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Class of '03. I certainly saw a lot of classmates under unhealthy levels of stress. But to add some counterpoint, it's not universal. I think the biggest sourc
by ef4 12y ago
Class of '03. I certainly saw a lot of classmates under unhealthy levels of stress. But to add some counterpoint, it's not universal.
I think the biggest source of the pain is not MIT itself, it's the way many high schools -- even "good" ones -- fail to prepare students. Learning for mastery is very different from studying for the test. You can get straight A's in high school just studying for the test, so unless some outside force or quirk of personality drives you to work for mastery, you never learn how.
That won't cut it at MIT. So a lot of people discover to their horror that they never actually learned how to master hard material, and they have catching up to do.
I felt well prepared, and I certainly wasn't the only one. Which is actually one of the sources of the stress: the students who are struggling can look around and see others who are not.
- madisonmay 12y agoI think part of it is also the big fish, little pond --> little fish, big pond phenomenon. When high school teaches you to define yourself as intelligent, academic, and driven and then you're placed in an environment where everyone else has developed a similar set of character traits and amassed a similar collection of academic achievements, I think students suffer a bit of an identity crisis. All of the sudden very key components of one's character are the norm, and the transition is far from easy.