4 ms·
MIT certainly doesn't have the humanities breadth of Harvard, for instance, but the humanities that MIT does have are remarkably good. Some of my fellow MIT stu
by nessus42 14y ago
MIT certainly doesn't have the humanities breadth of Harvard, for instance, but the humanities that MIT does have are remarkably good. Some of my fellow MIT students at the time went to MIT because they thought the extra-curricular music programs were better at MIT than at Harvard. I got my SB from MIT in Philosophy. MIT's Philosophy program is considered to be in the top few in the country, as is its Linguistics. I was taught creative writing by Joe Haldeman, photography in dark rooms that had been built by Minor White, psychology by Susan Carey, etc. Every MIT student is also required to take 8 classes in humanities, complete a humanities concentration in a particular field, and take a certain number of humanities that have a very significant writing requirement. MIT's business school is in the top few in the world.
Also, I'm not sure that it is correct to say that science and engineering are more "specialized" in their entirety than liberal arts are. All of Harvard's engineering, for instance, is contained in a single department. Doesn't that make Harvard more "specialized" towards liberal arts?
- arctangent 14y agoThank you for providing me with this info. Edit: This goes equally to the other responses to my comment.
- mturmon 14y agoI 100% will take your word for it on the quality of some elements of MIT's humanities faculty (not being ironic). But few of the MIT grads I've known (wonderful people, all) appear to have benefited that much from this opportunity. They're nerds through and through. Maybe the technical course load precludes exploring non-technical subjects. Or maybe the experience of 4 years almost exclusively around young scientists and engineers tends to alter one's perspective. Maybe it's that I've only been around conventional technical MIT grads (EECS, Physics, not Philosophy).
- nessus42 14y agoI'm a nerd through and through too. Being a nerd doesn't mean that you can't have an appreciation for some kinds of humanities, though, especially if you take a very analytical approach to it. E.g., Psychology at MIT is rather scientific, and Philosophy is rather logical. And for creative writing, I, of course, wrote Science Fiction.
- mturmon 14y agoI like your formulation. There are many parts of culture that the analytical mindset cannot approach, alas. I spent a few years hanging around fine arts grad students and let's say that is a whole different ball game.