Freedom isn’t free. by Sam M. '07

DID YOU KNOW? “Hey Ruth [’07], I need a did you know?” “Oh, those are always the best part… how about the milk vending machine in the basement of building 2?” “I don’t know, I dont think milk vending machines are that uncommon.” “No, parents are going to read this and be all, ‘Oh good, my little Johnny’s gonna have calcium!’ They have banana and chocolate and strawberry and coffee and… wait, I can look them all up.” “Okay, I think I’ll leave it at that.” [five minutes later] “Hey, the Quik rabbit’s name is Quicky… that could be a did you know.”

So I just got this e-mail from Maxine, president of MIT’s chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, which I’m not even really a member of.

From: Maxine
Date: 10/1/2006 9:55 PM
Subject: [AICHE] 10B: biology minor form application due Friday

Fill out a form. Get a free bio minor. But do it by Friday.
:)
Max

In my freshman year, Course 10: Chemical Engineering decided to add Course 10B: Biological AND Chemical Engineering to its repertoire. Their reasoning was something about “blah blah blah we think this represents the new standard in engineering and it will inspire students to look into biology startups and to la la la la fa la la lee” but really they meant “now we get more pre-meds into our major and increase our enrollment so MIT will give us more money!”

But anyway, the way Course 10 designed the 10B major, you get a free biology minor just by completing it. Rock! That’ll look great on your med school application!

But eveen the regular old course 10 major in this regard… finishing it leaves you only one class away from a chemistry minor. This is why 5.03: Principles of Inorganic Chemistry is filled with course 10 seniors the first week until they’re all like “Group theory? shlpshlpshlpshlpshlpshlp…” and drop it in favor of sleeping until 11 AM and playing Super Nintendo all the time.

But I took it sophomore year. What now, MIT?!