It sits right at the end of the infinite, next to the NEWLY INSTALLED DIP-N-DOTS MACHINE!!!

A hollowed-out rectangular prism, it's nothing more than a hallway. There's an Athena cluster about half way down and there's also some doors that lead to Stata or the Green Building (buildings people care about) but nothing in 56 really other than that.

As a freshman you may have a class or two in 56. I had my HASS class there and a physics recitation first semester and I know bioethics has their recitation in 56 as well. Here's a shot of the hallway from the other end.

That's really it. I wrote an entire entry about a hallway. In building 56. Because there's nothing special about it. At all.

Oh, completely unrelated sidenote: Click this if you want the answer to the cryptogram puzzle from my last post. Arjun and Vicki C were the first two to solve it, followed by Jeremy V and Thomas V, nice job you guys!

Click

1) Campus == Empty
A lot of what makes MIT MIT is the people you'll find here. I didn't used to be very social, I lived in the middle of nowhere and was very good at keeping myself busy, be it building stuff in my garage, wandering around outside, reading, what have you. Once MIT started I began life on Conner 2 (2nd floor, Conner side of Burton-Conner dorm) and I no longer had to find ways to occupy my time, they found me. Trips to Boston, chillin' in the floor lounge, going to see Wicked, snowball fights with Conner 4, whatever it is, it probably involves most of the floor's help. It was neat all of a sudden constantly having company and friends to help with stuff. Over the summer, no longer. Sure, I mean, there are some people around, but not like during the year. During the summer it'd be pretty hard to just wander out into the hall and yell "Pour House???" and have a bunch of people yell "I'm in!" back at you (The Pour House is a bar/grill/restaurant in Boston that has half priced burgers on Saturday).

There are getting to be more and more people on campus but not the type of people you'd expect. Interphase just started so I see a lot of bright-eyed prefrosh running around with backpacks but they're all living in Next House. There's some conference or something happening somewhere on campus that has caused Conner 4 and Conner 5 to become filled with a bunch of Asian people I've never seen before, and there was a summer camp that I think is over now. I believe RSI is started up but I don't actually know how to recognize those kids, and I keep seeing kids with poster boards and suits wandering in and out of Baker so something is going on there. Other than that, in terms of actual MIT students, campus is quite empty. Of course, this isn't made any better by my work hours, the second thing that's different about life during the summer.

2) My sleep schedule is wonky
During the school year I had a pretty consistent sleep schedule, go to bed somewhere between 12 and 1 and get up at around 8. It netted me a good amount of sleep and gave me time to do homework. Unfortunately, here in MIT land, a 9 o'clock class (which my schedule was full of) is considered buttcrack of dawn early and is a time slot loathed by almost everybody. Lucky me, I've had 9 o'clock classes since the year started and then I looked at the classes I have to take for my major (Mech E, course 2). Every single course 2 class starts at either 9:00 or 9:30 for all four years of college. Wonderful, I picked the major with the worst possible times for classes.

For better or for worse, my MIT sleep schedule has absolutely nothing to do with my summer sleep schedule. You see, instead of a 9:00 AM class I instead have to be at work by 7:30 AM. I work in Rhode Island, meaning I have to catch the 6:25 AM commuter rail to get there. Of course, the commuter rail leaves from South Station so I need to get there first, meaning I have to leave the Kendall MIT T stop at 5:48 AM. Before that I need to wake up, shower, get ready for work, and then travel to the T stop, bringing my wake-up time to 4:45 AM. Yum.

I finish work at 4:45 PM and catch the commuter rail back at 5:23 PM. I get back to Boston at around 6:40 PM, take the T to the Kendall MIT T station, and then eventually get back to my room at 7:00 PM. If I were to go to bed right when I got back to the dorm I would get 9:45 of sleep. I don't go to bed right when I get back though, I answer e-mails, check blogs, watch YouTube, and catch up on TV (thank you thank you thank you ABC for putting your shows online in HD. I've been watching The Mole, probably the best reality show out there). I usually end up asleep by 11ish, giving me almost six hours of sleep, something you'll learn to live on at MIT.

3) It's harder to do Laundry without TechCash.
MIT has this awesome payment method known as TechCash. It lets you store money on your ID card and use that to pay for a variety of things. Since you always have your ID card on you, you theoretically always have money on you. My college loans feed partially into TechCash and I make good use of it. I use it for laundry, food, The Coop, Economy Hardware, and anybody else that'll take it. Unfortunately for me, my TechCash ran out and my loans don't carry over through the summer, meaning I have no TechCash. For those of you who know me, this is not an insignificant thing. I live on TechCash. I also launder my clothing with the help of TechCash, but since I can't do that anymore I find myself rummaging around in my room for quarters more often than I'd prefer. It's hard to just "find" 24 quarters to do laundry, but I've been managing so far. I think I'll have to buy quarters soon though, finding another 24 isn't going to happen.

Oh, and don't use the washer in the corner.

Yes, this is the actual layout of our laundry room

4) There's not a lot to blog about.
My life has been reduced to work, internet, sleep, repeat. As such, there are very few exciting things for me to blog about. Amazing things happen at work every day but because of all sorts of nondisclosure agreements I can't tell you about them. I'll try to write an entry about work shortly and fill it with as much stuff as I can but I'll have to leave some things out. I could write about admissions (admissions blogger, what?) but we've hit this cool period of limbo between classes. Class of '12 is pretty set to go and doesn't have a whole lot left to do for the summer except wait for housing results and pack (note to self, do entry about packing) while the potential '13s don't even have an application to work on yet so there's not a whole lot to do with that. This is why I haven't been updating as frequently, because frankly, you'd be bored and I don't like boring people (double meaning fully intended).

So now I leave you with a nice little video that has nothing to do with college, MIT, admissions, or anything else. Can I be fired for this? Meh.

Class of 2011,

Congratulations on completing your first year at MIT! It has been a tough year, filled with its ups and downs, and we hope that all of you are enjoying this well-deserved summer break thoroughly.

Towards the end of the school year, the class council announced its decision of a ring committee selected through an application and interview process, and many of you responded, pointing out the lack of east campus representation. The ensuing debate and class-wide discussion about why this happened and how it could be rectified continued for a number of days, and due to finals and other end-of-year items that were on everybody's mind, this discussion has continued into the summer as well.

Over the past few weeks, class council has been engaged in this discussion with members of the class of 2011, the current Ring Committee, and the MIT administration, and while we maintain that our application and interview process was fair, we have recognized that the committee that resulted from this process did indeed lack East Campus representation, and after much deliberation, we have decided to add a 13th member to the Ring Committee.

This additional member will be selected by interview from the list of EC, Random Hall, Bexley, and Senior House residents that had originally applied for the Ring Committee. The candidates for this position will be notified this week, and their interviews will be held via conference call (phone) starting later this week. We realize that during the summer, some of the candidates may be on vacation and unavailable, but we assure you that this important decision will not be made until every candidate has been interviewed.

If it were possible to do so, we would conduct this interview process in the Fall, when each candidate would be available for in-person interviews. However, the Ring Committee will be having some important discussions this summer, and it is in the current Ring Committee's and the 13th member's best interest for the committee to be finalized as soon as possible, so that the new member can be a part of the important decisions that will be made prior to the start of the school year.

Finally, with all that said, all of us on class council would like to thank you for taking so much interest in this process, for reading our many emails, and for responding. Now, it is our hope that the selection process for the 13th member will go smoothly and that the final Ring Committee will be announced in the very near future.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to direct them to 2011council [at] mit [dot] edu. Thanks for your patience, and have a restful and satisfying summer!

Sincerely,
Your 2011 Class Council
Daniel, Anshul, Lulu, Sivakami, Sheena, May, Jeff, Emma

Yikes guys, chill! You're like, 2 months away from MIT, it's time to accept the fact that another class is about to start applying. I know it's fun to complain on the internet, I do it all the time, but it's time to move on.

:)

Speaking of classes applying to MIT for next year, I got back from work yesterday and spotted a tour group making the rounds so I hopped in and joined them. It's always nice to hang out with prospies and tell them how cool MIT is. I'd been on the tour for, oh, idk, maybe 2 minutes, when the tour guide stopped, had everybody turn around and said "Hey everybody, this is Snively. Everybody say Hi Snively!" There was a very confused "Hi . . . Snively?" from the tour group as I stood there awkwardly, not quite sure what to do with myself. The tour proceeded and I actually quite enjoyed myself despite the fact that half way through I broke my permanent retainer on an ice cream sandwich. Still trying to figure out what to do about that but for now I have broken metal chillin' in my mouth.

I got back to my room and decided to spend some time exploring my external hard drive (a device which made losing my internal hard drive a couple of months back much less painful) and I found some fun videos that, unfortunately, have very little to do with MIT. But, through a great series of connections that I've managed to make, I think I've found a way to post all of the videos in such a way that not only do they tie back to MIT but they are all interconnected into themselves and form a feng shui of Youtube.

First: I was on Youtube the other day and on the featured videos was our friend Matt Harding with an all new dancing video!

Second: During CPW there was a certain hack that involved a certain 80s music video. Dan Sauza '11 and I both realized that it would just be unfair to walk by this hack without a small tribute dance, which we filmed. As you can see, we're just as bad at dancing as Matt Harding.

Third: Take note of Matt Harding's location at 3:14 *cough*pi*cough*. . . Sam Maurer came to visit last year and he and Mason performed a lovely rendition of the Sad Sad Toaster song from http://www.songstowearpantsto.com (ignore Laura yelling that it's boring).

I would like to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug this toaster video. It's been entered into a contest and if it has the most YouTube views by July 15th then Sam and Mason win all sorts of stuff and get to help record a new song for SongsToWearPantsTo. Go ahead and blog it, share it with friends, and enjoy the toastiness.

On a sidenote, Interphase is getting ready to gear up. I can tell because there were an unusual amount of kids with parents milling around today. If you're in Interphase and you're ever bored during the weekend shoot me an e-mail and I'll show you around. snively [at] mit [dot] edu

So long for now, I'll try to come up with something else to blog shortly.

What is "Early Action"?
According to this admissions site:

If you have taken all the required standardized tests on or by the November test date and postmark all of the application materials by November 1, you may ask that we review your application and notify you of admission by mid-December.

Can anybody apply EA?
Almost. Only domestic students can apply early. International students need to apply RA. The reasoning behind this is that the international applicant competition is so intense that it really is important to read all of those applications at the same time and compare them side by side.

Why would I apply early?
There are a lot of motivations people have for applying early. Some people do it because MIT is their number one choice college and they are really anxious to fill out the application, get it sent in, and find out if they made it in. Others feel that applying early is a great way to show the admissions office that you're willing to take the extra effort to get everything done early and apply, thereby proving you want to go there more than anywhere else and they should let you in. Some apply early to help space out their applications, getting the MIT application done early so they can focus on other applications later.

Besides due dates, is there a difference between the EA application and the RA application?
No, the application for early action is exactly the same as the application for regular action. The application will be coming out near the end of July.

Is there an advantage to applying early?
No, not really. Other than the fact that if you are deferred you get a second chance, there isn't an advantage to applying early. If anything it could hurt you because you've got a bunch of kids that likely have MIT as their first choice and all of them are probably quite brilliant. EA applicants are more self-selective, but you'll never get in early if you don't apply, so go for it!

So, this is "Early Decision," right?
Wrong. Early Decision, different than Early Action, is not offered at MIT. Schools that have Early Decision programs require enrollment upon early acceptance. MIT, with its EA program, doesn't require you to enroll if you are accepted. You have until May, just like all of the RA people, to decide whether you want to come or not. Again, there is no obligation to attend if you are accepted early, you just have more time to decide if you want to attend.

Can I apply to more than one school early?
It varies from school to school. Oftentimes you'll only be able to apply to one school early decision so if you're applying early decision somewhere it will be against their policy to apply to MIT early as well. However, several schools offering early action will allow you to apply to multiple schools. For example, you can apply to both CalTech and MIT under their EA programs with no problems.

Do I still have to pay the application fee?
Yes.

What about financial aid? Does this affect it at all?
Nope. Your financial aid stuff is all figured out at the same time as everybody else, no worries.

What are the possible outcomes from EA?
You can either be accepted, deferred, or not admitted from EA. Accepted means that you officially have a spot at MIT if you want it and you have to choose whether to attend or not by May 1st. Not admitted means that, unfortunately, you won't be attending MIT. You cannot reapply for RA after having been denied EA. Deferred means that your application is kept and re-reviewed for RA. The admissions office feels that you were a strong enough candidate to avoid non-admission so they throw you in the pool of RA applicants. During the RA round your application is treated exactly the same as the RA applicants, essentially giving you another chance at admission. Many people who are deferred choose to send in additional letters of recommendation (really, only send in one-ish, and make sure it contributes something NEW to your application, not same old same old), write letters to the admissions office keeping them updated with important updates in their lives (again, maybe only one-ish of these letters), and generally doing anything they can to get more comfortable with MIT. Don't go and perform a tap-dance routine for admissions. While you'll get polite applause, they'll laugh at you once you leave. Seriously, they're human, and you'll look ridiculous, so don't go insane otherwise you'll get talked about over coffee.

Getting deferred is NOT a polite rejection. Many many many people are deferred and get in later, MIT can't afford to accept everybody EA so they accept more RA. While only 30% of the final class may be accepted EA, more than 30% of the class is made up of EA applicants.

What happens if I get in early?
In a word, awesomeness. Results are published online so you could, if you're like me, go online and check to see if you were admitted (then proceed to spend the day flipping out). If you're the more self-controlled type you could wait for the the official letter in the mail.

I'm sorry, did I say letter? I meant TUBE!

EA admitted students (just EA, sorry RA, more incentive to apply early) get a tube in the mail that congratulates them on their acceptance. Inside the tube is the acceptance letter, the acceptance certificate, a poster, a coupon to The Coop, confetti, and other neat goodies. MIT is awesome and is one of the only (if not the only) colleges that gives early admitted students a tube instead of just a big envelope. Funnily enough, Newsweek just discovered this phenomenon and is frantically trying to get pictures of the tube for their Kaplan College Guide so EA admits everywhere are scrambling to get high res pictures of their tubes submitted. Keep on clicking everybody, they're due tonight!

After you get your tube a bunch of new stuff appears on your myMIT account (go sign up for a myMIT account right now) including a very addicting guestbook that all of the admitted students get to sign. This helps you meet your future classmates before you've even hit campus. I spent way too many hours looking at this guestbook.

Over the coming months you will receive nice holiday cards and phone calls from MIT wishing you well and making you feel special. Plus, and this is a big plus, your college search is potentially over even before your other applications are due. Let me tell you, this is VERY nice.

Great, I'm convinced, when is everything due?
October 20 Last day to contact your interviewer and set up an interview
November 1 Last day to have an interview
November 1 Postmark deadline for Early Action application
November Last month to take standardized tests for Early Action application
Mid-December Early Action applicants notified of admission decision
February 15 Receipt deadline for all Financial Aid materials
April 1 All applicants notified of financial aid package
May 1 Postmark deadline for enrollment decision of accepted students (Early Action and Regular Action)

Snively, thank you so much for all of this useful information about early action. I will refer to it often and will thank whatever deity (or deities or lack thereof) I believe in everyday because you published this post. Is there anything I can do for you in return? Anything at all, baked goods, music, my firstborn child?
Tell you what, you keep the firstborn child. If you feel so inclined, I would gladly accept the following:
a) Any type of baked good
b) Techno music
c) A shoulder massage
d) A black Spider Spud
e) A rare, retired, mint-condition, Ben Jones autographed business card

I have more questions!
That's ok, either ask in the comments or e-mail me at snively [at] mit [dot] edu and I'll update this post with answers.

I like turtles
Alright, you're a great. . . zombie.

Maybe you really like skating? Maybe you really like math? Maybe you really like painting? All noble activities, but allow me to tell you something exciting and maybe a little concerning. As well as you think you know yourself and what you enjoy doing, the college application process will mess with your preconceptions and alter the way you look back at the things you've done.

When I started filling out my MIT application I had a pretty solid game plan: Stress band, life in the country, and sense of humor and then sprinkle a love of building things and strong work ethic on top. Simple enough, I figured it summed me up pretty well.

I started filling out the MIT application the day it became available (I actually think I got Part I in about four hours after it was posted online) so that I'd have plenty of time to just roll the essay topics around in my head and wait for inspiration. That's the thing about writing for me, I can't force myself to write something within a given prompt, I have to just wait until I randomly come up with the perfect plan or idea and then I run with it. That's why although I filled out almost every part of my application starting on August 1st I didn't start filling out my main essay until around October 1st. It scared my parents that I hadn't even thought about the essay, let alone started writing it, with only a month left. I, however, wasn't worried, because until October 1st I hadn't had the perfect idea, something to write about that actually said who I was.

You will probably run into this while applying to colleges, especially if you're doing it right. If you're cranking out applications like an assembly line worker you may not have time to just wait for the perfect essay so you'll have to rely on writing skills alone. I suggest you pick the school you most want to attend and just mull over the essay topics. Don't necessarily think about them, but just remember them and see what happens during day-to-day life that would help make that essay the best it can be.

This post is called "discovering yourself" because as much as you think you know about yourself, by the end of the college application process you will know so much more. It makes you think about what truly matters in your life, what aspects do you feel are more important than others, what do you value? Is band more important than Model UN? You only have room for a couple of activities, some may have to be dropped, which will they be? On MIT's application you'll have to remember what you've done over the last several summers and pick the things that you feel helped shape you. You'll also have to find something that you do just for fun, which was actually one of the harder things to write in my application. I do so many things for fun, which one was the one I find most important? Have you ever just sat down and thought about the one thing you do for fun that you'd put above all of the others?

When you're done filling out an application, if you've done it correctly, you'll have a boiled down version of you. In theory you've dug deep and figured out what matters in your life, transferred it to paper, and can only hope that admissions will like what they see. Writing what you hope admissions wants to see is a dangerous dangerous game to play. You need to be a good fit for MIT and if an application gets you accepted but doesn't reflect who you are, you may be absolutely miserable here and will have nobody to blame but yourself. You'll want to yell and scream at MIT and everybody around you, but you'll actually know that it was because you lied about who you were and you get to enjoy the consequences.

I hope applying to college is as meaningful for you as it was for me. A big part of the reason I'm an admissions blogger now is because of the college application process and how much I gained from it. I wouldn't be nearly as willing to help people and answer questions if I had been dishonest or "studied to the test" because then I wouldn't know if I actually belonged here. I do belong here, because that application was me, and I know that when MIT accepted that application they were going to get the student they read about.

Enjoy the process and learn a lot, you won't regret it in the slightest. As a little present I've built a handy-dandy spreadsheet for you to keep track of all those teacher recommendations and things. It's not perfect (maybe kind of ugly?) but it's totally functional and you're welcome to tweak it to your own specifications. Boxes can be either red or green with a date. Red indicates that the action has not taken place yet, green with a date lets you know when it has. This template is set up with the colleges I was going to apply to but feel free to change the names/colors of the columns to match your college preferences.

There's another tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet called "Mailing Labels." This is a good place to put the addresses to the schools so that you know where to mail all of this stuff. Go ahead and add more tabs, colors, labels, or anything else you want. Spreadsheets are wonderful ways of organizing a ton of information and keeping everything in order. Good luck!

Click here for the awesome college organizational spreadsheet!

Oh, and here's a dancing lemur for Sam (see 10th comment)

A while ago I gave everybody some Boston advice courtesy of Sara Ferry '11. It's time for some more Boston advice courtesy of Sara, and then some MIT advice courtesy of me.

Sara Advice
When you come to Boston you will see names to a lot of new cities, cities like Andover, Arlington, Worcester, and Quincy. While most of these probably look relatively straightforward as far as pronunciation goes, if you aren't careful you'll get marked a tourist instantly if you mispronounce one. There's one biggy, the litmus test of tourism in Boston, and that's Worcester. I'm going to teach you how to pronounce it now, you ready?

Pretend you just called your friend a wuss. Now add "ter" to the end. Wuss-ter. If you ever call it Wor-che-ster then you'll be laughed out of Boston.

Snively Advice
Your mission, if you choose to accept it: Don't sound like a total n00b when you get to MIT. I'll help you out. First, pronouncing buildings and stores:

Buildings:
Stata: We're going to start with a weird one. Very few people actually know how to pronounce "Stata." I've had just as many people swear up and down to it rhyming with "beta" as people promising it rhymes with "eratta." You'll hear both pronunciations thrown around but I'm pretty sure that only Ray and Maria Stata themselves actually know how to pronounce it. The nice compromise I've come up with is to just say it rhymes with "data." How do you pronounce "data?" That's how you should pronounce "Stata."

Kresge: Pronounced Krez-gee (hard "g", as in "goat")

Brain and Cognitive Sciences Building: Either call it "46" or "Brain and Cog"

Health Services: "MIT Medical"

Stratton Student Center: "Student Center" (no "Stratton")

Zesiger Center: Pronounced "Z-Center" because unlike Stata, nobody knows how to pronounce "Zesiger."

La Verde's: Luh-Vir-deez (rhymes with "duh-birdies" and is usually said as if it is one long word)

The Coop: pronounced like chicken "coop," not like "coh-opp."

Now for places around Boston:
Copley Square: pronounced "Cop-lee," like in Rush Hour.

The Prudential Center: pronounced "the prood" or "the proo" depending on how lazy you are about the last letter

Finally, a biggy:
MIT: pronounced "Em-eye-tee." If you ever call it "mitt" then you will be stared at strangely, no joke.

If all of this seems overwhelming then there's an easy way out: Memorize building numbers. Not only may you be more comfortable with numbers than names but you'll also seem more 1337 if you can rattle everything off in numeric form.

Sorry about no blog entries lately, I'm trying to adjust to a new sleep schedule. I'm up at 4:45 AM each morning and get back to my room at 7 PM after work. Time not at work is usually spent sleeping. I write in the train if possible but lately I've been sleeping instead.

Also, potential class of 2013, time to start thinking about your MIT application! I know it hasn't actually been released yet, but barring any drastic changes from last year, you can go ahead and get your "What activities did you do in high school? How many hours per week? How many weeks per year? Awards or honors in them?" ready. Also, there will more than likely still be the "Write about anything you didn't get a chance to express elsewhere" optional essay which is basically your chance to show your true colors, muse over that and/or start outlining/writing it.

Ok, sorry, one last thing, you're going to have a lot of teacher recommendations and transcripts floating around. Trying to just remember everything is almost impossible. I used an awesome color-coded spreadsheet to keep track of everything, which I recommend you doing as well. I'll make one up and post it for y'all in case you aren't motivated enough to make your own. More posts to come soon!

*Yes, I'm on a train again, and will probably include a train reference every time I write an entry from a train. I will also mercilessly steal blog formatting and style ideas from my friend Truman's blog.

A-ha! Hacking at MIT! There have been a bunch of entries that reference individual hacks here, and one or two that have talked more about hacking itself than individual hacks. I'd like to write one of those entries, an entry that explains what hacking is and what experiences you may have at MIT that involve hacks. And so with that, a quick primer on hacking at MIT.

Hacking at MIT has nothing to do with breaking into computer networks or computers. Instead hacking at MIT involves anonymous, ninja-like MIT students pulling off incredible feats of engineering right under the nose of the administration while quite possibly breaking dozens of laws and ending up on various rooftops around campus. Hacks could be considered “pranks” at any other school but since MIT makes up its own words and meanings for things they are called “hacks” here. People who pull them are called "hackers."

Inevitable question one: Are you a hacker Snively!?
Well thought out answer: No, I prefer to take an observatory role. Let other people risk life and limb crawling on edges of buildings, I just want to see the end result. That, and I'd prefer to not be arrested while at MIT

If and when you are accepted to MIT there may be a day when you're walking through campus and you see something a little out of the ordinary. Sometimes it's small, a chainsaw in a wooden case, sitting
in a hallway.

Other times it might be big, like a huge Scrabble board on the side of a building.

Sometimes it may be huge, spanning over a quarter mile!

(while hard to see, there's a banner that says "Go Sox" suspended from a line of rope that stretches from the tower on the left to the tower on the right, over a 1000 feet)

These are all examples of hacks that have happened at MIT. In a nut shell, a hack is an addition to the school that makes somebody smile, makes them wonder how in the world this was possible, or both. The chainsaw hack is an excellent example of the smiling variety, GoSox! a good example of the "how did they do that!?" while Media Lab Scrabble is a good example of both.

Hacks started many years ago with some crazy Senior House people dragging a car up onto their roof using a rope and a lot of manpower. After that students realized that they could put more crap on roofs, and then things got interesting. There's a lot of history here you can read up on at the MIT Hack Gallery but I'm going to skip to the good part. The milestone in MIT hacking that kicked it into overtime was when one day an MIT Campus Police car showed up on top of the Great Dome.

Inevitable question two: Wha- how!?
Well thought out answer: Well that's the point now, isn't it?

Nobody knows how they got the police car on the dome, all they knew is that perched 150+ feet above everybody's heads was a police car, lights flashing, with a dummy cop inside holding a donut. MIT Facilities stared at it in awe, not quite sure what to think. How, erm, how were they supposed to get a car off the dome? Helicopters flew by all day, getting some great pictures, and eventually the rappelling gear was brought out and the police car was carefully disassembled on top of the dome and removed in pieces. It was saved and is now on display in the Stata center if you're interested in seeing it.

After the police car other stuff started appearing on the dome: a cow (fake cow! fake cow!), working phone booth, giant beanie, triforce, and a ton of other things. Hackers realized that there was more than just the dome, that awesome hacks could fit in any number of places around campus. MIT is blessed with buildings that kind of look like the aftermath of a game of "Perfection." We have two domes, a square courtyard, weird statues, a 3-4-5 triangle building, Kresge, the Green Building, and that pile of architectural vomit known as the Stata (rhymes with “data”) Center. Hackers have played to the strengths of the unique physical attributes of each building, transforming them into ships, R2D2, and spaceship landing sites.

Hacks generally appear overnight since actually putting a hack up involves mucho illegality. Sure, MIT loves the aftermath of the hack, postering the admissions site and the MIT homepage with them whenever they happen, but MIT HATES hackers when they're actually putting up a hack. Hackers have been dealt fines, had guns pulled on them, and even taken to court and threatened with jail time for hacking. More incentive for me to just enjoy looking at the fire truck on top of the dome.

Inevitable question three: This sounds awesome! I want to run from the cops! How do I get into hacking!? Is it a club or something?
Well thought out answer: Hacking is not a club and you will never see it listed in any official activities pamphlets given to you at CPW, orientation, or anywhere else. The reason for this is because most of the things that hackers have to do in order to pull hacks are illegal and fairly dangerous. MIT doesn't really like it when students break the law. How to become a hacker is left as an exercise for the interested reader.

Inevitable question four: How do hackers have time for all of this!?
Well thought out answer: Like any "extracurricular activity," MIT students make time. We don't always just lock ourselves in rooms to study, we do other stuff. Some people choose hacking.

As I've mentioned, hacks had a lot to do with why I wanted to come to MIT. They made me realize that MIT is, in a word, awesome. Not only are the opportunities here endless, the education first rate, but the amount of fun students had and the creativity that blankets the entire school is just phenomenal.

I think I'll finish this post off like a class syllabus, just because I can.

Required Reading:
1) MIT Hack Gallery – http://hacks.mit.edu

Supplemental Reading:
1) Nightwork -- Buy from Amazon.com

Photos courtesy of the MIT hack gallery.

I'll start off by saying that I'm writing this from the train on the way to work. Please heed my advice: When settling in for an hour long T ride DO NOT eat a McGriddle right before, the grease does weird things.

Anywho, on to the stuff that actually lets me keep my job as an admissions blogger. There are a lot of things that come along with the roll of admissions blogger. We blog (duh), are asked to admitted student meetings, help dole out prefrosh for CPW, sign Valentines and Christmas cards for admitted prefrosh, scrub spam off of our entries, and sometimes go to fancy hotels and talk about blogging. Another very large part of our job is knowing all the ins and outs of admissions so that we can field all of the questions we get. Every time somebody comments on an entry the comment is e-mailed to us, this way we get to see every comment, even ones that appear on older posts that we otherwise may have missed. I've been reading these comments for a year and half now and have divided the types of comments into several distinct groups:

1) Numbers (First! Second! . . . Twentieth!)
2) Entry Response
---> Short, one or two words (Nice job, good entry)
---> Thought out
3) Comparison of entry to the reader's life (Something like this happened to me once . . . )
4) Response to another comment. (@_ _ _ _ _ _ _ , lorem ipsum dolar sit . . . )
5) Question about previous entry (Whatever happened with . . . )
6) Completely unrelated question about admissions (Hey, quick question, . . . .)
7) Annoying and spammed to all the front page entries question about admissions (I have a _ _ _ math and _ _ _ verbal, what are my chances . . . .)

Number one isn't so much of an issue with a bunch of bloggers *cough*Keri*cough* because we have this awesome button that says “Mark as Junk” that ends up being used in these circumstances. Number two, entry responses, are fine because that's what the commenting feature exists for. Number three is ok too. Number four can be dangerous because that's how bad information can get out there and can also cause huge tangents in the comments. Number five is totally legitimate because it keeps us on our toes and makes us follow through with things we've written. We can be scatter-brained and sometimes forget that we've started a story but never finished. Number six happens quite frequently and is also fairly legitimate. When the questions are unrelated to the post it can be hard to answer them. We don't know everything and usually blog the stuff we do know. We'll do our best, but sometimes it takes a while and a bunch of Google searches. Number seven is just dumb. No offense to anybody who's done this, but don't do it ever again. The blogs and the bloggers would love to help you through admissions, but we expect a little work on your end too. Actually, it barely even counts as work, we just want you to have at least read an entry or two, maybe explored the website a little. When I go to the blogs and see that the most recent comment on every front page entry is “Hello. My name is ___________. I am a high school student and want to go to MIT. Tell me how to get in.” I just write it off and never think about it again. Sorry, “How do I get in” is a question whose answer doesn't really exist, at least not in the form you're more than likely looking for.

In addition to all of the comments, you'll notice that each blogger has an e-mail address listed on the top left of their entries. This enables one-on-one interaction with bloggers for help answering questions or to say things that are a little too private for the blog comments. You'd be surprised at how many people take advantage of those e-mail addresses.

Now for the real reason this post exists: E-mail FAQ. I get a lot of very similar questions via e-mail that never really pop up here. Some of them are things that could be very helpful so I'll put them here. Ready? Ok here we go --

“I am an international student and don't know what tests to take, please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
-- No disrespect (I mean that) but why do e-mails from India always have a ridiculous amount of extraneous punctuation? Is it a cultural thing? In any case, the application for international students is exactly the same as for domestic students but with the following exceptions:

1) SAT I can be replaced with TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)
2) Mid-Year grade report isn't necessary
3) Teacher and Counselor recommendations need to have a translation with them if they aren't in English.
4) You can't apply Early Action (this means your application is due by January 1st)

I took all of that information from this website and it's always what I send to people who ask that question. Look around a little bit, this site is FULL of information, bloggers use it all the time to get information to answer questions.

“Are there sports at MIT?”
--Again, answered on this site, but yes, MIT has more NCAA sports than any college in the country.

“Will I have free time to do anything but study at MIT?”
-- Very much so. If all you did was study then you would go insane. Insanity in moderation is fine, the type of insanity constant work would cause is bad. There are hints that you'll be doing things other than work in the application. “What do you do purely for fun?” is a subtle check to make sure that you'll be able to let off steam once you get here and won't have a mental breakdown. Answer that question truthfully, it's very important. MIT's motto, after “Mens et Manus” and “IHTFP," is “Work hard play hard.” We play very hard, there's no better way to relax, you'll have plenty of time to not work.

“Is MIT stressful?”
-- Depends on who you ask. If you ask Maddie '11 then no, MIT isn't stressful. I'm pretty convinced that Maddie was born with rose tinted eyeballs though. At times I find MIT quite stressful, but those times are infrequent. It's stressful because the amount of things that pile up. You could be coasting along, doing great, when all of a sudden you realize that everything is due in 4 days and you don't actually have time to do any of it. This is stressful no matter how you slice it (unless you're Maddie) but it goes away and you get on with your life. MIT scares you into getting your work done sometimes, but it works and makes you better for it. You learn to appreciate free time and the amount of work you're capable of.

“What SAT score do I need to get in?”
This is SO easy to answer. If you get something that looks like (where the spaces are any number you want)

MATH: 7_ _
READING: 7 _ _
WRITING: 7_ _

then your SAT scores get a check and will no longer factor into your decision. Seriously, if you get above 700s then you're good. A 700 looks exactly like an 800, I swear (I'm not lying, as much as you may think it'll help to score higher than a 700, it won't!)

If you have scores lower than 700 it's not the end of the world. Balance it with an amazing application, but it's much easier to sit tight at 700+ for your SATs.

“What are the people like?” or, from the comments of my last post, “What is a quick and concise definition of MIT culture?”
-- I'm not sure why people are so against stereotypes. Maybe they feel unjustly accused of something if stereotyped with others? In my opinion, stereotypes are extremely useful tools that allow a quick and dirty explanation of things. Stereotypes wouldn't exist if there weren't some kind of shared trait amongst a group of people. This is why, despite the bajillion “You are SO wrong”s I'm going to get in the comments, I'm going to use stereotypes to describe the types of students at MIT and how I interpret the culture here.

While everybody is different, there are certain things that almost all MIT students have in common. They are:

1) Friendliness
2) Desire to help
3) Curiosity
4) Humility
5) Thinking without bounds
6) Accepting
7) Smart

Try this. Come visit the campus and ask an MIT student for help with something. I give you my word that they will do their best to help you and with a smile on their face. That's the way people here are, no matter how hosed or miserable, we love helping people. MIT students are very accepting of each other as well. This is not a local community school, there are people from countless states, countries, and religions all in one big melting pot. If we weren't accepting then there'd be a coup and MIT would rip itself apart.

MIT students never stop at what's required, they're always thinking of new things to do with an old idea or trying things that have never been done. Their curiosity, while sometimes dangerous, leads to more exciting discoveries and excellent stories than I can possibly imagine. An MIT student isn't limited. In no way do we feel like there's such thing as taking something “too far.”

You want to invent something?
Invent it.
You want people to know about it?
Get it on TV.
How?
Be creative!
You want it in National Geographic!?
Take it to Africa!

MIT students are smart. Spend a day on campus and you'll figure that out, but they're also very humble. They know that as smart as they are, they are much less smart than hundreds of others here.

Everybody is on the same playing field, nobody is super special because of their intelligence, no matter what they may think. MIT students can be goofballs and complete bozos around each other, all in the name of good fun. Smart, humble, and silly are three things balanced by all MIT students and, if I do say so myself, balanced expertly.

“Will you show me around campus during my visit?”
-- Absolutely. Just let me know when you're here and we'll meet up. I love showing people around.

That's all for now. I hope that helped. I know it's a lot of writing but sometimes these blogs need writing to balance out the YouTube ; )