During a freshman autobiography-writing class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cristen Chinea’s presentations about her alcoholic mother and her upbringing in a Lower East Side housing project stood out from those of the other students, she says.

“I have a different story from other people,” Ms. Chinea, 18, said during a phone interview while on a break from working on her final project for the class.

Ms. Chinea had not written about herself before the class, but The New York Sun last year published an article on her journey to one of the best universities in the country from the projects.

A year later, Ms. Chinea said her experience at MIT has been much as she expected: filled with the excitement of meeting new friends and learning new things, the joys — and fears — that come with living away from home for the first time, and piles and piles of homework.

Ms. Chinea said she embraces the loads of schoolwork, which she finds easier to manage than the other forms of stress that burdened her childhood.

“I don’t miss home itself too much, I like MIT better — it’s less stressful,” she said. “At home the stress is more between people, whereas here, the stress is more about work and time and getting things done.”

Ms. Chinea spent most of her childhood under the wing her of grandmother. She never knew her father, and her mother, Belinda Chinea, spent more time out in the streets drinking than she did at home.

Ms. Chinea is used to standing out from her peers: She spent her summers studying in the library instead of playing in the streets. The effort landed her at the selective Stuyvesant High School, where her grades and test scores earned her a full scholarship to MIT. Her dream is to study meteorology.

This year, she said she’s earned only A’s and B’s, and she quickly adjusted to some initial loneliness. In fact, she said, one of the best parts about MIT is having her own space. She had been sharing a room with her grandmother, who snores.

“I can get a little messier now that my grandmother isn’t there to keep clean,” she said. “I feel more comfortable.”

A few weeks ago, her mother came to visit for the first time. Belinda Chinea said she didn’t ask a lot of questions about Cristen’s classes because she didn’t think she would understand, but she said she didn’t have to ask to notice a big change in her daughter.

Walking to the International House of Pancakes in Harvard Square for a late night dinner with some of Cristen’s new friends, Belinda said she held back and watched from behind.

“She was totally in charge,” Belinda said. “She was bouncing. I could see such a difference — the vitality in her.”

Cristen isn’t the only one who has changed. Belinda said she hasn’t touched alcohol for more than a year.

“I’m in college and doing okay, and she’s doing better,” Cristen said. “I don’t think it’s separate. I think everything’s improving at the same time.”