Everyone has their favorite classes at MIT, all for different reasons. However, classes with funny or engaging professors make classes enjoyable and content even more exciting for the most part. TAs and other friends taking the same class also affected my perception. Any material covered is interesting if you have the right people teaching you and learning with you.

Here are a few classes (and professors) that defined my years at MIT.

6.009 (Fundamentals of Programming with Adam Hartz and Joe Steinmeyer) – I ended up TA’d this class two times too! The focus is on getting the logic down and being able to translate your thoughts into code. Great intro class to begin debugging and appreciating how complex computer science can be. I loved the format and excitement of trying to see how quickly you could finish the homework/exams.

6.UAT (Oral Communication with Tony Eng) – And by extension 15.276 (Communicating with Data with Lori Breslow) – I found the fast pace of practicing for presentations helpful and got so much out of it through forcing myself to give presentations. I took both these classes in the same semester and appreciated how much I learned. I overlooked this skill in high school, so I was happy to see such an excellent curriculum in both of these classes.

21M.385/6.809 (Interactive Music Systems with Eran Egozy) – This class makes you think about different ways of making games with musical elements. It is fun, exciting, and most of all, Eran’s energy makes you super excited to go to class. The class size is also small. I’d recommend taking this class with a friend, and you’ll be able to get much more out of it :)

15.4451 (Mergers, Acquisitions, and Private Equity with Nathaniel Gregory) – I think the professor provides excellent context to the cases we looked at and flips the normal lecture-style of my engineering classes. I also learned a lot about Corporate America! Funnily enough, the stuff I learned now provides context to many of the articles I read in the news!

6.857 (Computer and Network Security with Ron Rivest) – Cryptography has some interesting topics and makes you appreciate how security works in the real world. Rivest also has some great stories.

Extra

Also if you need an example 6-3 schedule, here’s mine:

ASE: 18.01, 18.02, 6.0001, 8.01
Fall 17: 6.01, 6.042, 7.016, 24.900
IAP 18: 8.20, 6.S094
Spring 18: 6.006, 6.036, 8.02, 18.600, 21M.302
Fall 18: 3.091, 6.004, 6.009, 6.046, 24.906
Spring 19: 6.031, 6.033, 6.UAT, 15.276
Fall 19: 6.172, 6.815, 21M.380, STS.086
Spring 20: 6.809, 6.864, 10.407, 15.4451, 21W.747 (Covid)
Fall 20: 6.840, 18.211, 21M.303 (Covid)
Spring 21: 6.857, 6.THM (Covid)
Summer 21: 6.THM (Covid)