MIT graduate here. It’s a hard school to get into. It’s not especially hard to graduate from (given that you were admitted), as long as you’re willing to grind out the work.
Also, if this is coming from DoE data, medical withdrawals are subtracted from both the numerator and denominator—on the idea they would have happened anywhere. It’s definitely not the stress, the climate, or the concrete doing it.
IHTFP.
That's the thing though, few people are willing to "grind out the work" over any extended period of time.
Well, being notoriously hard to get into, to the point that you have had to grind out the work/studying and also be talented to get in, probably means just keep on doing what you were.
Agree. I went somewhere easy to get into and very very hard to get out of with a degree. You had to know your stuff. All of it.
As someone who has never been to grad school, I assume this is how most grad programs work too.