This looks quite interesting and useful! But I wanted to comment on some bitterness in your post: > the school went the extra mile to ensure I don’t have the

This looks quite interesting and useful! But I wanted to comment on some bitterness in your post: > the school went the extra mile to ensure I don’t have the resources to learn on my own, The things you list are department or even course-specific. For example when I did thermo (forget the course number) they had not just lecture/tutorial/office hours but handouts about things people found hard to understand ("mud" as in "clear as"). Also study groups are life saving. Would not have passed Unified without it. > It turns out that universities succeed by being prestigious, not by teaching well. I can't speak for other institutions, but don't think of MIT as a school (total spending on education is only ~15% of revenue and run at a slight loss). MIT is a huge government (and industry) research lab with a small school bolted on the side. Most of the staff is research staff; most of the faculty seem to resent teaching, and undergrads in general unless they can contribute to research (this somewhat overstatement ignores some faculty who love teaching and students -- but they are a minority). You can get a fantastic education at MIT (I sure did, as did some friends) and you can get a terrible one (I have many friends who say that's what they got). The difference has nothing to do with brains or aptitude, it's just if you happen to accidentally get into the "groove". From visiting friends at other schools and looking and my kid's education I can say MIT's experience is really different, and not necessarily better.