What is MIT
To most of us, "MIT" stands for one thing, and one thing only: an overused BSD-style software license. But in a suburb of Boston, a little-known private university known as Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been racking up accolades at an impressive rate, sparking curiosity among CMU students and faculty. The gist of MIT is pretty simple: it's basically a smaller, shittier CMU. With an undergraduate population of 4500 and a graduate population of 7300, it hasn't quite caught up to our Carnegie Tech, which boasts 7700 undergrads and 8600 graduate students. While CMU's historic campus spans a range of architectural styles, it's anchored by the seven original beaux-arts style buildings, from the turn of the 20th century. MIT, in contrast, started with a disorganized jumble of buildings, which only worsened as changing architectural style gripped the campus in its maw, violently flinging it between brutalist abstraction and postmodernist disorder, never managing to snap its neck cleanly. CMU may claim the spot as #1 in computer science, but MIT is a close tie for second. What MIT truly lacks, as its name may suggest, is the breadth that makes CMU stand out. Carnegie Mellon boasts world-class drama, architecture, and business programs, in addition to the STEM majors it's most famous for. It fearlessly pushes the boundaries of multidisciplinary collaboration, single-handedly introducing academic disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to decision science. MIT may as well be stuck in a previous century. Unlike CMU, some say going to MIT can be a significant source of stress. Its official motto, "I Hate This Fucking Place", is proudly displayed on its class rings. A common hobby at MIT is "shafting", which may describe either the practice of climbing through walls to access secret tunnels, or paying the cost of its tuition. MIT is close neighbors with Harvard, a decrepit business school with which it shares a cross-registration program. Despite its many shortcomings, MIT is all over the news. Always on the lookout for an underdog, journalists are quick to point out the cutting-edge research which sometimes occurs. Keep an eye on this rising star in the coming years!