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MIT staff blogger Matt McGann '00

What’s Going On by Matt McGann '00

Some of the 600+ Campus Preview Weekend events.

Important note: the weather forecast has a 70%+ chance of rain Friday night through Saturday night. Bring an umbrella, raincoat, and/or waterproof footwear! (Thursday looks to be beautiful, though)

It’s after midnight here on the East Coast, so Campus Preview Weekend begins today for the MIT admitted class of 2012. It’s going to be a fun weekend.

In total, there are 600+ published events over the course of CPW (wow!). Here are a few that caught my eye…

  • Late night classes called Firehose, starting at midnight Thursday night (or early Friday morning, if you prefer to look at it that way), going until 6am Friday. Speaker building, hypercubes, the Black Death, and more, taught in a fun/crazy style by MIT students.
  • Real members of the MIT Blackjack Team (of Bringing Down the House and 21 fame) will be speaking at Next House late Saturday night.
  • Awesome music at ZBT’s Battle of the Bands at 8pm Saturday, with special guest judges Ben & Bryan.
  • The famous Bouncy Ball Drop at Senior House, Friday night at 8. Must be seen to be believed.
  • People always love Underground Capture the Flag, Saturday at midnight.
  • The appropriately-named Cool Projects Open House Friday at 4pm. The solar car team will be there, the Formula SAE race team, the Mars Gravity Biosatellite, the Solar Electric Vehicle Team…
  • There are many department receptions throughout the weekend, including Friday’s Department of Architecture Faculty Reception, Thursday’s Biology Open House, and Friday’s Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) Open House/Continental Breakfast
  • Thursday afternoon, check out Instructables@Simmons Hall, especially if you’re a big fan of Instructables
  • Also Thursday afternoon, check out a talk by Astronaut/Professor Jeffrey Hoffman (I’d like to be an “Astronaut/Professor”).
  • Former Mystery Hunt winners Random Hall will host a Minihunt… I love minihunts.
  • The keynote lecturer at the President’s Welcome on Friday morning will be the awesome Amy Smith!
  • Forgot that MIT has as many Pulitzer Prize-winning Humanities professors as it does Nobel Prize-winning Physics professors? Check out the MIT Literary Society Dessert Reception
  • See MIT’s great a capella groups altogether at Saturday afternoon’s SGBIS concert.
  •  

    What event(s) are you most looking forward to?

17 responses to “What’s Going On”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Dana- we finally got through and they rebooked us on united. you couldnt get through all night?

  2. Roman K. says:

    I hope I could go there next year. =)

  3. NUM83R5 says:

    Have fun at the CPW!

  4. Jeremy says:

    7 hours 3 minutes

  5. senna '12 says:

    I wish I wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish I could attend CPW!!!
    *cries*

  6. Laura says:

    Dude, underground capture the flag is AWESOME. DO IT. You will be so lost, and never have any idea where you are. Then 3 years later, you’ll pause for a second while passing a bench you’ve passed about 3 million times since freshman year and go, “hey….that’s the bench I fell asleep on after playing underground capture the flag for like 4 hours! crazy!”

  7. Piper '11 says:

    For those who couldn’t go – don’t worry. As exciting as CPW is, Orientation is even MORE exciting (and since you aren’t going to CPW, Orientation will be MORE exciting AND completely unexpected).

  8. Tanmay '12 says:

    Cool Projects Open House! wow ALL FOUR mentioned are just the ones I’d love to see. And Professor Hoffman’s talk. Just WOW! :D

    The only sorrow is that I won’t be there. MIT, why are you 7150 miles away? :’-(

  9. Mohit says:

    WOW!! All of it sounds just fascinating!! I wish I’ll be there next year…..
    *starts working harder*……

  10. Zeina says:

    I wish I could go!

  11. Vivi '12 says:

    Every time I read a blog post about CPW it makes me yearn to attend so badly =Every time I read a blog post about CPW it makes me yearn to attend so badly =< Everyone going had better have loads of fun for those of us missing out, and then report it on your blogs and etc!

  12. dana '12 says:

    My AA flight to CPW was cancelled. We’ve been trying all night to get another flight, but AA seems to enjoy avoiding answering their phones…anyone else having the same issue?

  13. Aditi says:

    I wish I could just teleport

    *sigh*

  14. ... says:

    I got rejected.. i now wish to take a gap year without enrolling in any college and try again next year for MIT. Is dat allowed? Has anyone who has been rejected once admitted in the second instance?? i am an international student.

    Posted by: ….. on April 7, 2008 12:28 PM

  15. Judy Hao '12 says:

    And don’t forget that special 10pm tour *wink wink*

  16. Lauren '12 says:

    @ Karen ’12

    i second you, though next time, we probably won’t leave one girl to guard the flag (in our defense, we did barricade the door with a bench) so that 25 of us could go run a jail break and capture the flag (unknowlingly 5 minutes after the other team already ran their jail break to come get our flag)

  17. Karen '12 says:

    Underground Capture the Flag was AMAZING.