> Calculus/analysis tests seem quite standard, where's the unusual push? The tests in standard courses aren't really what's at play. It's about people and the

> Calculus/analysis tests seem quite standard, where's the unusual push? The tests in standard courses aren't really what's at play. It's about people and the ability to "run into" and work with those people gets people into research networks. Not all MIT students do that, of course, and it's not an absolute; many people come from less-prestigious schools, but the networking effects stack things against them coming from undergrad and afford them fewer opportunities to "walk into" those circles, depending on the resources their UGs have.