This was done in recognition of the problem that many of us parents on this board are working hard to avoid: kids entering after acing AP and honors classes without having to work at it, suddenly hit these difficult university classes faced with the realization that they lack basic "how to learn" skills. My room mate went through a painful process of trial and error figuring out how to get all her work done, how to ask for help, and figuring out how to study for a test for the first time in her life.
I'm proof that you can make it through engineering and law school without these basic skills.
Where the problem really hits is when you get out into the working world without any of these skills and you suddenly have to cope with things you have no idea how to do. Social isolation and avoidance no longer worked.
I eventually ended up with panic attacks (several years ago), but it had more to do with a basic inability to cope in a work and life environment than anything else. I'm just now to the point where I'm trying to develop basic organizational and time management skills (over the past year or so). It really never occurred to me earlier in life that you have to develop certain skill sets because you can either avoid the stress of developing them or other people (like your parents) will do them for you.
Granted, when you go to a school like MIT, I would expect that you either develop some of these skills or you do fail out. I would expect this from the other hard science/tech schools as well. It's always a good idea to develop these skills sooner rather than later because it's eventually going to cause severe life problems.
