A private eye's office from an L.A. Noir movie? No. That's the MIT Admissions Office. I keep waiting for Sam Spade to emerge.
The door alone says so much about the school, the culture, their values: "We're looking for beautiful MINDS, not beautiful BLINDS. Fancy admissions offices are for punks." That door is intense, but also funny: check out the emoticon.
You can learn a lot just from strolling around a campus, especially if you go off-tour. Here are some snapshots that tell you a lot.
Contra that door, they do care -- intensely -- about art and design:
They are entrepreneurial:
They are deeply intellectual, and not just about technology:
They are curious:
They have some funny hobbies:
And apparently they love to dance:
My favorite experience: someone piping in Journey's Don't Stop Believin' through disembodied speakers in the main entrance. Who? Why? I have no idea.
A strange and wonderful place... for a certain kind of person. And maybe someone else's idea of hell. Important lesson: There's nothing like seeing a school first-hand.