IHTFP

Introduction
You have to be slightly masochistic to want to go to MIT. IHTFP is the school mantra, and it stands for "I Hate This Fucking Place" because at some point, after 4 all-nighters in a row, you WILL rue the day you passed up admission to that nice easy Ivy League school.

MIT is not the place for everyone, but if you want the best education there is- and you're willing to sacrifice a good chunk of sweat and blood- it might be the place for you. And not to scare you away, but please please please check out the campus first (stay overnight with a student host) so that you know what you're getting yourself into- MIT has the highest suicide rate in the nation. It's alot of pressure and it can get to you.

Think you're good at math? Well the kid to your right was #1 in his country for four straight years and the one to your left got a gold medal in the International Math Olympiad when he was 11. Think you're so hot now? And these are the kids you're competing against for now.

It's daunting for sure, especially if you're used to being the smartest kid in the room. But so is everyone else. You can't get into MIT because you excel at sports or your parents have money. There's only one way to get in, and it's using your brains. So if you think you're done working hard just cuz you got in- good luck and goodbye. This place is exponentially harder (yes, I said exponentially) than the baby stuff you went through in high school, and it will be a struggle just to PASS your classes.

There are no easy A's here. If you want easy A's, go to Harvard.

Would I do it all over again? Yes. A MIT education is priceless, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But then again, I'm a little masochistic.

Campus Life and Social Life
For all that MIT students look like, well, MIT students, we party hard. Everyone from the nearby colleges (BU, Wellesley, Harvard, etc) comes to MIT to party because we regularly need to get obliviated to forget how much our lives suck and our administration is very understanding of that fact.

Frats rule the party scene but dorms hold their own, too. And if you get tired of seeing the same 100 people at parties, Boston is right across the river (literally).

But keep in mind, at MIT, the odds are good but the goods are odd. So make sure to bring a soberish friend to parade your latest "catch" in front of, otherwise you'll want to gnaw your arm off in the morning. MIT goggles are a bad baaad thing.

We work hard, party harder, and sleep never. Some people choose work & sleep and party never, but we never see those people. Only the Papa John's delivery dude can vouch that they're still alive.

So campus life, clubs, and student organizations. Well, you can do that stuff here. Hell, you can do whatever you want here, really. You can propose a club for pretty much anything and MIT will give you funding to do whatever you want. So this scene is really what you make of it- nobody will force you to do anything so it's really up to you to make of it what you will.

Um, I've been here for 4 years and I still haven't gone to a single football game. We have a stadium??

Campus is always alive- and since we don't sleep, there's always someone up for something, be it pissing on John Harvard's foot or climbing up the big dome. Academics
Every department at MIT is top-notch. We have 32 Nobel Prize winning professors teaching classes here, and they know their shit. Unfortunately, that means you have to work really hard just to understand what they're talking about, but that's the rub.

Some departments (course 15, management science) are easier than others (course 6, computer science), but none of them are easy. MIT's Sloan management science program is actually the #1 undergraduate business school in the nation, tied with Wharton. And you'll still be working 80+ hours a week no matter what you major in, it's just some will spend that time coding scheme and others will spend it networking (equally tedious, depending on your perspective).

Professors can be friendly and human, or they can be completely evil and unsympathetic. Most professors think very highly of their subject, so don't expect them to cut you any slack because your bunny rabbit died.

TA's tend to be more accessible, but you have to be careful, some of them don't speak english properly or can't explain anything to you- What do you mean it isn't intuitively obvious?!? Or, try that in a heavy Russian accent.

Workload sucks. You work so much all the time that by the end of the day, you can't remember what you did in the beginning of the day since it was soo long ago.

Student Body
Typical student has crazy Albert Einstein hair, a hunchback (from years of carrying gianormous backpacks), and at least one psychological disorder- a little scary/crazy at first but the crazy ones have the best drugs. Around 30% of campus has either ADD or OCD.

The inner nerd inside of all of us makes us seem alike, but we come from over 100 different countries. There's alot of culture to pick up if you're interested. Most people are chill, but there will be your crazies too. But basically, no matter what you're interested in, where you come from, and what values or preferences you have, you will surely find a group of like-minded individuals at MIT.

In Closing...
Four years for the rest of your life- that's the tradeoff. If you work hard these four years, you will be set up for the rest of your life.

MIT is hardcore, and it is acknowledged as such. Our Brass Rat school ring (that you get at the end of sophomore year, if you make it that far) is the second most recognized ring in the WORLD (after the Superbowl Ring) and people have gotten jobs and internships just because someone recognized their brass rat. Of course, the rings look hideously ugly, but like the rest of MIT, they hold great value if you can look beyond appearances.

MIT is above all, an acquired taste.