MIT reviews

- Although (as mentioned above) you don't feel competition from other, the fact that everyone around you performs so well imposes quite a bit of stress on you from within that you need to do more and more. This can be quite frustrating at times, but it comes along with being around extremely capable people. - If one considers the skills and abilities of the employees here, salary is obviously extremely low relatively, compared to industry. - Since this is an academic institution, one often lacks the joy of seeing his/her work produce actual products that get into the market. It is also a personal choice how applied work one wants to do, but this is an academic institution, so basic science often comes first, as it should.

Departure from Reality Much of the research is massively overhyped for both its technical audience and the public, often consciously. The differences between what's actually done at MIT and what's done elsewhere are smaller than might be imagined, but the profs here excel at salesmanship above all else. When you talk to people involved in student startups, and drill down to the specifics of what they're doing, you often find they're based on fundamentally flawed concepts. These people aren't being willfully dishonest, they've just succumbed to delusion and it can be heartbreaking to see when you consider the resources at their disposal to figure things out. More Exploitative than Anticipated If you're going to grad school, you basically accept that you're signing yourself into indentured servitude in exchange for apprenticeship. The trouble is that it turns out it's not really apprenticeship at all. Most of the labs here are run like idea farms for the benefit of the career and reputation of your prof, often with little to no meaningful input or guidance from him or her. This can be especially true if your prof has acquired you to do things outside his or her area of expertise. Independence is great, but feeling deeply accountable for the quality of something that someone else is taking credit for can be a tough pill to swallow year after year. Some profs adopt strategies for maximum short term output from their labs that can be pretty brutal on everyone involved (including them). Counterproductive Competition (occasionally) Most people here are great, but there's a small subset that are pathological narcissists skilled exclusively in using others to accomplish their aims, meanwhile reassuring themselves and others of their inherent superiority. This is an unfortunate byproduct of the prestige of the institution--it attracts these types and they can't be easily recognized from a CV or an interview. All I can say is that if you've developed useful capability, you need to be wary that you aren't being manipulated or sabotaged; these things happen. Don't let it prevent you from interacting, but you have to always keep on guard in the back of your mind. This chess game can take some getting used to if you come from healthy, mutually supportive intellectual environments. These people are rewarded and reinforced their behavior before they're spit out into the world.