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http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blo...03/school_secrets_5_things_to_kno_4.html
School Secrets: 5 things to know about MIT
By Melissa Werthmann
Boston Globe
March 24, 2012

...

Since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology opened its doors in 1865 in response to America's increasing industrialization, the school -- regarded as one of the most academically rigorous in the country -- has had some really impressive people walk its halls. Besides Will Hunting, MIT's famous alums include Noam Chomsky (also a professor), Buzz Aldrin, and James Doolittle.

When MIT isn't cranking out productive members of society, it's generating its own power. "All power is generated by our own nuclear reactor," said Max Maybury, a freshman computer science major -- and that's just the beginning of the long list of awesome things about life at MIT.

...

MIT students can't fail. In an effort to ensure student happiness, MIT instituted a policy for first-semester freshmen known as "pass, no record": If students don't pass the class, there's no record of them ever taking it. In the second semester, the policy changes to "ABC, no record."

"MIT really wants their students to be happy. They know that students here can be pretty hard on themselves," Sowa said. "It's a hard transition, and it can be really difficult for students to figure out how to budget their time.

Technically, a student could earn his degree without taking any classes -- as long as he's smart enough to pass the tests that get him out of every subject. But proceed with caution: Those tests are incredibly challenging and have high requirements for a passing grade, Maybury said. "I looked at the chem one and handed it right back," he said.

Thanks for posting. (Is Will Hunting a real person? )

Yes, thanks for posting--I have a mostly uninformed opinion of MIT as being a real grind school, but DD is strong in math and so I have it in the back of my head as a possibility for when she applies to colleges in 9 years. These policies sound quite reasonable, and the Smoot measurement (and local respect for it) is delightfully charming and quirky--maybe it would be the perfect place for DD.

Another recent story with color on MIT is

http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-19/metro/30643752_1_national-math-competition-spelling-bee-mit
MIT math bee creates campus star
By Billy Baker
Boston Globe
January 19, 2012

dbat, have you heard of MIT Splash?

http://esp.mit.edu/learn/Splash/index.html

Something to put in the queue if you are interested in MIT for your DD. We used to take classes there on Sat. (I grew up over there) and it was fun. We were the little brats roaming around campus, sometimes accidently wandering into a lab occupied with people deep in thought. No pressure for social skills (much different than Harvard!), though maybe that's changed, they have "charm school".

I toured MIT as a senior before undergrad, but only attended as a grad student. Much has changed since my first tour over 25 years ago. The students are now equally split between men and women, and I think that the lack of social skills part is also disappearing now that MIT's undergraduate admission rate is among the lowest in the country.

But it still remains refreshingly quirky. Admission decisions are often announced on Pi Day (3/14) at 1:59 PM.

I hear that undergrad can still be a grind, although all the alums seem to look back with admiration. What they say is that students form a strong bond to help each other get through the program. The dropout rate is very low, as is typical of selective colleges.

I was at MIT for ten years, undergrad and grad school. I would say that it is exactly the right school for a limited number of people, and overwhelmingly the wrong school for others. The people who belong there love it passionately but there's nothing wrong with not loving it, either. People who are there because of the "name" are likely to be disappointed.

Selective colleges generally try to make sure that dropping out is somewhat difficult to accomplish.

"People" always used to say that if you got into Harvard it was impossible to flunk out but I never thought to look into that statement since it has never had any relevance to me.

I would say, I was just a kid/teenager and didn't realize it at the time, but my time spent on university/college campuses in a place like Cambridge/Boston with all the things we used to do (classes/museums/library) and sharing the T with them, seeing the med students literally taking a nap on their huge pile of textbooks as they rode along...it really made a deep impression on me regarding all the different types of people that go away for their education, how they act, how prepared are (or aren’t) to be set loose. Like, a newby freshman who literally didn’t know how to purchase a loaf of bread at the store would send us into peels of giggles...how’s that for social skills hee hee)

I always got the general impression that the people at MIT were “more mature” (unlike some other places I won’t mention where co-eds used to seem to not have their senses about them - hanging out of dorm windows, yelling rude things to us commoners on the street - or just be super-snobby in more of a social class way than an intellectual way).

As for my DD, she currently has absolutely no intention of going to college and won’t hesitate to remind anyone. But I think this is totally normal for an 8 year old (especially since she probably thinks college is just more years of what she does at school now LOL!)

I'm speaking from personal experience.

I made a minor attempt to drop out of law school, as in refused to do a requirement of the school (by showing up and informing them that I was not going to participate) and then explain that the reason I didn't do it was because I was thinking about dropping out (which was true). Duke talked me out of it and made special accommodations so that I could complete the requirement.