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MIT, Cont'd
March 04, 2005 ( life )
A few more grad students, another prof, and on to dinner this evening with the LLK prof.
It's such an odd little program, in an odd university, in a cold and odd city. It's very, very project-oriented, and you only take 2 or maybe 3 classes max per semester. The MS program is 2 years, the second of which is mostly producing something as a project and a "contribution." The PhD program is 3-4 years on top of that, with more study at the front end continuing into a larger project in the second half.
I must admit, I'm questioning if this would be what I want or need even to move on. Not that I have a good idea of what I want or need to move on is, anyhow, but the project-oriented focus is a bit dismaying. I feel very uneducated on a vast many things that I care about around development, and would like a somewhat structured and guided environment to explore them with. Maybe I just suck it up, read some course description reading lists and play catch-up myself, maybe that'll be my bus reading this summer.
On a meta-note, I'm not overly concerned, as there are some serious financial factors to help tilt the scales if MIT accepts me, and I have GTown (and very serious financial difficulties to tackle) if they don't, so the decision I don't think will be terribly difficult.
It's so hard to continually remind myself that this is just a set of steps on a path, and nothing really ever absolutely locks me in to any one thing. This may open different doors than other paths open, but it doesn't set things in stone (that's what the Lab's laser-cutter is for).
I also can't quite shake the feeling that this is where I'd have ended up if I'd done a science undergrad instead of P2, and honed my geek-focus instead of gone about sharpening other blades of my mental toolkit.
Posted by griffjon at March 4, 2005 02:04 PM
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