MIT exchange seeks re-evaluation in fifth decade

In its fifth decade, the Wellesley-MIT Exchange program continues to tout its original intent to give students academic and social variety, but time has allowed for the exchange to become seemingly one-sided. Merriam-Webster defines "exchange" as the act of "reciprocal giving and receiving." However, according to John O'Keefe, Dean of the Class of 2011, Wellesley College's cross exchange program with MIT is anything but entirely reciprocal.

"Far more Wellesley students go to MIT," O'Keefe said. "There are about 120 students taking courses at MIT this semester, which is pretty typical, but usually only a handful of MIT students take courses here."

And according to Registrar Barry Cane, the discrepancy between the number of Wellesley College students who take classes at MIT and the number of MIT students who take classes at Wellesley College has not always been as pronounced as it is today.

"I can't give you exact numbers, but I do know that at one point, there were many more MIT students coming to Wellesley to take classes," Cane said.

The Registrar also reported that more Olin students are currently taking classes at Wellesley College than MIT students.

So why don't more MIT students take classes at Wellesley College? Many people point to the fact that the MIT students—who primarily major in math, science and engineering, according to the MIT Registrar's Office website—typically have more stringent guidelines to follow in completing their designated course study.

"MIT students have a much more structured curriculum than Wellesley students," O'Keefe said.  "Most majors at MIT tend to be more highly sequenced than a typical Wellesley major, so a Wellesley student has more flexibility to take courses at other schools."

Indeed, 18 out of the 20 MIT students who were interviewed by The Wellesley News agreed that fitting classes from other schools into their curriculum was a major obstacle.

"I have such a busy schedule, so it's really hard to find time to fit in any extra classes," Sebastian Leon, a material science and engineering major, MIT '14 said.   

Eduardo Russian '14, a mechanical engineering major at MIT, elaborated on why more MIT students don't take classes outside of MIT.

"It's not just the fact that MIT students have strict deadlines and requirements to meet in terms of completing their majors—it's also the fact that MIT students have really strict humanities requirements," Russian said.  "So taking classes at Wellesley is almost like taking elective classes."

The 2010 MIT Course Catalog spells out these strict requirements: "Students generally cannot substitute Wellesley subjects for MIT Science Requirement subjects (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Calculus) or Institute Laboratory Requirement subjects."

The 2010 catalog also mandates that, "Wellesley subjects may be designated as part of the Concentration for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, [but only] at the discretion of the designated advisor in that field of concentration."  And even after MIT students decide to take Wellesley courses in these specific areas, they must successfully complete a petition process.

"There are just so many people you have to go through, that it's almost not worth it," Brinda Vijaykumar, a chemical-biological engineering and computer science double major, MIT '13 said, regarding petitioning to take classes at other colleges. "You have to get a ton of signatures, outline the syllabus of the class that you're planning to take…it's a pain. It's almost like MIT discourages people from taking classes at other colleges."

"MIT is really not good about taking transfer credit from other schools in general," said Qing Li, a pre-med management major, MIT '12. "I have to take all my pre-med classes here at MIT, so it's hard to take classes at other schools."

And according to many of the MIT students interviewed, the strict MIT curriculum requirements are compounded by the fact that Wellesley is a 40-minute bus ride away.

"I think a lot of people—not me, but many of the students at MIT—don't want to make such a long commute in order to take classes at Wellesley," Russian said. "I think many students at MIT would rather take classes at Harvard if they had to take classes off campus because it's closer," Li said.  He opted to take an Organic Chemistry class at Harvard because of its closer proximity to MIT.

A lack of general knowledge about the cross-registration program may also be a major reason why more MIT students don't take classes at Wellesley. "The program isn't really advertised that much," Vijaykumar said. "I don't even really know what types of classes are offered at Wellesley."

 "And I haven't really heard about anyone from MIT taking classes at Wellesley," added Doug Feigelson, MIT '14.

MIT's humanities program has grown tremendously within the past 30 years. "MIT has a wide range of humanities programs," Cane said.  "So I think many students at MIT don't feel as great of a need to take humanities courses elsewhere."

Some MIT students mentioned a single-sex academic environment as a factor that discourages them from taking classes at Wellesley. "I think a lot of people are intimidated to take classes at Wellesley because it's an all women's college," Kiang said.  

While the reasons for the dwindling cross-registration numbers from MIT are multifaceted, there appears to an equal number of reasons why Wellesley students continue to take classes at MIT. Wellesley students listed academic reasons as their primary motive in utilizing the cross-registration program.

"I wanted to take the class because it wasn't being offered at Wellesley," Jessica Malekos-Smith '13, an international relations major, said. As a U.S. Air Force ROTC cadet, Malekos-Smith is required to take military science courses at MIT, and is currently enrolled in a foreign policy course there.