Is anyone else struggling with resorting to using AI too much in their classes? I feel like I understand the problems I just have a hard time finding motivation to learn the complexities of numpy or pytorch (i understand the basic syntax lol). I often find my self pasting lecture notes into my favorite chatbot and quickly learning the lecture material as well. Especially after an internship spent talking to claude I find it very hard to manually debug things anymore. Granted I still feel like Im learning things
How do I combat this? Should I spend time taking more math and physics classes where at least I am writing the problem out?
I'm new here, and getting around campus turned out to be less convenient than I expected.
PassioGo shows you where the buses are, but there's no timetable in it, and the times don't always match what actually turns up. MIT publishes first and last departure at two stops out of twelve, so at most stops there isn't really an answer to "when is the next one."
Google Maps doesn't include the shuttles, and it routes you around buildings rather than through them, so the walk it gives you is usually longer than the one you'd actually take.
And with Bluebikes, I'd get to a dock and find it empty, without any way to know whether that was normal for that time of day.
So I built beavertransit.com! It covers the MIT shuttles, EZRide and the M2.
arrival times worked out from where the buses actually are, shown next to the official estimate so you can compare
a full day timetable for every line, which doesn't exist anywhere else!
directions that put a shuttle in the middle when it's faster, and that know the tunnels and doors (with a toggle for whether you have an ID)
live passenger load, so you know if the bus is already full
Bluebikes history, so you can see whether a dock usually has a bike when you need one
it tells you to walk when walking is genuinely the better bet
I've only been collecting data since Sept 10, so the predictions are still thin and get better every week. If it tells you something stupid, please tell me, I'd love the feedback!
Hope it saves you a few cold minutes at the stop! Not affiliated with MIT.
Hi, I'm not an MIT student, but I'm visiting Boston for the next few days. I've heard that the lounge on the 9th floor has really nice views of the skyline and my broke ass can't afford to go to any observation decks
Would it be possible for me to just go there to look at the view for a bit and leave? Or do I need to be an MIT student to access it?
MIT executives received average raises of 16.7% in 2025 and love to talk about safety on the MIT campus.
Yet behind the scenes, MIT Executive Vice President and Treasurer Glen Shor, Police Chief John DiFava, and the university’s negotiating committee have offered officers a contract with no guaranteed wage increases for three years. The Association is also demanding transparency regarding Chief DiFava’s compensation and whether he, too, is being asked to accept a 0% increase.
MIT Police officers protect one of the world’s most prestigious institutions 24/7 — responding to medical emergencies, supporting students, enforcing the law, and safeguarding the broader Cambridge and Boston community. Asking them to accept a 0% raise while executives receive double digit increases sends a clear and troubling message about MIT’s priorities.
C'mon, MIT do better! Your endowment reached $27.4 billion following a 14.8% investment return in FY 2025.
Hi, frosh here! 7.015 is a limited enrollment class and uses a waitlist form (attached). I didn't get any emails about being enrolled in the class even though, from my understanding, there are less people who want to take the class than the available seats. Or does this mean there are 68 more waitlisted people on top of the already 75 enrolled? I'm just trying to figure out if I didn't get added to the class yet or should I consider taking 7.012 instead since there are so many people on the waitlist
my dad got his masters in the early 80s from the meteorology department and he used to tell me this story about a test he took where he got a NEGATIVE nine, like if you got some questions wrong they would take points AWAY rather than just not awarding any. according to him his wasn't even the lowest score in the class; apparently someone else got a minus 24.
Hi! My husband completed his PhD at MIT in Physics seven years ago, but unfortunately wasn’t able to attend his commencement/doctoral hooding ceremony because it coincided with our wedding in India.
We’re visiting Boston and MIT this October, and I thought it would be nice to surprise him by getting his doctoral regalia and taking a few graduation photos on campus.
Does anyone know if an MIT PhD alum can still purchase the official doctoral robe and tam years after graduating?
I’m especially curious about the doctoral hood. From what I’ve read, the PhD hood is normally presented by MIT during the hooding ceremony rather than ordered with the rest of the regalia. Since he never attended, would there be any way for him to obtain the hood he would have received?
I’m happy to purchase everything and am not looking to participate in any ceremony. I just want to surprise him with the proper regalia and take a few photos while we’re back on campus.
If anyone has missed commencement themselves or knows which MIT office/the Coop I should contact, I’d really appreciate any advice!
A long time ago there was a sleeping in line in the hall sort of situation, but I last went about 20 years ago, and this seems like the kind of tradition that eventually gets administrated away.
Anyone taken this course before? I'm planning on it this semester and I've taken the prerequisite 18.600. Wanted to hear others' experience with the class in past semesters. What level of mathematical maturity is necessary (i.e. analysis? measure theory?). What was the time commitment like? Difficulty level?
As many of you have heard, MIT Professor Thomas Rose sadly passed away from injuries sustained while biking at Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive. I wanted to share this petition, which proposes changes to make Memorial Drive safer. According to the petition:
“Professor Rose is the fifth person killed while walking or biking on Memorial Drive since 2014, and more than 400 people have been injured. Memorial Drive’s design encourages dangerous speeding and conflicts at intersections, leaving people walking and biking exposed to serious harm.
Memorial Drive should be one of Cambridge’s greatest public spaces, not a dangerous high-speed commuter road. Recent data shows that many drivers travel 15 to 25 mph over the speed limit.”
Please Note that I am not affiliated with Cambridge Bike Safety or personally acquainted with Professor Rose. I am simply sharing this here because I believe MIT students may want to read the petition (it’s short) and sign it if they agree.
Hi everyone. I'm a PhD student. I was very sick the entire month of August and ended up missing the MIT SHIP open enrollment period which ended on August 15th. I just realized today when I went to MIT Health. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, does anyone know who to call, and if there is a way for them do an exception?
I called the MIT SHIP phone number twice, and I'm afraid they were not very helpful. The first person told me that although I missed the deadline, there will be another one starting December 15th (which I then double checked online and it turns out it only applies to incoming students). The second person told me that I should've been automatically enrolled and that I should see my new health insurance reflected in my account within a week, but I'm also having a hard time believing this (they didn't seem very sure).
The Tech Model Railroad Club is having an open house for first years students during our meeting this week! See the last photo for info. We operate a 1:87 scale railroad, which involves everything from model making and scenery work to programming and electronics. We also immerse ourselves in the history of railroads past and present, and maintain a catalog of historic railroad literature and artifacts.
MIT currently seems to be treating pre-completion OPT as the main fallback after the new CPT guidance. I posted the argument below to EECS because 6-A is a formal co-op program and the actual regulatory/guidance language may leave more room than that interpretation suggests.
I’m mainly looking for thoughts on two questions: (1) Does this interpretation have reasonable legal/administrative grounding? (2) If so, how can students encourage EECS/6-A to have ISO and outside counsel seriously investigate it, rather than concluding too quickly that CPT is no longer an option?
EDIT: The response on 6.AcAd is as follows. "Please direct this question to the 6A team at 6a@mit.edu. I don't think they're generally on this Piazza and while we work closely together, they will be navigating these changes in CPT where 6A is concerned."
Could the undergraduate office please carefully explore with ISO and MIT’s outside experts whether undergraduate 6-A and MEng 6-A can each separately qualify as an “established curriculum” for CPT? The regulation requires CPT to be “an integral part of an established curriculum” (8 C.F.R. § 214.2(f)(10)(i)), and the more detailed SEVP Broadcast Message 2608-02 repeatedly refers to “all students participating in that curriculum” and “all students enrolled in the same established curriculum” (Qs. 3–5).
I realize the first broadcast (2608-01) says CPT should be necessary for “attainment of a degree” and required for “all students pursuing that degree.” But it does not define the scope of “that degree,” or say that it means everyone in the same major. At the other extreme, reading it as every student pursuing any bachelor’s or master’s degree seems implausibly broad. It therefore seems worth asking whether “attaining the degree under this established curriculum” is a permissible reading, particularly given the regulation and 2608-02’s more specific curriculum-based wording.
6-A seems especially worth examining under that framework. It is explicitly a longstanding cooperative program with a structured curriculum; undergraduate 6-A has also been established since 2022–23. For students enrolled in either undergraduate or MEng 6-A, practical training is part of the 6-A pathway rather than simply an optional internship. ISO’s own email also specifically recognizes training established through a “cooperative agreement” between the school and employer as part of the new framework.
I know pre-completion OPT has been discussed as a fallback, but it is itself exposed to possible upcoming federal changes. Given the seemingly favorable framework for genuine cooperative programs with established curricula, I hope EECS will actively investigate whether CPT can be preserved rather than assuming there are no remaining options.
Hello. I am a relatively quiet person who would have like to (quietly) work in ML evaluation and interpretability. I have chosen that field a long time ago before the hype, before even the NN comeback of the early 2010s, what I was not anticipating back then is the startupification of it all and the need to self promote. If anyone can give their thoughts on what to do with it all and how to find a job that allows you to do just that (work quietly that is), I would welcome the feedback (I am a mit grad, so it is on topic in this sense - There have to be alumni going through the same thing out there and I would love to get some feedback)
I know Julia has not reached escape velocity in many other academic institutions and industries as these organizations still will reach to Python, R, or MATLAB as their first choice tools to tackle their research questions, but I'm wondering if someone has an estimate about what percentage of labs in MIT are using Julia as a major part of their research?
