Hamsika C. '13
Feb 18 2013
Hitting Rewind on 2013
Posted in: Miscellaneous
I know, long time no see.
My last entry was almost exactly four months ago...which is terrible. Senior fall ended up being a little more overwhelming than I thought it was going to be - a confusing whirlwind of psets, tests, med school interviews, extracurriculars, and more. By the time finals week rolled around, I was desperate to be done. I stumbled through 1 final presentation, 2 final projects, and 2 final exams then flew home to Houston. For the next two weeks, all I did was read at Barnes and Noble (I finally read the last book in the Eragon series! Yeah...I haven't really matured in college >.< ), eat my mom's food, and sleep like 10 hours a night. It was like hitting a huge, much-needed reset button on my life.
At the beginning of January, I flew back to Boston for a month-long externship at a healthcare consulting firm about an hour outside Boston. The externship program is a pretty cool opportunity for MIT students to take advantage of during IAP. Current students can... read the post »
Oct 15 2012
A Typical Friday Night
Posted in: Miscellaneous
As you might have read in my last entry, I had a 6.046 (Design and Analysis of Algorithms) exam this past Thursday. Once it was over, my brain just kind of shut down and didn't do anything productive for the next 96 hours :)
I thought I'd share the fun times I had this past Friday night, post-6.046 exam. I know that before I came to MIT, my impression of the school was just that (1) everyone was a genius, and (2) no one did anything but work. These admissions blogs (+ my CPW experience) helped change that perspective I had, and hopefully, this entry further shows that MIT is about BOTH work and fun. Not just work!
Sooo - on Friday night, several friends and I headed over to Harvard Square (about ten minutes away by bus) and went to L.A. Burdick, a store known for its delicious chocolate. We all got some hot chocolate (actually, I ended up getting a latte. I'm a coffee addict - I don't deny it), and of course, we took way too many pictures (2 of which I've included here):
Oct 7 2012
Nerdin’ Out
Posted in: Miscellaneous
A couple entries ago, I described 6.046 (Design and Analysis of Algorithms), one of the classes I'm taking the semester. We have a test coming up this Thursday ( O.O ahh ), and in the process of studying for it, I've realized how much I love it. <3
Every algorithm we've learned in the class is so incredibly relevant to daily life.
(warning: i'm about to nerd out hard core, so feel free to go back to homepage and click on a different blog entry if algorithms just ain't yo' thang)
Check out this screenshot of class notes; it describes the concept of interval partitioning. And it links it directly to the item that basically controls my life - google calendar:
The idea behind interval partitioning is that you have bunch of activities you need to take care of, and you want to minimize the number of resources needed to take care of them. The idea behind google calendars/timing conflicts between events happens to be the same thing :)
Need more convincing that algorithms are... read the post »
Oct 1 2012
Not in my own words.
Posted in: Miscellaneous
Between June 1st and today, I have:
- written 5 versions of my medical school personal statement
- completed two separate medical school primary applications (AMCAS, TMDSAS)
- finished 11 secondaries, each with an average of 3 short essays
...not to mention other random essays for programs/internships and so on.
Through all this, I've learned that writing for an admissions or selections committee is HARD. It's not like blogging - where you can write whatever you want, however you want. No, personal statements are written differently than CVs which are written differently than cover letters, and so on. It's been an up and down roller coaster of editing, getting feedback, and editing some more. In the midst of all this, Chris sent me this article to read, and it cleared up my thoughts/helped me out immensely. And so, I thought I'd share. I hope this article useful to all of you as you embark on college apps/scholarship apps, etc! It definitely helped me :)
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... read the post »
Sep 24 2012
1 of the 101
Posted in: Miscellaneous
In my last entry, I mentioned that I had a bunch of things I wanted to do before I graduate and one was to get through this list. Last weekend, I made a little more headway on this goal by tackling Item #51: Eat at Mike's Pastry.
Mike's Pastry is one of many bakeries and cafes in Boston's North End and is well-known for its delicious cannolis. Over the course of my time at MIT, I've had many treats from Mike's Pastry - but, as I realized last week, I've never actually been there.
This is what motivated me to venture out to North End two Fridays ago and - for the first time, visit Mike's Pastry. (I *actually* wanted to go to the North End mainly to eat at Giacomo's Ristorante, which has ridiculously awesome Yelp reviews - Mike's Pastry was kind of a 'kill two birds with one stone' dealio).
As expected, the cannoli (chocolate chip flavor!) was amazing :) Anddd, I'm probably going to go back this weekend (and maybe actually get into Giacomo's this time).
One of my favorite... read the post »