Yes ofcourse, considering bitcoin was so cheap and so new back then, it made sense to distribute it among the students.
I wonder if any of those students still hold their coins they would be so happy right now.
I guess what MIT did back then was an important step for bitcoin and it did created an impact in starting the widespread adoption.
Btc isn't really cheap now. Will it mean it's more valuable now to hodl than to gave it away? It's sad but this is the mindset of the people. They will only value things once they know that they can benefit out of it. It is said that the students are given an option to spend their coins so they spend it right away. If not then some will likely sell it during the pump but if there are students who manage to keep their btc up until now, I don't think their reaction is happy because this year is a dump year. They will regret and think they should have sold their btc last year although there is still a chance for the bull to return so maybe they will wait once more.