Marking time by Mollie B. '06

Warning: My life is so not interesting right now.

We’re all moved into the apartment, and have all kinds of grownup things like furniture, lightbulbs, and cleaning supplies under the sink. I thought we’d be done moving by Saturday night, but we really didn’t clean out all of the boxes until this morning. Moving is tiring!

Somewhat relevant moving tip: Since you won’t be moving into your final dorm room until after the final housing lottery, it’s a good idea to pack a suitcase with about a week’s worth of clothes so you don’t have to unpack and then repack your temp room. It’s also a good idea to pack light and buy as much as you can once you get to campus. I did not follow this advice when I was a freshman, and let me tell you what, it was not fun to move into my permanent room. (Mostly there are helpful upperclassmen around to help you move. But I was only moving to a different room on the same floor, so I roughed it out myself.)

Since it’s really warmed up in Cambridge over the past few days, Adam and I have been ODing on ice cream — we went to Tosci’s in Central Square on Sunday night, ate ice cream sandwiches at home last night, and went across the river to JP Licks tonight. I love being on campus during the summer. This is my third summer in a row in Cambridge, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

I am proud to announce that I basically taught myself how to use Photoshop for scientific applications today. Check out this figure, coming soon to a piece of the scientific literature near you:

Yeah, I did that.

I got my last grade in today. (MIT grades go up on the WebSIS in a more-or-less completely haphazard way, and it’s not unusual to be waiting for your grades for a week or so.) I’ve fulfilled all my requirements, and I’ve completed 270 units outside the GIRs, and I’m totally going to graduate!

Shameless plug: Check out the newest episode of ZigZag tomorrow — you might see somebody you recognize (other than Matt, that is).

Questions!
1. Thanks all of you for your kind words. I’ll keep blogging as long as The Boss lets me. :)

2. Carolina asked,

I know you have to take a Swim Test but that’s about it. Well, what if you can’t swim to save your life (literally)?

If you can’t swim well enough to pass the swim test (and a good number of people can’t!), you have to take a beginner swim PE class. Relatedly, there was a recent story in the Boston Globe about seniors having to take the swim test to graduate. (I think the swim requirement is completely obnoxious. But the people at DAPER like to keep themselves necessary, I guess.)

3. Mike asked,

At MIT, do you have to do a senior thesis? My english teacher often mentions them, but as a senior, I never heard you mention one throughout the year.

Some majors have a senior thesis requirement (mechanical engineering, for example). Others don’t have an explicit senior thesis, but all majors do have “communication intensive” courses which require reading and writing about the department’s subject matter. Biology majors, for example, have to take Project Lab, which is a 24-unit lab course with a major writing component — but it’s usually taken in the junior year. Adam just finished the writing component of his aero/astro senior project; course 16 students propose, design, and write about their projects second term junior year, then build and test them first term senior year.