PE classes are…great!? by Aiden H. '28

Upon admittance, I dedicated a fairly serious and borderline-obsessive amount of time to look through the course catalog and major requirements for every major. Most of this was out of curiosity and to itch the little part of my brain that loves irrationally planning and romanticizing classes.⁠01 I've never gone through with any of my plans, I just love making them. My junior year of high school I would look at major requirements and think of possible class schedules for colleges I didn't even apply to. Something about a syllabus just gets me going idk.

So imagine me flabbergasted when I learn that in addition to all the credits for your major, GIRs,⁠02 General Institute Requirements--the 6 classes everyone must take to graduate and HASS requirement,⁠03 Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences--everyone must take 8 to graduate, with at least 1 in each department along with various other rules MIT is one of the few⁠04 I actually have no idea how common this is except for the fact that I know of no one else who does this. schools that requires PE classes for graduation. Naturally, when people starting asking me about how many classes I had to take/how long until I take classes in my major, the first thing I mention is the seemingly random PE requirement alongside everything, much to everyone’s surprise and curiosity to how it worked.

The rules are as follows:

4-year undergrads must fulfill 8 “points” of PE. Transfer students need 4 points. These can be earned in various ways:

• Classes: A typical PE class consists of 2 points for an average of 4 PE classes needed. Classes are offered in 5 terms: Quarter 1 (Fall semester through October-ish), Quarter 2 (Novermber-ish until winter finals), IAP,⁠05 Independent Activities Period--the month of January where students can do as they please (take a class, do research, go abroad, take a long winter break, etc. etc. Quarter 3 (Spring semester to spring break), and Quarter 4 (spring break to spring finals). Most classes have 11 sessions, and students must attend 9 of 11 to get points.
• Varsity Athletics: A year of competition is 4 points. This means student-athletes don’t usually take PE classes.⁠06 Honestly thank god because if I had to compete in some of these sports against the 6'5 jocks my ego would've died day 1
• ROTC: Two points per year of participation, but only for a max of 4 points (mwah-ha-ha)

The number of possible classes are extensive and almost overwhelming, but this means that there are enough classes with distinct vibes (e.g. weightlifting vs ballroom dance vs HIIT vs scuba), as opposed to the rigidness of high school PE that a lot of people hated.

Now having completed my PE requirement, I’ve found that they have been some of my favorite “classes” so far and, in a turn of events, I think I’m going to voluntarily continue to take PE classes?

Here’s a recap of the classes I took to fulfill my requirement:

Beginner Yoga (Quarter 1)

This class is located in the T Club Lounge, also known as a random room at the top of the very back of the Z.⁠07 Zesiger Center--the rec center I have no means of comparing this to a yoga class outside of MIT, so how “traditional” it was is beyond me, but I enjoyed the class nonetheless. We mostly focused on learning the basic poses that most of us have heard the names of (the “warriors”, the “dogs”) and some basic salutations and routines that we would repeat.

It was also an evening class, which was very relaxing because at the end of my class day, I would go move slowly and lay down in a dark room with spa music on.

Pickleball (Quarter 2)

Second quarter, my roommates and I decided to take PE together because we all had the same gap in our schedule. Naturally competitive, we thought it would be fun to do something where we could actively compete against each other instead of merely exercise in the same room. With all of us having played pickleball at least once before (and tennis not fitting our schedule), pickleball it was in the Z’s Rockwell Cages.

As grandma as it is, I actually really do like pickleball, and having an excuse to randomly play with friends twice a week was really nice. Like all PE classes, there were specific times dedicated to actual instruction. Having played before, being forced to start with “this is how you hit a ball” was a little annoying, but there’s no way for the instructor to tailor class to everyone’s skill level without starting with the very basics, and I’m not even that good so the extra practice didn’t hurt. I did learn how to serve a lot more aggressively over the course of the class, and I can confirm that my family and friends did notice when they got destroyed over spring break.

The one downside was the class was at 2 PM Tuesday/Thursday, sandwiched right between two of my classes, which meant I got all gross in my day clothes (outfit killer) and then had to arrive borderline winded to my HASS discussion while everyone else was normal (aura killer). This is common for a lot of PE classes and my one complaint. On one hand, I understand that staff work 9-5, so classes are going to be concentrated in those times, but so are lectures. It would be nice if there were a way to take strenuous PE classes like HIIT or weightlifting or spin or anything of the like without having to wear non-athletic clothing and not shower immediately after because of class.

Intermediate Yoga (IAP)

Like beginner yoga, this was in the T Club Lounge and featured a lot of my favorite thing: moving slow! More seriously, I really do like yoga/flexibility in general (especially when compared to an “alternative” exercise of weightlifting or more formalized team sports), and so I was excited to take another yoga class.

This class featured relatively more intense poses and progressions (headstands, handstands) and formalized a lot more of the traditional yoga concepts (dolphin pose, vinyasa breath work and breathing rhythms, etc.).

Beginner Skate (Quarter 3)

This was by far my favorite class purely because of the sheer indulgence of it. I’ve “ice skated” maybe 3 times before, which were almost entirely me and friends failing to skate, falling, and laughing about it. After a good 10 hours of practice through this class, I can semi-confidently say I can ice skate? Above anything, that’s just a funny and random thing to be able to say.

The class is taught seasonally for Quarter 2 through Quarter 3 when the Z has the Johnson Ice Rink up (instead of Johnson track for spring/summer). What was nice is the ice was reserved for class time, so I didn’t have to face the shame of trying to learn how to skate while all the secret hockey players and figure skaters put me to shame during a free/public skate.

The “curriculum” including forward skating, C-cuts, O-cuts, slalom, backwards skating, crossovers, stopping, and then transitions from forward-to-backwards and vice versa.

The instructors we had for this class were just, plain-and-simple, really great teachers who broke everything down to really simple moves that we would build on over time. Before we even started skating, they had us learn to stand upright in the skates without falling over. Then they had us just raise one leg at a time to prove we could balance entirely on one foot. It was small practices like these that made the rest of the class easier. Crazy how learning the fundamentals of something instead of rushing into it because you’re a really stubborn person who wants to be able to do everything perfectly the first time actually works!

Looking forward, there are still two classes I absolutely need to take before I graduate: tennis and sailing. Similar to my logic for ice skating, I think the ability to learn a super niche and fun skill for free is something that I don’t want to take for granted while here. Although the PE requirement seems like a burden, it’s a lot more a burden to pay hundreds of dollars for a local class later in life when you decide you’re actually interested/have the time. Most actual adults have to pay hundreds of dollars for the spin class, so try it now before you have to pay later. Also there’s nothing wrong with the Institute making sure we at least take two hours off a week to go soft brain and smash a ball or whatever.

tl;dr you have to take PE and you’re gonna like it lol