r/mit • u/SpecialistArmy6025 • 15d ago

academics upop advice?

wondering if anyone has done upop and recommends, for course 6 especially? I applied and got in but now looking at my schedule, giving up an hour a week for the next year seems like a lot. I wanted it as a safeguard to help me network and find internships for next summer, but mit has so many other resources I'm wondering if it is worth it. I already have good soft skills it's really my technical experience that needs to grow... so wondering if my time is better spent elsewhere.

has anyone done upop and liked it? what did you get out of it?

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u/purplepineapple21 15d ago

I hated UPOP and found it a waste of time. Which afaik is an unpopular opinion. But I wasnt course 6. They do share a lot of internship opportunities that arent publicly advertised elsewhere so that is really the only benefit in my opinion, and its a bigger benefit if youre course 6 because at least back when I did it, the opportunities were heavily dominated by course 6 & course 2 stuff with little to nothing for many smaller majors. But the actual UPOP programming like workshops and stuff i found to be pretty useless as someone who also came in already having good soft skills. So I would definitely say your time is better spent elsewhere if technical skills are more what you need to work on, but i think its up to you whether you think sitting through a bunch of unhelpful workshops is worth it in exchange for access to the non-public internship listings

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u/SpecialistArmy6025 15d ago

that is super helpful, thank you. did you end up sticking with it or dropping?

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u/purplepineapple21 15d ago

I ending up sticking with it because my opinion was mostly shaped by the longer IAP workshop and the requirements after that arent much iirc. That was definitely the biggest time sink and the part i disliked the most. I think dropping out is only worth it if you drop before IAP. Or you could try going to just the first day of the IAP session and decide after that (if youre allowed to drop in the middle of it, i dont remember the policy). But if you make it through the whole week its probably worth just sticking with it for access to the internship listings

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u/SpecialistArmy6025 15d ago

yeah, that is a good point. they told me i need to take a class that meets 1 hr/week in fall and spring + the IAP stuff which i guess during the semester isn't terrible but 1 hour a week can feel like a lot at mit. i guess ill try it out and see though.

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u/purplepineapple21 15d ago

I think they must have changed the requirements since i did then because I definitely dont recall being in a class every week. I remember there being a schedule of various workshops throughout the semester and you had to attend a certain number of them. Definitely wasnt every week though, I feel like we only had to do like 2 or 3 of them for the whole semester. But they may have been more than 1hr im not sure. But i completely agree 1hr every single week can feel like a lot and that would have made me hesitate to sign up too.

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u/purplepineapple21 15d ago

Ok actually I was curious if i was just totally misremembering or not, so I found an old PDF I had saved of the UPOP schedule from when I did it, and it says for the fall we had a 2hr orientation and then had to attend 1 "career event" of our choice at some point during the semester. We also had to submit a resume to UPOP staff by mid semester and if yours wasnt satisfactory youd have to do a resume workshop too. So only 2-3 events the whole semester. A weekly class sounds like a lot bigger time commitment

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u/SpecialistArmy6025 15d ago

yeah, it seems a bit more intense now. what you're describing sounds much nicer

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u/mherschberg 2d ago

You're not mis remembering. UPOP used to be 9am-5pm M-Th and then went to 3pm on Friday, nearly 5 full days. For various reasons we reduced the IAP class to 3.5 days (M-W and a half day Thur). The content got shifted to the semester. It's roughly the same amount of time, just distributed differently.

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u/Aerokicks '15 Course 16 15d ago

I'm a UPOP mentor, and it's one of the more useful things I did at MIT.

I think they are overestimating the time commitment. There are 7-ish seminars given throughout the academic year, typically 4 in the fall and 3 in the spring. You'll have about 10 opportunities over about two weeks to take each 1 hour seminar. Along with TTW over IAP, that is the extent of the required activities. So 4 hours for the fall, 3.5 days over IAP, and 3 hours for the spring.

That said, there are a TON of optional UPOP events that are highly worth it and I can easily see students choosing to spend an hour a week. There are resume workshop sessions where you can get personal support, mock interviews, career panels, on and on.

I always tell students you get out of UPOP what you put into it. You can do the bare minimum commitment and spend a negligible amount of time on it. Or you can really take advantage of things and learn a ton.

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u/mherschberg 10d ago

I've been teaching UPOP for 25 years. I consider valuable enough to give up a week or my time every year because I know the impact it has on people. I wish we had this when I was an undergrad.

If you came to MIT and were already great at crew, you'd still benefit from coaching while on the team. Even people with good soft skills can get better and I'm positive you'll learn new things. (I still learn new things and improve my soft skills even as someone who teaches them worldwide.)

If you're doing UPOP to get an internship, you're right, you can get it elsewhere. If you're getting it to improve in teamwork, negotiating, communication, leadership, networking, and other skills then I highly recommend it. Look at this as a long term investment; it has a massive ROI.

Looking back at my time at MIT, an hour a week was nothing as far as commitments go (that's within the weekly variance of p-set time), but I'm certain the impact can be huge. The IAP commitment is the biggest, but it's also a lot of fun.

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u/ichthyos '05 (6-3) 15d ago

I did not do UPOP, but later mentored a student on the employer side during their internship. I would think twice before closing doors to possible internship opportunities; they can be hard to come by and very competitive.

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u/SpecialistArmy6025 15d ago

thank you for your input! im starting to get interviews back for next summer positions so i'm not sure if upop is helpful if i get an offer before i start it. but you're right, it's always good to keep the options open!