or know people who are, you can't get in.

I say that because I went with a woman who was the ultimate Ivy League school / MIT slacker. Her dad basically co-invented color TV for RCA back in the 40s and 50s, and apparently she could get in anywhere. She was a 40-year-old college student who'd gone from grad program to grad program down through the Ivy League, including MIT, never finishing her PhD but always getting into another one on Daddy's ticket (he kept her on an allowance). She knew Marvin Minsky to talk to, was part of the Martha's Vineyard crowd, slept with her professors (almost married one, which by a strange quirk of fate would have made her James Taylor's stepmother). She was smart, but not motivated to finish anything or go out into the world.

So I wonder: when you try to get into MIT, how many of those are you competing with?

wilbjammin

The only person I've known that went to MIT was my U.S. Foreign Policy professor when I was an undergrad. He was a terrible teacher, he made us by his stupid book that he wrote that was not helpful in the least, and I was ceasely frustrated with the meaninglessness of the class discussions. Of course, the inexplicable thing is that he got his degree from MIT in Physics and then later got other degrees in Political Science.

His bio

This probably isn't much help at all... since I'm from Oregon it is a surprise that I know anyone that went to MIT.

WarWagon

There's a reason MIT has the highest collegiate suicide rate.

Plenty of other excellent CIS and engineering schools out there. CalTech, Renseallaer, etc.

1337haxor

I knew someone that got into MIT. She got perfect SAT's, played sports, was way ahead for a high school student, and did alot of other stuff that I don't remember. She took Calculus II in her sophmore year in high school. She only got one B her first year at MIT. Last time I talked to her was back in May when she came to visit our old high school.
Wierd, but there are always people from my high school that gets into MIT.

sailor

To give you a comparison, my high school was ranked 7th in the country by the last newsweek poll thing, and we didnt have anyone get in.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Averett

A girl I went to high school with (friendly with, not good friends) went to MIT. She jumped out of a 13 story building.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or as the locals call it RPI, is a fantastic school. Beautiful campus. The only bright spot in the shit hole which is Troy, NY.

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

sailor

Yeah, RPI is a very good school.

Beware if you are hoping for... lets say "female companionship." The school is nearly 70% male. Competing for a girls I like is one thing, competing for *any* girl is another thing entirely.

I did look at going there for a long time though, until I decided that I didnt really want to pursue a completely engineering-based degree.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Averett

Good point sailor!

Luckly there are about a billion other schools in the area to pick from.


MIT though... they would laugh at me if I were to apply there!

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

rogue49

Not I
I almost went to Yale though,
but I couldn't afford it...and couldn't get a scholarship.

Oh well, that's alright...I wasted the first two years finding myself anyway,
might as well have done that at a lower cost.

lordjeebus

I know two people who got into and went to MIT as undergrads.

One was a supergenius who (many years ago) wrote a 3-D gaming engine in his spare time during high school and sold it to a large gaming company for something like $60K.

The other was smart but not a genius. He was a regional wrestling champion and MIT wanted him for their team.

I also know of someone who was accepted by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, CalTech, and ten other highly exclusive institutions -- but was rejected by MIT.

TIO

Looks like it'll be an uphill battle!

My grades at the moment are good, but not great. But there's a chance I'll get a publication and a few seminars out of my honours project...I'll just have to make them really bloody good.

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Strewth

hilbert25

I would not focus on a grad school so early. There are a lot of other grad schools that are fantastic. And MIT may not have teachers whose research match what you are interested as well as somewhere else.
Places like Carnegie Mellon, Waterloo, Caltech, Cal, Standford are all as good as, if not better in some respects than MIT. For example, MIT is great for certain types of robotics, as is Carnegie Mellon in other types.

The key is to find a school that has professors that you want to work with.
And RPI is a great undergraduate school, but from what I've heard their graduate program is a hellhole. Not that the teachers and students are bad, just that the atmosphere is really unhelpful.

Oh and lordjeebus, I also know someone that claimed to get into MIT because of wrestling (he was really smart too), but I find that strange considering MIT is dIII and should not be allowed to let someone in for sports.

hilbert25

Oh and tio, don't worry about scholarships, if you're going for a PHD, you should be worried if you're not getting paid to go there. They'll usually make you TA, but it's worth it to pay you, since you'll be working for them for 6+ years.

lordjeebus

He obviously wasn't let in for sports alone. But he was contacted directly by their wrestling program. Plus it set him apart from the other eggheads, some of whom may have had somewhat better numbers but were probably less interesting.

TIO

Early? I'm afraid I'm late!

I finished my Bachelor of Science this year, and this time next year I'll have completed my honours in CS. After that, there's nowhere to go but a PhD!

hilbert, thanks for that...at least money's not something I'll have to worry about
And TA would be cool. I'd be doing something vaguely similar here if I did a PhD in Australia.

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Bill O'Rights

Indeed. I can remember there was a guy, that was one year ahead of me in High School, that was accepted to, and attended MIT. I believe that he would have been in his Sophomore year when he killed himself.
In High School, you see, he was always a straight A, honor roll student...that never once had to open the textbooks. When he got to MIT, he actually had to study and had absolutely no idea how to study. The stress of it all became to much for him, and...well..

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Jakejake

Screw MIT...come to Oxford University, England...it's great

hilbert25

Ah here I was thinking you were talking about an American College, going to an honors CS program at some school. I should have notcied from the spelling....

So that would be equivalent to a Master of Sciences?

TIO

More or less, Hilbert. It's the same program, but with a little more research and a little less coursework.

Jake, what's the CS department at Oxford like? I wouldn't mind spending a little time in England.

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Strewth

Jakejake

Actually, for CS you'd be best going to Cambridge (much as I hate to suggest it... ) they have a better CS dept.
I am studying Engineering with CS at Oxford, the Engineering dept. here is pretty good.