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Table Of Contents

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About The Authors

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MIT Classes: The Real Deal

Essential Information About MIT Grad School

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About The Authors

MIT Classes: The Real Deal

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MIT Classes: The Real Deal

By JUNJAY TAN

Highlights:
MIT gives students the freedom to pursue coursework in any department.
Grades are there to help you gauge how well youre learning the material.
Most professors dont grade on a curve, so the test performance of other students doesnt
impact your grade.

Fluidity Of Departments
The departments fluidity is the biggest advantage of MIT classes. It doesnt matter what
department youre in. You can take classes or work in labs in any department. This freedom
gives you the flexibility and freedom to explore subjects that arent completely within your
department. At MIT, researchers are constantly looking for ways to try unconventional
projects, and strict department boundaries arent a concern.
Heres the caveat to taking cross-listed classes. Some professors assume background
knowledge, and youll find yourself in way over your head.

Shop Til You Drop

You have 2 months to shop and drop classes. The generous drop period allows people to bail
from classes that are not right for them. If you find yourself in a class in which everyone except
you has already taken another class with the same professor, youre not trapped. Many
students will sign up for more classes than they can take and drop them after the first week.

Grades
GPA is not the end-all, be-all in grad school. Grad school puts grades into perspective. Grades
are a only a gauge of how well youre learning the material, especially if you want to continue
on to get a Ph.D. and need to take qualifier tests. (The qualifier test determines which Master s
students go on to pursue Ph.D.s, and it requires students to pick 3 subjects to be tested
intensively.)
The grading scheme is weighted towards As and Bs, so its rare to get anything outside of
that range. But even with that reassurance, you cant avoid working hard. Everyone is always
studying hard or working in lab. That peer pressure motivates you to keep up with the

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intellectual stimulation.
Some classes determine grades purely from test scores. Most grades are a combination of
tests, homework and lab work (either physical, hands-on work or computer simulation).
Homework is just for your own benefit.

Class Size
Classes are generally around 40-60 people. When you get deep into your track, seminar
classes can shrink to about 10 people or fewer.

Hours
Classes take place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 1 hour, or on Tuesdays and
Thursdays for 1.5 hours each session. This amounts to 3 credit hour classes. There should be 2
hours of homework for every hour youre in class. Realistically, we all know that 2 hours
quickly becomes 5 when youre compulsively checking Facebook.
A typical day might start at 8 with class. Lab work finishes at 5. When youre not in lab,
youll be doing homework. You might get back to your room at 6, go to the gym, and get back
to homework at 8. Its hard to slack off if everyone else is always hard at work.

Professors
All classes are taught by professors or research scientists (Ph.D.s who focus on research rather
than teaching). MITs School of Engineering has a full-time faculty of 369, according to U.S.
News & World Report.
Unless a very famous professor is teaching a class, you shouldnt have trouble getting into
classes. Because of the long drop period, its hard for professors to know when to cap classes
since their class size fluctuates.

Competition
Classes are competitive, but I never felt as if I was competing against other students. Grad
school requires you to be self-motivated. I was always competing against myselfthe bar is
already so high at MIT.
Professors dont usually grade on a bell curve. Every student has a specific research
interest. Even if the genius who researches fluid mechanics aces every test in that subject, your
grade wont suffer because of a curve.
Focus on learning the material for your own good and do the best you can with the
experience you have. Youll have your time to dominate in your own research area. Who
knows, maybe you can help each other.

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Essential Information About MIT Grad

School
By JUNJAY TAN

Highlights:
MIT is consistently ranked as the #1 engineering school.
PhDs take 4-5 years, including the 2 years for a Master s degree.
The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science,
technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the
21st century.
MIT Mission Statement (With Normal-Person Translation)
How does this translate in practice? MITs purpose varies by department.
If you go into Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or Materials Science and
Engineering, your studies will be very research focused (funding comes from government
agencies that have specific agendas).
If you go into Media, industry will be the main focus because those labs are completely
industry funded. Their projects are more applications-driven. They concentrate on creating
demos for their wow factor rather than creating something just to learn about it.

MIT Engineering Grad School In Numbers

*Stats according to 2010-2011 Graduate Enrollment

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Admissions
The number of students admitted to MIT Engineering Grad School depends on the
department and its research needs. Larger departments like Mechanical and Electrical
Engineering will admit more students than tiny departments like Chemical Engineering will.
Technology and Policy, which is a newer department, usually takes about 40 people a year.
The number of students admitted to a department may fluctuate each year depending on
funding, availability of professors to act as advisors, and the number of research positions.
Especially in the recession, its hard to predict how many openings will be offered to
incoming engineering students.
MIT doesnt release statistics on the minimum GPA of successful applicants, but Id
estimate that you should aim for a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Each department has their own
system for evaluating quantitative measures like GRE scores and GPA. For example, Civil and
Environmental Engineering lists an average GRE quantitative score of 755, while Chemical
Engineering wont set a specific minimum GRE score.
Academics
According to the U. S. News & World Report 2011 Rankings, MIT is the #1 Best
Engineering School. About one-third of the MIT faculty is devoted to teaching at the School of
Engineering. In addition, MIT boasts almost 20 research centers where students can dive into
exciting research with the 3240 researchers working in labs.
Engineering students usually take 2 grad classes a semester in addition to a research
project that they discuss with their advisor. Depending on the department, youre required to
take a certain amount of classes at the graduate level (H-level classes). Non H-level classes are
much less rigorous because theyre either advanced undergrad classes or lower level grad
classes. Unlike undergrad, grad programs are extremely research-focused, so youll spend at

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least 30 hours a week in the lab.

A Master s degree takes about 2 years, and the Ph.D. will keep you on campus for about 4
to 5 years (including the 2 years for a Master s degree). Certain degrees like Physics take a
little longer to complete because of the research requirements.

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