I've been super busy over the past few weeks with various final projects and a writing portfolio and all that. Now I have no finals while almost everyone else is kickin it into full gear to ace their own tests and theses.

Below is the link to my final project for 4.502/4.564, an undergraduate/graduate class which uses programming to design stuff. We learned Rhinoscript, which you can use to program pretty much anything in Rhino 3D, but we also learned Processing, a neat little open source programming language developed by two guys from the Media Lab (naturally...). So instead of making weird shapes in Rhino, I decided to use Processing to turn some data into something a bit more fun to play with.

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http://web.mit.edu/bloggers/www/cristenc10/
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The map linked above (if you can't see it, you probably need Java installed) shows domestic undergraduate enrollment at MIT for each of the past ten years (go back and forth with the bracket keys). Mouseover a data point to see the number of undergrads from that state.

Now that I've gotten the hang of this (note: I've never really programmed in anything before 1-1.5 months ago..) I'd really like to expand this project to students from all over the world, and to graduate students as well. Right now with so little data it isn't as interesting as it could be.. ^_^;;

Today, something magical is happening.

Students, DSL team up to bring produce stand to campus

Anne Wilson, Campus Dining
March 27, 2009

A cooperative effort between students and Division of Student Life is bearing fruit in the form of a campus produce stand that will open for business beginning Tuesday, March 31.

The MIT Market will sell fruits and vegetables from noon to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays in the East Campus Courtyard near Walker Memorial. The stand will be run by Russo's, the Watertown-based retailer that won the "Best Produce" category in Boston magazine's 2007 Best of Boston rankings.

Sophomore Vrajesh Modi, an Undergraduate Association Senator from East Campus, proposed the project to Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo in January after working with other students to poll East Campus residents about ways to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable. Modi, who called the fruit and vegetable stand idea a "unanimous choice," then worked with staff in Residential Life and Campus Dining to make the project a reality.

"Ideally, we would like to see the student body at large use this and see it have a positive impact on health and wellness at MIT," said Modi. "We would also like to see this become a permanent part of the culture and the dining system."

(You can read the rest here.)

As for me, I'm flippin' EXCITED! I don't care much for most fruits as they make my throat itch, but there are many vegetables which I love. Right now, it's 11:54AM. I happened to get out of class early today. I'm sitting in my room facing the EC courtyard, tapping my feet. Consider this a bit of a liveblog.

11:55AM: Check wallet. Cash? Check.

11:56AM: *wonders if just one $20 bill would be enough*

11:57AM: *goes outside*!

~12:00PM: Vrajesh '11 (not pictured) opens the grand opening ceremony with a short thanks to everyone who helped, then Dean Colombo cuts the "ribbon". Shopping commences.

12:19PM: THIS LINE IS REALLY LONG. And somehow it got colder, but I'm just glad it's so nice out.

~12:25PM: I now have a huge head of romaine lettuce, a bunch of snow peas, one red bell pepper, a variety of potatoes, a pound of carrots, and a bulb of garlic. And it only cost me $6! And I only stopped because I couldn't carry more in my hands, because I hadn't thought to bring some bigger, more environmentally friendly bag.. -_-.

~12:35PM: The lettuce is so huge it pretty much takes up the entirety of my dorm-sized crisper. With everything else inside, it doesn't really close anymore.. ah well.

12:37PM: Even Lulu's cat wants to see what all the fuss is about.

I plan to go back and buy a few more things, like green beans and maybe some herbs. Hmm, what should I make for dinner? :)

Back in high school spring break was in the middle of April, but here it's at the end of March. Most other colleges have spring break a week or two earlier, meaning we don't get to see many of our high school friends when we go home. :( But, this is because they start the spring semester weeks before we do because we have IAP. So ha!

Well, this entry is a bit premature. Many people are still in class. In fact I'm in an Athena cluster right now, supposed to be working on my UROP but instead writing this.

By the way, a few weeks ago I got a UROP! I never thought I'd be joining the ~85% of the MIT population which eventually does research in a UROP, but surprise surprise. I won't bore you with details, but my group wants to change old power plants into cogeneration plants (those output both power and heat) by channeling the waste heat into heating for surrounding buildings. Yay!

Where was I? Oh, spring vacation. I used to go home for spring break, but since I don't really like home that much I decided to stay at my boyfriend's home in DE. Hopefully it'll get warm enough to walk along the beaches at least!

Before then I'm trying to clean my room, so that one day I can take pictures and write a post about my awesome room in East Campus for you. :)

Happy Spring~~~~! ^_^

(actually the above screenshot is a lie because I forgot to adjust for the President's Day holiday, oh well)

21W.735: Writing and Reading the Essay. It's my last class in the HASS requirement, and my second writing class at MIT.

4.440: Basic Structural Design. Forces! Trusses! Flying Buttresses! For undergraduate and graduate students who are not engineers! hahahaha!

4.431: Architectural Acoustics. A little seminar where we're presumably taught how to design spaces while enhancing acoustic quality.

4.502: Design Scripting. A new class, this one is both undergrad and grad like 4.440. I learn Rhinoscript so I can code things in Rhino. (Why yes, you'll probably end up coding something regardless of your major..)

4.292: Special Problems in Architecture Studies. This is a weekly nighttime graduate seminar on 'Responsive Cities' which runs until March 17. Oddly my largest class (like 70 people showed up last week!?!?)

Note that I don't have any class lasting only an hour this semester. In Course 4 I'm much more used to having some 3-hour long blocks of class, and many 1.5-hour long blocks of class. And no, my schedule isn't the best -- I still have to wake up before 9am every morning I do have class, and having 3- or 6.5-hour long breaks in between classes can sometimes feel awkward. And everything ever is due Thursday mornings, and of course I have APO meetings on Wednesday nights... but that's just bad luck.

Oh yeah, happy Friday the 13th everyone. :D

One other thing many people do during IAP is get an internship. So while everyone else was frolicking in the snow or relaxing at home, I was waking up at 7:30am on weekdays (this is hard for a college student. really!) and busting my butt off at my JOB.

I chose to get an internship in New York City partly so I could live at home. But more importantly, I found the project interesting and meaningful. As an Intern in the Green Communities program, I gathered data from several building owners around the city for analysis so recommendations could be made for energy-efficient retrofits in low-income housing. I made a few site visits along the way.

(This is not a very widely-known fact about me, but I used to want to study hurricanes. This comes from staring at The Weather Channel for hours on end as a child, and having a deep fascination with weather and climate in general, especially natural disasters. When I applied to MIT, I said I wanted to be Course 12 (Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences). Freshman year, I declared Course 12. Then somewhere along the line I decided to do Architecture instead. They're both small great programs. Anyway, I decided to visit AMS sort of as a way to see "what could have been." There was even free dinner!)

It was a rainy and cold afternoon but the feeling of liberation from classwork kept the atmosphere (heh) light. We met under the Green Building (where Course 12 is located) and took the T to Park Street then walked through Boston Common.

So I guess I haven't seen many Headquarters in general, but I was expecting something office-building-like. Instead I walked into someone's holiday-decorated home...

It's unmistakeably weather-oriented, no?

On our tour of the house, we learned a lot about the history behind the house (built for and lived in by some wealthy politically-important Boston man) and the features and architecture of the house. Now, this wasn't what I expected, because I thought I'd learn about the AMS or something, but here I am seeing architecture! Just goes to show architecture is everywhere.. o.O Here are more photos:

As you might know from the handy banner above, I am a Course 4 (Architecture) major. I have recently completed my HASS Concentration in Course 11 (Urban Planning) and really want to pursue a minor but probably won't due to time constraints. Neither courses are overwhelmingly popular majors here, and in fact the entire School of Architecture+Planning is pretty small. The school encompasses three undergraduate and some more graduate programs at MIT; the undergraduate majors are Course 4 (Architecture), Course 11 (Urban Planning), and Course MAS (Media Arts and Sciences).

The Architecture major itself requires, after six core subjects, a choice of one of five concentrations leading to the Bachelor of Science in Art and Design degree:

• Architectural Design. The overwhelmingly popular concentration; this is what everyone thinks of when they hear "architecture major." We learn how to design and how to express our design's intentions with models, drawings, and photos through a sequence of studio classes, each more intense than the last.. :) The first introductory studio.

  
  A graduate studio!

  
  
• Building Technology. Akin to 'building science' or 'architectural engineering'; this is the one I'm studying. It is a joint program between Course 4, Course 1 (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering). Here we focus in areas such as structures, materials, energy and lighting in buildings, HVAC systems, air quality control, and building simulation. In other words, we make buildings work so they don't fall down, grow mold between the walls, or leave you unbearably hot or cold. :) We can also go above and beyond this, by not only building normal functioning buildings, but also designing and constructing places in such a way as to maximize natural daylighting, eliminate heat losses, or perfect acoustics.



• Computation. This one is new. Use technology/computers to design! Researcher Larry Sass, who teaches the intro class here at MIT, fabricated a house featured in a MoMA exhibit last summer (there I am in it below!). It's made up of smaller parts designed to fit together. No glue, no staples, no screws.
  



• Visual Arts. Why yes, you CAN major in art at MIT. Here it has more of a studio art flavor, and so there are no drawing or painting classes here..
  
• History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art. I think it's self explanatory. I don't know too much about it, but according to its website "its mission has been to generate advanced research within MIT's School of Architecture and Planning and to promote critical and theoretical reflection within the disciplines of architectural and art history."

So there you have it regarding one of MIT's smallest and least-known schools. :) For those curious to find out more about Course 11, Karen and Anthony will have some relevant information. For art, ARTalk always makes for a fun read.

Taking a break from the Institute is not unheard of here. I can think of several people I know who are currently taking time off, have recently come back, or have returned, realized MIT was still not what they wanted, and left again for good.

So there's something I want to convey to you. MIT is not for everyone!!

It's not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with the Institute. But it's just impossible to satisfy everyone, you know? For example, if you really wanted to pursue a career in advertising, then you might be able to find someplace better.

A lot of emphasis in choosing colleges goes towards student life. Are there enough places to eat? Do our traditions seem cool to you? Can your dorm/FSILG make you feel at home? While these are all extremely worthwhile questions, they shouldn't overshadow the most important question of all:

What are you going to study?

Would a degree from MIT really be worth it if you spent the years unhappily toiling through a course of study that's not even vaguely within your interests? I don't think it is (but I'm sure there are people who'd argue..). You can stay undecided for a certain amount of time, but there comes a point in time when you need to decide on a major (sometime during sophomore year) and then study the heck out of it with awesome MIT skill.

Most areas of study here revolve around engineering. Anything else besides science/engineering tends to feel like some "other" major (I'm in such a major!). That said, the other programs here range from amazing to fantastic (I really really love my major). But there are only a finite number of them.

My point is, think long and hard about what you want to study before deciding where. Ask yourself questions -- enough to make yourself see your own personal truth. Here are a few to start off:

• Do you enjoy being worked (read: challenged) over and over again? At least you'll be happy while you're hosed.
• Do you despise the thought of working through *Magic Algebra* repeatedly? Then you probably don't want to become an engineer.
• Do you prefer hands on work or theoretical studies? You'll want to figure out how MIT's department learns a given subject.

This is not to say that answers are absolute. People change over time. MIT is especially great at showing you just what unbelievable feats you are capable of. But in the end you are you, learning is not one-size-fits-all, and your studies are a central part of your college life, wherever you choose to pursue it.

My next entry will probably be about MIT's School of Architecture + Planning (yes, with the plus sign). Stay tuned!

I can't recall precisely when I decided to apply to MIT Early Action. Or precisely why. It was that dream in the sky that I think I wanted more than other dreams in the sky. And so my college application season began.

My interview was at the Cosi at 13th Street and 6th Avenue with a young recent graduate named Steve. I always get really nervous at interviews. I remember nothing else about Steve (was he Course 15? 14? did he even know NYC?), but he liked the drawing I'd made while waiting for him and seemed really impressed by my response to my upbringing and family situation. Like, about to pee his pants impressed that I'd climbed so high on the life ladder. I left more than an hour later feeling like that went pretty well.

Then there's the essay. Like a good hopeful applicant, I spent weeks thinking about and working on my essay. And reworking it. Over and over again. The online submission date was November 1. Shortly before then, something amazing happened.

The website crashed.
ZOMG THE SITE CRASHED

If I recall correctly, nothing was actually lost. But for the trouble, we were granted a few extra days to submit our applications. The due date was moved to Friday, November 4th 11:59pm.

WIN!

(Also known as, do you know how to procrastinate? You will soon...)

I sometimes wonder whether what happened next was a fantastic twist of fate. How much would have changed if the following had not happened?:

Early Friday evening, I decided I hated my essay. I hated it so much that I considered it broken beyond repair. So, with only a few hours before the deadline (maybe the site won't crash again?), I started my essay from scratch. The next two or three hours were a frantic night of keyboard-banging, friend-proofreading, and increasing panic. Wouldn't it have been safer to submit the overly-edited essay?

I gave MIT the new essay, and MIT gave me admission.

For those beginning their applications and perhaps working on their essays this very moment, and perhaps for those who were just curious as to what a decent college application essay is like, I share mine with you. You'll learn more about me in the process, which is really what the essay is supposed to do in the first place right? :)

(If Ms. Cleary happens to be reading this, um, well, hi. Look where I am now. :D)

Living in the graffiti-adorned projects of the Lower East Side, I’ve adjusted well to low-income living. Stuyvesant High School’s done a first-rate job on making me feel like an outcast for it.

“You can get a fee waiver once you give us a copy of your parent’s 1040 tax forms,” Ms. Cleary automatically explained.

“My parents don’t have tax forms,” I said pointedly. “They don’t fill them out.”

“Of course they file tax forms,” she shot back. “Everyone does.” After a few more minutes of fruitless discussion, I left the College Office, unsuccessful. I would pay for SAT II exams, again.

Even with fee waivers, applying to college is pricey. Sending test scores to more than 4 colleges cost money, AP exams fees are reduced but not obliterated, and I’d love to meet the genius who thought of charging a fee for applying for financial aid. When approaching Ms. Cleary for help with the CCS Profile - I didn’t know where to indicate welfare and food stamp income - she asked me which school I chose to apply to.

“M.I.T.,” I replied.

“Oh, M.I.T.?” she mused. “How ironic, that you’re applying to M.I.T. and yet you can’t fill out a form…” I don’t consider my school’s administration supportive or welcoming.

My family felt strained enough paying $57 for senior dues when I attended middle school. Being a senior at Stuy is much, much worse. So far, this year’s classes have demanded about $270 total in textbooks, workbooks, art supplies, and other expenses. When my teachers ask whether anyone will have trouble paying for their supplies, no one speaks up and an awkward silence ensues.

While academic costs have mostly been waived, high school memories are not priceless. Yearbook photos just came in, and packages cost from $86 to about $230. I’ll probably wear an old dress and take the subway to my senior prom, which will probably set me back another $160. I will not get a class ring.

Many of my friends carry $10 and $20 daily, while I get $5 on a good day. Most of their parents are middle to upper class, working as teachers, lawyers, programmers, doctors, writers, social workers, or scientists, unlike my mother who is excused from work because of illness. Some of my classmates come from private schools, and many buy prep books for exams and have been in expensive SAT prep courses since middle school. They seem unable to comprehend my situation; the blank, baffled looks on their faces upon learning I have no cable television, cell phone, or air conditioning shock me.

“We do it because we want you to be happy,” my grandmother had explained to me when giving me $60 to attend a discounted college trip. Even in a nation governed by socioeconomic class, I believe that happiness and perseverance are enough for success. Although I use second-hand paints and brushes in acrylic painting class, I know that my painting will look just as striking.

The context of my trip: New York City is a few hours away from MIT by road. My family has limited funds and no car, so I was very lucky to find out that my high school sponsors college trips for juniors. So I coughed up some cash and shuttled between nine different colleges in the Northeast over three days. At the time, I was fairly undecided in which colleges I wanted to apply to. All I wanted to do was get far away from home.

They told us they splash acid over the buildings to corrode them and make them look "older." / THIS IS NOT MIT.

February 5th, 2005. My mind was still raving about the previous day, when I realized Yale's campus was full of ugly old buildings (see above) and SO MUCH SLUSH. Now I was in the State of Massachusetts for the first time. A inch or two of snow still covered the ground. Our bus pulled up directly to 77 Massachusetts Avenue.

A giant staircase and columns!

Admissions herded us into some classroom where we got the spiel. Then off to the tour!

We started in Lobby 7. Walking down the long hallway called the "Infinite Corridor" which comprises many of MIT's classroom buildings, the first door to the right is a men's bathroom. My friends Steven and Brendan asked if I could wait for them, so I kept watch on our tour as it quickly made its way down the hall. The group quickly became a meandering blob.

Five to ten minutes later, the boys came out of the bathroom. Where's the tour?

I don't know...

You were supposed to keep watch!

I WAS.

We walked around but found no one from our group. I wanted to cry. MIT seemed like a cool place and all but we're *lost*! This was before I ever had a cell phone. Luckily, the boys used their cell phone networking magic to track down other people on the tour, and some long time later we rejoined the tour. Here are some random photos to prove it!

Part of West Campus, featuring the undergraduate dorms McCormick and Baker (left and right), with female graduate housing in the center that's now undergraduate sorority housing.

This shot of a sculpture in Barker Library (that's the main engineering library) looks very cool, though weird for a *library*..

Classic picture of the great dome from Killian Court.

Inside of one of the athletics buildings.

That night we stayed at the Marriott Hotel on MIT's campus. We were given some free time before our curfew at 11PM, so just for fun we went back to MIT! At the Student Center we bought candy and played video games. I showed off my pool and air hockey skills and we all had a great time.

My two guy friends who got lost in the bathroom are hard at work.

So my visit happened to be awesome, although the more awesome bits happened outside the tour. All the while, I saw lots of random little things around campus that made me very happy and I suppose pushed me to apply. Here is my favorite picture from this whole weekend:

This includes but is not limited to cars, bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and walking. My favorite method, and perhaps the only method I am fully capable of doing after years of training in New York City, is walking. I daresay most people walk.

More students who want quicker transportation use bicycles. MIT has plenty of bike racks around campus near classes and dorms. There is even an auction near the beginning of the year, so it's perfectly feasible to get an inexpensive bike here. It also makes it easier to get to really nice places over the weekend, like Walden Pond or Cape Cod.

My friend Anthony '10 found that he missed driving terribly. So, not too long ago he bought a used car. Keeping a car around campus is not free of course, but there are a few parking lots around. I hear that driving in the city is no easy feat either...

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

You may have heard that Boston has a subway system. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) runs this subway system, which for some reason is called the T. MIT has its own station on the Red Line at "Kendall Square/MIT." The routes the T covers look something like this:

In addition to subways (which cost $1.70 to $2.00 a ride), the MBTA also runs buses (these cost $1.25 to $1.50 a ride) and commuter rail trains (costs vary depending on distance). The map for the commuter rail, which covers a fair portion of the state, is here:

How often do people at MIT take these things? Well, some of you might remember that Snively used the commuter rail every morning and evening last summer to get to and from his job in Providence. I've used it to go to Worcester to see a Nightwish concert. Taking the T is essential for getting into Boston and then the buses can be used to go places the subways don't quite reach. The only inconvenience is that here in Boston, like most places, public transportation stops running. Between around 12:30am and 5:30am, the MBTA will not help you get anywhere. Some of MIT's shuttles help make up for this.

MIT TRANSPORTATION

The MIT Department of Facilities' Parking & Transportation Office runs and coordinates several shuttles available to the MIT community. These include the following:

Saferide. This is possibly the highest-volume shuttle at MIT. There are 4 different appropriately-named shuttles: Boston East, Boston West, Cambridge East, Cambridge West. Together, the four shuttles can reach most if not all of the dorms and FSILGs. Saferide is free and operates seven days a week from 6pm to 2:30am or 3:30am all year. Some reasons to use the Saferide include:

• Returning home safely after the T has stopped running.
• Getting to that fraternity or sorority party.
• Visiting your friends in faraway living groups.
• Visiting your friends in places near those faraway living groups (heh, BU).
• Quickly getting across the Charles River when it's cold. Or rainy. Or both.

Tech Shuttle. This operates every 20 minutes Monday through Friday, from 7:15am to 7:15pm during the entire calendar year (except holidays). It's free, and gets you all around MIT - perfect for getting to classes quickly when you live in the farthest dorm and it's raining outside.

Northwest Shuttle. This free shuttle operates every 10 minutes weekdays from 7:25am to 6:42pm during the entire calendar year (except holidays). It's very similar to the Tech Shuttle. The map for the Tech Shuttle (in gold) and Northwest Shuttle (in black) is shown below.

Daytime Boston Shuttle. This shuttle runs every 20 minutes from 8am to 6pm weekdays during the school year (September through May). It is also free, and takes people directly between MIT's student center and a few of MIT's Greek houses in Boston (which also are just a short hop away from all that the City of Boston has to offer). This short route is shown below.

Airport Shuttle. Intuitively, these get people to and from Logan International Airport over several days right before Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring vacations. Seats should be reserved beforehand, and costs $10.00. Perhaps good if you don't want to take (two or fewer) huge bulky suitcases around the T.

Additional shuttles run by other parts of MIT or by companies in Cambridge/Boston include the Bates Shuttle, the Grocery Shuttle (Saturday mornings between Eastgate, a graduate dorm, and Star Market, a supermarket), the Lincoln Lab Shuttle, the Wellesley College Shuttle, the EZ Ride (goes to North Station, free with MIT ID), and the M2 Shuttle (goes around Cambridge, tickets for sale at the Parking and Transportation Office).

It was past three in the morning and I'd just returned home from Studio 7, a land of glue, x-acto knives, mounds of paper, pencil and pens, printers, laser-cutters, and shiny Mac Pro computers. Monday afternoon would welcome my first final review in 4.112 (Integrated Architecture Studio). I'll tell you more about studio later, but do know that finishing up sketches for that project made me a half hour late to 4.42J/2.66J/1.044J (Fundamentals of Energy in Buildings) that morning.

After the review I had but two hours break before meeting one of my partners for 4.411 (Building Technology Lab). We spent a few more hours building our model of a house in Gujarat, India. I’ll tell you more about this later, too.

I didn't wake up on time Tuesday morning, so I can't tell you about the tour of Boston my 11.001 class went on.

In lab, Arka '10 and I had the only completed model, so we got to go outside and take measurements under cloudy skies. We realized just how dark a house without windows is under diffuse sunlight when we measured 12000+ lux outside and a grand 12 lux inside a room. Yeesh.

That night, I tried to work on a paper but couldn't. I also didn't win any art in the lottery.

I decided I didn't know what I wanted out of a relationship so I tried to break up with my boyfriend. Perhaps knowing me better than I knew myself, he convinced me that we should take a break for a week to clear our heads. It was a really smart idea, so I agreed to this plan. The first night, I cried. Right now I feel okay. I've got all this... extra time now (as you may know, time at MIT is of utter importance). I'd always wondered whether being at MIT was really too stressful for nurturing a serious long-lasting relationship; perhaps one day soon I'll find out.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day at Harvard University. Our studio class met at the T station to visit the site for our next project. Armed with sketchpads and pencils and charcoal, we journeyed to a small side street and spent the next three hours on sketching. It was amazing.

At night I went to a showing for 21F.063. We watched Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, a 1979 movie from Japan which is also Hayao Miyazaki's first full-length film.

I'm still slightly sleep-deprived. Thanks to poor time management the previous days, I spent most of the rest of the night writing that paper.

Today is Thursday. Thursdays always make me really happy because I only have two classes, 11.001J/4.250J (Intro to Urban Design and Development) and 21F.063 (Anime: Transnational Media and Culture). I don't really have class on Fridays this semester, which makes my weekends start super early at 2pm!

But I can't stop now. Career Fairs happen every so often, including this day. In my past two years here I've never been able to drag myself to these things. Now I've decided to go there, shove resumes in people's faces, and generally just do this summer job search thing right! But while the list of companies recruiting all majors is small, the list of companies recruiting Course 4 students is even smaller:

Cannon Design
CDM
China Vanke Co., Ltd.
Devex
Exponent, Inc.
Novartis

You can count six here. Six! They range from consulting to real estate to firms. Now I'm laying in bed sleepy and somewhat unmotivated. Career Fair lasts for three more hours -- all I'd have to go is get my bum up and GO! There is only one company on this list that even interests me.

*sigh*

A smile on my face.

What am I trying to say here?

• Classes make me do lots of cool things besides sitting in a room and psetting.
• Career fairs are aimed at more popular majors.
• The homework isn't the only thing that's hard in college.
• Sleep-deprived doesn't mean unhappy.

I look forward to telling you about more weeks at MIT... :) smile!