Attending MIT: What it is Actually Like
By Xander Townsend | Misfit Media Editor
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the absolute pinnacle of technology and engineering based education. Whether you are aware of an MIT education from listening to Tony Stark's passive aggressive ramblings or the ridiculously exaggerated forensic reasoning communicated by Timothy McGee in NCIS, pop culture has always relied on the ever prestigious reputation of MIT for its 'nerdiest' fictional characters.
MIT has represented some of the world's most technologically inclined and intelligent fictional individuals including Iron Man’s Tony Stark, Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman, National Treasure’s Benjamin Gates, Metal Gear Solid’s Otacon, Superman’s Lex Luthur, Big Bang Theory’s Howard Wolowitz, just to name a few. Countless movies, television series and video games have utilised the ever prestigious MIT reputation to bolster the perceived intelligence and technological wiz of fictional characters since as early as 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still.
But what is it actually like attending the famous university? Now, I didn't get the privilege of doing an undergraduate degree at MIT, but I was given the opportunity to attend a VR hackathon on campus at the famous MIT Media Lab in Boston for 2 weeks in January of 2019. There are several things that attending MIT confirmed and ever so slightly challenged in terms of my preconceived notions on the academic institution.
One thing that really surprised me when attending the hackathon was that I was completely comfortable competing with other developers and students there when it came to my intellect and developer experience/knowledge. With the hypothetical notion of how impossible it would be to academically keep up with Tony Stark in the back of my mind, I was pleasantly surprised with how similar the general openness to ideas and developer knowledge was to Australian universities. Don’t get me wrong, it was still completely intimidating. Everyone attending was not only a developer, but an entrepreneur, completing for places within companies such as HTC and Microsoft. But it was nice to be in an open space, expressing ideas on innovation without the elitist nature I would have originally expected.
MIT, without a doubt, maintains is completely prestigious reputation in real-world industry. It has the power to establish some of the most desirable connections within my industry just based on its reputation. The biggest players within the technological and innovation space would flock to MIT programs just to get their hands on the youngest and inventive minds of the time, attempting to convince us to work with their hardware of products (compared to it being the other way around). I would love for Australian academic institutions to be treated in the same way by hardware and tech companies here. Hardware and innovation tech is nothing without the content that showcases its full potential.
After my experience at MIT, I would give anything to study an undergraduate or post-graduate degree there, but the main difference I believe I would face is financial support. I was very lucky to be there on scholarship throughout the hackathon, but I doubt they would be able to provide the financial support the Australian government has. That being said, fingers crossed.