MIT: Student Body

"There's a guy upstairs who unlocks his room with a thumbprint scanner," writes one MIT undergraduate, allowing us a peek into how many standard deviations from the norm some students fall into. While some students assert that "nearly all students at MIT are nerds," others take exception to this characterization. We're inclined to believe the student who tells us the following: "We have jocks/frat boys (who are really nerds inside), sorority girls (also nerds inside), theater people (nerds), artists (nerds), athletes (nerds), and even outright, full-on nerds." Undergraduates proudly report that "many MIT students will take a 'break' from work to help other people with their problem sets. This helpful nature combined with the ease of finding intelligent and interesting people to spend time with makes this Institute worth attending." The diverse population includes "a very large number of people of Asian or Indian descent."