Apr 28 2012

Pre-Med @ MIT

Posted in: Best of the Blogs, Miscellaneous

The most frequent question I received during CPW was: "You're pre-med? Wait, so why did you pick MIT?" It makes sense that I received this question repeatedly: after all, MIT is primarily a technology/engineering school and has the reputation of being incredibly difficult. This isn't the first time one of the bloggers has written about being pre-med at MIT, but I thought it'd be worth it to add my own thoughts into the mix - particularly since, with the AMCAS (med school app) coming out this Tuesday, I'm about to dive head-first into the craziness that is medical school admissions.

Why I Chose MIT 

In all honesty, there are times (*cough* hell weeks *cough*) when MIT makes me feel like this:

But mostly, it makes me feel like this:

(p.s. you should all go waste some time on this site because it's hilarious - and it's also where I got the above two gifs)

I visited MIT for the first time during CPW, and I came in expecting the stereotype, i.e. that everyone here would... read the post »

Discussion

Mar 31 2012

Spring Break

Posted in: Miscellaneous

This past week was, hands down, the best spring break of my college career.

It didn't seem that way at first. I was scheduled to fly out last Friday: Boston --> New York --> Houston. I managed to get to New York, but then my flight got canceled, leaving me frustrated and with an intense craving for home/family/my mom's food - none of which I'd had in nearly a year.

Things perked up slightly when I walked into my Delta-provided hotel room and saw a beautiful queen size bed. I curled up and (1) watched Finding Nemo, and (2) started reading Hunger Games. At some point, I fell into a dreamless sleep, and eight hours later, woke up to catch my flight and arrive safely in the ever-humid city of Houston, Texas. 

Enter: sleep, food, an absence of psets, and the realization that my younger brother is way taller than I am. 

I spent the first few days of Spring Break lazing about the house, taking four-hour naps a little too often and relishing the taste of home-cooked food. I dragged... read the post »

Discussion

Mar 22 2012

A Field Trip

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Life & Culture

After two and a half years here, you’d think I’d know most or all of what there is to know about MIT. But I don’t think I even come close. Every day, I discover something new about MIT; I’m so amazed by everything that goes on here.

Case in point: over the past year or so, I’ve been working with MIT’s Edgerton Center, which supports teams such as the Solar Electric Vehicle Team, Formula SAE, Marine Robotics Team, and more - all of which place a big emphasis on hands-on work and building. I’ve corresponded back and forth with a number of the student leaders in these groups, but it wasn’t until about two weeks ago that I actually visited their workshop in Building N51 and saw for myself everything that they do.

Check these pictures out: 

Can you believe students built all these things?? All of these groups spend a significant number of hours each week in the workshop, working away into the night. While they receive some funding from the Edgerton Center, they do... read the post »

Discussion

Feb 29 2012

Heck yeah, democracy.

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Life & Culture

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm taking 6.005 (Software Construction) this semester, which if you remember, I described as a "notoriously tedious and time-consuming" class. 

The past three weeks have validated that statement. I've spent an average of 6 hours each day (read: ~ 8 pm - 2 am) for the past 4 days working on 6.005. Our assignment is to create a Sudoku solver, which will read in any Sudoku puzzle and figure out a solution to it. It's pretty cool!! Except hard to do :( So understandably, there's been an outpouring of overwhelmed-ness amongst the 6.005 student body. 

This feeling of utter panic manifested itself on the 6.005 Piazza site (Piazza is basically a site where students can ask questions and instructors/classmates can answer them - a.k.a. a way to get instantaneous answers to questions) via a thread titled: "Extended deadline for pset 2":

"Hi, can you give a class extension for pset 2's deadline? This is a hard pset, and we are just starting to cover... read the post »

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Feb 18 2012

Cancer

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Of all the student groups I am involved with at MIT, the one that brings me the most happiness is Camp Kesem MIT. Those of you who have stuck with me throughout my blogging career have heard about CK before. Those of you who haven’t – well, I’m about to tell you about it :)

Camp Kesem MIT is a one-week, free summer camp that takes place towards the end of August and is geared towards kids whose parents have been affected by cancer. Each summer, a combination of kids and counselors (all of whom are MIT students) come together for a week of pure camp fun – filled with sports, nature activities, arts and crafts, ropes courses, drama rotations, swimming, hiking, and more. Planning for each camp session is done entirely by a coordinator board made up of ~15 MIT students; this board starts preparing for the following Camp session as soon as the present session is done.

I was a counselor for Camp Kesem MIT during my freshman and sophomore summers at MIT, and I’ve been a part of the... read the post »

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