Every Wednesday night the Cantab Lounge hosts an Open Mic followed by a Featured Poet and wrapping up the night with a Poetry Slam where poets compete for a few bucks and a potential spot on the Boston Poetry Slam Team that will compete at the National Poetry Slam! While it's generally difficult to get off campus during the week due to the general hustle and bussle of psets, I take every chance I can to drop by Central Square and listen to a few hours of wonderful original content.

But before I continue you may be asking, Nat?! What's a Poetry Slam?! How do you competitively read poetry?! To which I provide the next section!

Poetry Slams

Poetry Slams had their humble beginnings at a music venue in Chicago in 1986. The structure was and has stayed simple, each poet has around 3 minutes to perform their poem to the best of their ability. After they've finished a few designated audience members give them a score from 0-10 based on delivery and content with the most important aspect being that they stay consistent.

The poems themselves cover a wide array of topics that range from comedies to tearjerkers. But what better way than to present a few of my favorite poets/poems in no particular order.

Franny Choi's "Ring Around The Rosie"

Sarah Kay's "Private Parts"

Catalina Ferro's "Anxiety Group"

Omar Holmon's "I Am Nerd"

Taylor Mali's "What Teachers Make"

Marshall David Jones' "Touchscreen"

Shane Hawley

National Poetry Slam

Every year the National Poetry Slam is held in a different exotic location in the US and, for the second time since I've been at MIT, that location is Boston! In fact, quite a few of the venues are held in different rooms in Stata. So if you find yourself around Boston from August 13 - August 17 drop by and see some of the most impressive poets that the world has to offer!

The first hidden treasure is the pistol classes at MIT. Now you may be saying, Nat, everyone and their cousin knows about the pistol classes and the Pirate's License. To which I'd reply, yes, but it's not the actual class that makes Pistol a HT@MIT, it's the instructor Mike Conti.

Background

I took beginner pistol first quarter of my freshman year because I wanted to start strong on my quest to get the Pirate's License. While I came for the license and to shoot guns, I stayed for the instructor. Every week was better than the last and it turned out that those Tuesday and Thursday afternoons were the highlight of every week. But why I enjoyed it so much was a little bit of a nebulous subject. I couldn't pinpoint at first that it was actually the instructor, not the activity that was making the subject so enjoyable. Eventually the quarter ended and I was swept up into the world of midterms and actual classes and pistol fell to the back of my mind. 

(Other Blogs about Pistol @MIT)

Final day of pistol class we all posed in a very Christian Bale manner.

Trying to Relive My Old Pistol Days

(a.k.a why this blog is suddenly relevant)

After Pistol I took Archery, a subject I did for four years back home, and I put off taking anymore PEs because of conflicts with school related things. But because this semester is quickly coming to an end and I'm supposed to finish my PE requirement this year I decided to dive back into the world of PE classes and what better way than with a nice helping of Intermediate Pistol. Today I stepped into the first class and everything clicked as to why I enjoyed beginner pistol so much and why this was going to be a wonderful class.

Why Mike Conti Is The Man

1. He's hilarious, I've honestly yet to meet any instructor at MIT who manages to make me laugh as much as I laugh in Pistol.

2. He takes safety extremely seriously and teaches it in a way that doesn't make you scared but rather makes you appreciate the subtleties of keeping everyone around you safe.

3. The environment he creates for the class is such that it's easy to use it to escape from daily work. Those forty minutes are a time to forget the dozen deadlines awaiting you in the academic world and relax, laugh, and shoot some guns!

4. Every class period is filled with words of wisdom of the random, but relevant, variety.

Everyone should attempt to wake up super early and sign up for pistol/rifle once in their lives, it's definitely worth it. 

Tune in next time for HT@MIT: Cantab Lounge's Slam Poetry Night.

Step 1 - CHECK-IN EARLY

Before you can do anything else with this guide you will need to be able to pick your seat. I warn you that all of the good seats are extremely coveted and the only way you can guarantee maximum comfort is checking in as soon as humanly possible. This is actually pretty easy, set an alarm for 24 hours before your flight and make sure you know what it's for.

Step 2 - Understanding Your Options and Weighing the Pros/Cons

I'm going to use a couple of initialisms here so that my life will be a little easier.

EER- Emergency Exit Row

FR- Front Row

SSS- Super Special Seat (To be explained later, there is only 1 on any given flight)

Case 1- Middle Seat (Not EER, or FR)

NEVER TAKE THIS SEAT. I promise you the person in front of you WILL recline their seat as far as it can go, the person to your left will have a crying child who has decided they should continuosly kick you, and the person to your right will decide that your shoulder is the optimal resting place as they sleep. Not only that, but getting out of your seat is nearly impossible and you can't even watch the beauty of the plane taking off/landing. A survey done by Newser found that 56% of respondents would rather be drilled at the dentist. [1]

Conclusion:  F-

Case 2/3 - Aisle Seat/Window Seat (Not EER, or FR)

This is the seat you'll probably get if you check in late and it's not terrible. The leg room is abysmal for tall people but at least you either have an easy exit in the aisle seat or a beautiful view from the window seat. You'll also probably get 1/2 of the terrible neighbors above.

Conclusion: C-

Case 4 - FR Seat 

All three of these seats are absolutely beautiful and they have quite a few pros and only a couple of cons.

Conclusion: B+

Case 5 - EER Seat with Extra Leg Room (Not SSS)

These are the bread and butter of this guide. These coveted 5 seats have it all and the only con is that you won't get off the plane as early as if you were on a FR.

Conclusion: A-

Case 6 - The Super Special Seat

Southwest only flies one type of plane, the 737, and on each 737 there is one seat to rule them all. It is in the window seat in one of the EERs and it has the seat in front of it removed for easier access to the emergency exit door.

Conclusion: A+

Tune in later this week for a blog explaining why I've been MIA for a semester!

[1] http://www.newser.com/story/63494/middle-seat-on-the-plane-id-rather.html

[2] Credit: Jason Hethertington/Getty

[3] By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

[4] http://www.thingsbearslove.com/

This semester is going to be class heavy because I'm doubling up on HASS classes to make up for a humanities free freshman spring semester. Finishing 6.01 and 6.042 (both intro classes to course 6-3 that I absolutely despised) last semester I'm finally able to jump into a couple of the CS classes that interest me. The report is in after 4 weeks and I absolutely love all of my classes.  After genuinely considering changing my major at the end of last semester, it's a nice change of pace.

6.006 Introduction To Algorithms - 12 Unit

This has to be my favorite class so far. Professor Rivest (the R in RSA encryption and CLRS) and Professor Indyk (a leader in the field of Computational Geometry) are both wonderful lecturers and the material is not only relevant but extremely useful in everyday coding life. A staple course for anyone hoping to have technical interviews, 006 has yet to disappoint. 

6.034 Artificial Intelligence - 12 Units

034 is a class that I'm slowly enjoying more and more. Hearing mixed reviews about Winston and his no electronics policy I was wary coming in but all my fears have dissipated. Professor Winston is an amazingly consistent lecturer whose multi colored chalk and well prepared lectures make the 10am time slot worth it.

6.004 Computation Structures - 12 Units

004 is the course 6 class that everyone recommends you take before you judge the major. Starting from transistors you move your way up digital logic and at the end of the class have your own virtual 32bit processor. And with the class being taught the same way for over 18 semesters there are a ton of resources and help to be found. On top of that, the lecturer, Professor Terman, is wonderful and amazingly consistent.

21F.571 Japanese 1 - 9 Units (kind of)

To clarify the "kind of", whenever you take a language course with globalization both of them become 9 unit classes (this is for freshman with a credit cap) but you do all the work of your 12 unit counterparts.

Japanese is an interesting class that keeps you on your feet with 2-3 quizzes a week. Every day is filled with situational sentence drilling and grammar lessons. While I love the language, it's definitely a difficult class and I wonder how it'll end up.

21F.076 Globalization - 9 Units

The idea behind Globalization is to offer a CI-H that you can take with a language class without falling behind in your HASS requirement. Going from no hass classes to two this semester has been an interesting change of pace that's led to hundreds of pages of readings. While I still have mixed feelings about this class it's no doubt that both of the professors are splendid. Professor Resnick's stories alone make this class worth it.

ES.200 ESG Teaching Seminar - 6 Units

A requirement to TA in ESG, this class is a great time to sit down, eat ice cream and discuss what it takes to be a great TA. This class is an amazing end to stressful weeks.

[Disclaimer: What follows is going to be part shameless plug for my website CourseRoad, and part unsolicited advice/storytelling. If that’s not your cup of tea, maybe this will make you feel better :D]

Let me start with a piece of advice: you know the thousands of fliers that are posted over MIT bulletin boards? Whenever you get a chance, try to read as many of those as possible. You never know what kind of crazy adventures will follow. This past IAP, I was strolling through the Infinite when I came across a poster for something called “The iCampus Student Prize”. This blue piece of paper stapled to a corkboard at knee height let me know about a competition to build some piece of software to help MIT life in some way. Without much else to do, I kicked around the idea of working on some sort of entry until about a week before the deadline. Finally, I decided “oh hell, why not?” and built a prototype of CourseRoad over Presidents’ Day Weekend. I didn’t quite realize what I was getting myself into at the time.

You see, back when I arrived at MIT last fall, I originally told everyone that I wanted to major in 6-3, Computer Science. That was certainly a lot easier to say than responding with “well, probably 6-3, but I also love physics, so maybe course 8 but I dunno yet so we’ll see”. What I did know was that no matter which of the two majors I ended up in, I would certainly be stuffing my schedule with courses from the other.

At some point while investigating major possibilities (word play!), you have to figure out what each major requires for graduation. The MIT Bulletin (which holds information on the different departments) contains pages and pages of “degree charts”—lists of subject requirements for any possible MIT diploma. Pouring over the lists of X.XXX course numbers is confusing enough; comparing overlap with other majors is even more so. And therein lay a major problem: working out when to take your required classes over four years was hard.

The basic idea of CourseRoad, therefore, was to automate a solution to that problem. After hours of tweaking CSS and reading nearly every page of the jQuery and jQuery UI documentation, I built a site that allows users to add classes to a timeline of their academic careers and get immediate feedback on whether they’ve satisfied those classes’ requisites and how they’re doing on their major’s requirements.

I was sitting in bio recitation when I got the email that I had won the iCampus Prize. Along with a pretty glass paperweight, the department which ran the iCampus Prize, OEIT (Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, to whom I am endlessly indebted), also offered me a summer job to keep working on the site and improve it beyond the time constraints of the competition and weekly 8.022 psets. (Still not sure how I pulled that one off.)

And here we are today! Over the last few weeks, I’ve been wrapping up main summer development, and my team of beta-testers (to whom I am also endlessly indebted, Nat included :D) has sent me a sizeable swarm of bug fixes and feature requests. I’m now happy to announce that the site is once more open in version 2.0:

https://courseroad.mit.edu

(You don’t need an MIT account to use the site, but if you don’t have the MIT Certificate Authority installed, you’ll probably get a security error.)

One more note: while I was working on CourseRoad to prepare it for the final competitive round, I realized that I was coming up on another important deadline—declaring a major. Due to my indecisiveness, I decided to attend the Physics Open House (which I found on a flyer! Always check the fliers!). It was perhaps one of the best decisions I made last year. I discovered that the 8-flexible major allows me to flood my schedule with both Physics and Comp. Sci. classes, which I’ve done—even my HASS is “Systems Visualization”.

And yes, I checked it all over on CourseRoad as well. :)

If I had to name one aspect of myself that has changed the most in the last year, it has to be the volume of hair on my head. Although I always dreamt of growing out the afro, I never had the opportunity until I moved out. With no one to provide monthly reminders of what a well kempt hair cut looked like, I bought a pick and went on with life as usual. 

This is the story of a boy who watched the above movie (Hackers) and fell in love with the concept of Computer Science. A boy that believed if he became a 1337 hacker that he could one day hack a Gibson and get the girl (Angelina Jolie). He started off simple, spending the hour a day of internet time he had learning syntax and the concepts. Writing a program here and there, he slowly expanded his knowledge until it became second nature. His middle school years ended and he started his time in high school with even more opportunities. Around Junior year he used his computer skills to obtain an internship at a local credit union. One thing led to another and he expanded his abilities, leaving the credit union and joining/creating his own web consulting firm. Here we find ourselves in the present as he enters his senior year in college, finishing up his degree in supply chain management, still programming on the side. This is the story of my older brother.

You see, computers were always my brother's thing. Growing up I would spend my internet time playing video games while he would use his time doing productive things. When he got a new computer for his birthday and we finally upgraded to DSL, I saw it as an opportunity to play CSS lag free while he continued to learn. I wanted nothing more than to carve my own niche in my family, so programming was something I never touched. Around sophomore year I decided that Physics would be my college major of choice. I had always loved math and problem solving, so it seemed like the logical field. I was convinced I'd be a good little course 8 until CPW rolled around.

Friday night there was an interesting SIPB discussion where a couple alumni talked about what they were currently doing with their 6-3 degrees. I decided to go and see what all the fuss was about and what I found was exactly what I wanted to do. The perfect combination of math and problem solving, Computer Science was what I was really looking for. A few months passed and I took my first programming class during IAP and it just felt right. I wish I’d joined my brother 10 years ago.

These last few months have been interesting in the realm of seeing and meeting celebrities. My last blog post was about meeting the wonderful Walter Lewin, an academic hero of mine, but the excitement didn't end there. Earlier this year I was able to listen to GZA (founding member of the Wu-Tang clan) give a speech about the current state of hip hop around the world. Afterwards I was able to take a picture with the legend and have him sign a poster and it was wonderful. He turned out to be really down to earth. But once more the excitement didn’t end there. Around the same time Regina Spektor announced a tour date in Boston and there was another date to look forward to! 

I'll have a more detailed post about this topic later but here's brief overview of what the last few months have consisted of. I was employed as a Residential Facilitator (fancy speak for a TA who lives with the participants) in the Interphase program. I was responsible for holding recitation twice a week and taking care of four of the participants (which consisted of Sunday afternoon brunches at IHOP after the wait at the Friendly Toast was approximately two hours). Experiencing Interphase from the other point of view was interesting and ridiculous amounts of fun. Who knew freshman could be this fun!

After time was up he surprised us all with signed pictures to grace our dorm walls. Not only is he an amazing lecturer, he's a wonderful, down to earth, person.

Tune in next time for a life update! My first year at MIT has flown by and it's about time I update you guys on what's been going on.

about the ridiculous number of awesome events, but don't worry! We're here to help.

And you may be wondering who WE are, so we drew something for you!

Without further ado:

N = Nat, K = Kirsten

1. Don't buy ANY food!

N: One of the best parts of CPW is the massive amounts of delicious free food, but eating at events is so much more than that. Food events are a great place to meet new people and make event hopping friends.

K: Also, if you're interested in the dining halls, now's a good time to check them out :) Especially since you guys will have a meal card!

2. Don't be afraid to randomly talk to other prefrosh. Everyone wants to meet new people just as much as you.

K: MEET PEOPLE. It's awesome when people tell introduce me to friends that they met over CPW!! I wish I met more people over cpw :( 

N: Whenever I went to events it felt like EVERYONE already knew each other, but that's not the case. You tend to only notice the large groups, but the majority of attendees will be looking for friends, just like you!

3. Visit EVERY dorm. Don't let stereotypes you've heard stop you from checking out an event.

N: Go to the events and form your own opinions. There's a community for everyone!

K: If you're thinking about going to MIT (which I know you all are going to go here), then you should really get to know the culture and community of the different dorms.

4. The best events are late at night. You have the rest of high school to sleep.

K: Truth. Don't sleep!

N: My favorite events were the firehose sessions which last well into the morning. Don't let a little drowsiness stop you from having fun.

5. If you are coming with your parents, make sure you do the events that YOU want to do. You're the one who'll be spending four years here.

N: I can't tell you how many parents were on dorm tours and at various events with clearly bored children.

K: Do your own thing :D The best thing you can do is find out if you feel comfortable in the MIT community.

6. GO TO THE FRESHMAN LEARNING COMMUNITY EVENTS.

N: This year's a little different in that all of ESG's/Concourse's/Terrascope's/Media Arts and Sciences' recruitment has to occur during CPW. So drop by and let us convince you why FLCs are cool!

K: Nat says I should say that FLCs are cool. 

7. Go to the CPW Prefrosh Welcome!

K: Because it might be the only time before graduation when a significant portion of the 2016s are in one place!

8. Don't be afraid to check out the Greek events. They may be really far away but they're definitely worth it.

N: Around 50% of men and 30% of women at MIT are affiliated. Throw out everything you've ever thought about Greek Life, nearly every pledge I've met this year has said, "I never thought I'd be in a fraternity/sorority."

K: You might think: "Oh those Greek houses are too far to go visit over CPW." But lemme clarify some things. Saferide is EXTREMELY easy to use and will take you to the houses safely (in case you weren't sure by the name). Also, if you're curious about Greek life, it's the best time to check out the different fraternities and sororities. 

9. Talk to current MIT students! We love talking to prefrosh.

K: Don't be afraid to talk to us!! We love talking about MIT and answering all of your questions. It makes us feel legit.

N: We can give you whatever information you need! Directions, why you should choose MIT, and life guidance to name a few.

10. Don't plan out your whole CPW, go where the flow takes you.

N: I made a detailed list of every event I was going to go to on the plane ride to CPW, then threw it out after my second or third event.

K: Definitely find events that you want to go to, but don't feel like you need to be on a strict schedule :)

11. For those of you curious about Interphase, attend the info session!

N: This is one of the choices you'll have to make pretty soon, and it'll be filled with pertinent information!

K: Nat's going to be a TA for this. More of a reason to learn about Interphase!

12. Go to the activity and athletics fair. Explore the different activities, try something new, obtain free things, meet more prefrosh, obtain free things, eat liquid nitrogen ice cream, oh and did we say free things everywhere?

K: FREEEEEEE

N: You should've stopped after free things, that's really all you need to know.

13.Try new things by going to an event you scanned over whilst looking at the schedule.

K: YOPO. You're only a prefrosh once.

• 13.A Get liquid nitrogen ice cream at some point.

• K: Frozen deliciousness.

• N: And it's right after the activities/athletics fair, MORE FREE STUFF.

• 13.B.Dye your hair!

• N: Okay, this might not be for everyone but if you're in the business of dying your hair a neon color, CPW's the place to do it.

• K: DO IT. (Although it may be pertinent to remember that graduation/prom may be coming soon....)

14. Go to a Firehose session! Or 2, or 5.

K: A taste of life at MIT :P

N: And they cover some really cool topics.

15. LOOK AT THE POSTERS ON THE WALLS OF EVERY CORRIDOR.

N: I didn't realize until the last day that most of the posters were for the prefrosh. Don't miss a cool sounding event just because you didn't take a moment to check the posters!

K: Apparently, there were lots of posters for events down infinite for the events. I wasn't even aware of this!!!! D:

16. Go to the Meet the Bloggers event!

K: Because you're awesome. We're awesome. & Awesome people should meet each other... for the sake of awesomeness.
If that's not enough... ROOT BEER FLOATS!

N: Two words. Chris Peterson. 

If you follow these 16 simple guidelines, this'll be you,

21W.021, also known as "MIT 150:Inside, Live",  is a CI-HW (Writing Intensive Humanities Class) that's all about MIT. Everday discussion related to the history, growth, and, most importantly, the culture of MIT. The prompt that resulted in these two comics was a simple one, "take your role as a participant-observer at MIT and find a fresh way to present your experiences". Lili S. '15, and Alina G. '12 found their fresh way through the artistic medium of comic making.

Now the end of first semester was one of the most exciting and relieving days of 2011. Being able to sit down after my last final and say "I survived, and I'm pretty sure I passed" about a semester at MIT was exhilarating. Let's look back at the two aspects of MIT and see how they applied to first semester.

Classes

Taking classes at MIT has definitely been one of the most difficult and rewarding things I have ever done. There are few feelings that surpass that "I finally get it" revelation that occurs when working at 3am on this or that assignment. And while people will complain daily about the work load or the lack of sleep, I've yet to meet anyone who would trade the experiences they've had here for the world. My experiences were no different, the work was hard and the nights were most definitely sleepless but the experiences were unforgettable. 

Every conversation back home went about the same, 

Friends/Family/Jim the Pizza Delivery Guy - "Soooooo, how was it?"

Me: "School? It actually went surprisingly well"

And that's the easiest way to describe classes. Not only did I enjoy them all,  I learned a metric ton of material in a ridiculously short 14 week period and then proceeded to regurgitate all of this information in a 3 hour test. It was a level of understanding that my high school classes never forced me to have. This was displayed through tons of conceptual and problem solving questions (eg. using the Harpoon Mechanism on planets) rather than seeing if you had memorized the right formulas. While this meant everything was more difficult, everything also became more rewarding.

So ya, it went well.

Fun

After dedicating an inordinate amount of time to classes every moment where I could have fun was a nice change of pace, and it's fair to say MIT students Work Hard and Play Hard. The primary time to have fun during the year lies in breaks. Whether they're weekends, vacations or particularly work free Tuesdays, no moment was wasted. Here are a few examples of the fun that was had.

So while the work here at MIT can be daunting at times, the fun one has makes it worth it. And with that I'll wrap this post up, I loved (almost) every moment of first semester and I'm looking forward to another great one. Tune in next time for a post about IAP, all of the fun of MIT with only 1/10th the work, and second semester, finally delving into "major" classes.

Every year the game is setup in two alliances of three teams each going head to head for a few minutes. The game is also broken up into 3 sections, autonomous (where the robot is acting off of programming alone and scoring is worth double), teleoperated (where the drivers are controlling the robot's actions) and end-game (where a special end game is setup in the last few seconds for extra points). Last year was a game of hanging inner tubes and deploying last minute mini robots, this year I present to you Rebound Rumble!

And so the starting gun has been shot. Already a week into build season a quick trip to Chief Delphi will return you with tons of prototypes, rule questionings, and requests for help. Never a dull thread, every second spent on Chief Delphi shows you the intense collaborative spirit that truly defines real world engineering. Teams are quick to offer useful applications and troubleshoot just about any problem. It's a truly great sight(site?) to behold and in less than two months we'll see hundreds of unique solutions to the game that'll make a team think "man, I wish I thought of that". 

But kickoff isn't only about announcing the game, it's about hearing what some of the greats have to say, and man did Woodie Flowers deliver with this speech on "why FIRST"?  His words may be directed towards FIRST participants but his message extends to anyone looking for a STEM education.

Here are the resources Woodie Flowers discusses in his speech. Steve Job's Stanford Commencement Address,  David Foster Wallace's Kenyon College Commencement Address, Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk and an introduction to MIT's own 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes). And there is more Rebound Rumble Information here.

Woodie Flowers continues with the STEM mentorship he began in his class 2.007 (Mechanical Engineering, Intro to Design). This year he emphasizes where thinking, creativity, and being well informed meet, and leaves FRC teams with a message on how the balance of these three can make or break an engineering project. Important words to live by, and with that I'll wish everyone on a FIRST team a happy build season, may your nights be filled with peaceful sleep. 

Your first year at MIT is all about choices that come in the form of Freshman Learning Communities. Because most Freshman will be taking their General Institute Requirements (GIR), Freshman Learning Communities were created to allow you to branch out in these classes and learn in an environment that better suits your style. The problem with required classes is that, well, they're required. GIR is synonymous with large lectures, numerous recitations, and shared suffering (I joke, I joke). Freshman Learning Communities, each with their own spin, allow you to avoid the negative sides of GIRs and go through your whole MIT career learning in small class sizes and with a personal connection to your professors. I found myself in ESG (Experimental Study Group) for just these reasons and here I thought I would give you a brief description of each FLC and 21 Reasons YOU should join ESG!

(Source for all FLC information)

Concourse "is a small learning community that offers an innovative and intellectually rich approach by integrating humanities into the traditional first-year curriculum." The GIRs that are offered in Concourse meet both the Physics (Mechanics & E&M) and Math (Single & Multi-variable Calculus) requirements. There are also two humanities classes that are offered that meet a few of the HASS requirements.

Terrascope is a bit different from the rest of the FLCs in that what they offer is less about completing GIRs and more about offering a project class that works to make a dent in one of the World's many problems. In their own description, "Terrascope is a learning community with curricula designed to give you the tools to address important complex problems that require integrative multidisciplinary solutions." Terrascope is also different in that they allow you to do Terrascope alongside one of the other three FLCs. Check out Ana V.'s Blog Post for more information.

Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) is similar to Concourse in that what they look at is an intersection, the "intersection between technology and communication/expression." It is also similar to Terrascope in that their focus isn't GIRs (although they do offer recitations for 3.091 and a seminar for 8.01/8.02/3.091 that provides talks about UROPs by researchers and edible applications to the class! (Thanks to Marianne '15 for clarifying)) but rather Computer Science and the workings of the Media Lab through seminars and preparation for UROPs (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program). Offering classes on the "Fundamentals of Computational Media Design" and "Introduction to Doing Research in Media Arts and Sciences" one of the unique aspects of MAS is the guaranteed Spring UROP and Computer Science slant to life.

Experimental Study Group (ESG) "provides a personalized program for 50 first-year students who wish to take a more active role in their MIT education." The oldest FLC, ESG has been around for over 50 years offering alternative 5-12 people classes for all of the GIRs. ESG can be as much or as little as you make it. With the only requirement being you have to take 2 classes in ESG to stay in the program, ESG can be only about taking classes or it can grow into a community of people that define your Freshman Year.

21 Reasons YOU Should Join ESG!

1. Dave Custer's amazing cookies for stressed out freshman. Every Tuesday Dave bakes the best cookies known to mankind for those of us attending office hours. It always makes late night psets that much better.

2. Comfortable seating options in the lounge that includes a few couches, a giant beanbag chair and a standing hammock.

3. CLICKER QUESTIONS! (In Dr. Patti Christie's 5.111 class)

4. TA's who hold a ridiculous amount of office hours and are always willing to help with all of our little freshman problems. For example, 18.02 has Office Hours Sunday through Wednesday, for at least 3 hours a day. This forces you to get into the habit of attending Office Hours(the cookies also help).

5. Friday Lunches! Every week a group of ESGers come together to make lunch for the freshman, TAs and teachers. For a ridiculously cheap 2$ you get home a made meal and an hour to relax with your fellow classmates. As a bonus, with the large International contingency that ESG has, you also get meals from across the world.

6. Smaller Classes! The ESG rule is that no class has above twelve students at any given time. What this means for you is that if a topic didn't make sense or you don't completely understand what the teacher just said, you can just ask right there and then.

7. Dave Custer's Lab where one can bake a cake by running a current through batter.

8. Dr. Patti Christie's "Pre Test Panic"! The day before any 5.111 or 5.112 test includes open office hours where you can ask any last minute questions. The best part though is "exam bread" where Patti brings us all types of breads and donuts to make life a little bit better.

9. Personal Mail Boxes! Personal mail boxes are a great storage place for in between classes and the secondary method of communication in ESG. It's always nice to get a little snail mail.

10. ESG schedules their classes around you! Before registration day, ESG asks all of its freshman what classes they're taking mainstream and what classes they're taking through ESG. With this information they create class schedules that minimize conflicts.

11. ESG classes meet more often! Rather than the every other day mainstream schedule, ESG classes meet Monday-Thursday (and sometimes Friday).  What this extra hour or so of class allows you to do is truly internalize the subjects at hand.

12. Multiple lectures for the same class! For example, 5.111 meets at both 9am and 3pm while 18.02 meets at 10am, 11am and 1pm. With the large number of classes offered, you're then allowed to mix and match the schedule that fits best for you. Not a morning person? Next semester I only have to be up before 11am two days a week, thanks ESG!

13. You really get to know your teachers on a more personal level! While in most freshman lectures there's too many people for all the students to have time with their teachers, ESG makes it easy to have sit downs with these teachers and discuss progress or receive help. For example, I'm looking to self-study 18.06(Linear Algebra) over IAP and Dr. Gabrielle Stoy (my 18.02 teacher) has agreed to sit down with me a few times a week during IAP and help cement my understanding.

14. In ESG, your freshman advisors are your teachers! After Chemistry I'll just ask Patti how I should handle taking 6.01 next semester and get an answer right there and then. This also adds to the connection you have with your teachers.

15. Gabrielle's Test Candy! Every one of Gabrielle's (18.01-03) tests is accompanied with plates of chocolates to make the process a little bit more bearable. Never was a 3 hour final sweeter.

16. It's all about the freshman. One of the best parts of ESG and freshman learning communities in general is how much care goes into making the first year at MIT an amazing one. With lecturers whose sole purpose at MIT is to teach you, you can't help but feel loved. And the fact stands that the teacher's truly care about how you do in the class. If they notice a decline in performance or class attendance they'll make an effort to reach out to you and find out what's going on.

17. You can come back and become a paid TA. If you find out you love ESG to the point that a year is not enough, you can come back for the next three years and TA. This is a unique opportunity in that it lets you exercise your teaching abilities for Grad School while also letting you solidify material that would otherwise become rusty.

18.

19.  ESGers know how to make a Halloween costume.

20. Weekend Adventures! Once in a while ESG funds Weekend Adventures to various places including the Boston Harbor Islands, and New Hampshire for hiking and camping.  If you think of a place to go, ESG is always willing to take suggestions.

21. Teaching Afternoon! Want to know what it's like to be an ESG TA? Every year ESG holds a Teaching Afternoon for their freshman allowing them to teach a class on whatever subject they choose (imagine a small scale Splash) to their fellow freshman! It's a great experience to get to know your fellow ESGers and to see if teaching is for you!

And with that I wrap up 21 reasons you should join ESG! Each of the Freshman Learning Communities have something special to bring to the table and it's important you go to all of their open houses during CPW/Orientation to get a good feel for what works for you But if large class sizes and lack of personal attention is a worry for you, I hope you look to ESG as the solution!

Special thanks to Jennifer R., Yin Fu C., Jonathan A., Sarah F., Graham R. for help with the list!

Freshman year is generally filled with GIRs(General Institute Requirements) and while there isn't much leeway in what classes are taken, it's important to discuss what those random string of numbers we rattle off mean. Here's a great explanation by a class of '13 about how the GIRs work. (http://tinyurl.com/d2tqpbm) and I'll just go through and say which classes I'm currently taking.

     8.01 - Classical Mechanics

Most known for it's legendary professor Walter Lewin, 8.01 is the crux of freshman year. With a large majority of freshman taking it and it being notoriously difficult(relative to other freshman classes), 8.01 has a bonding affect over the student body. Taught in a peculiar fashion, TEAL is the name and 2 hour classes, table problems, and labs are the plays of the game. For me, this is one of two classes that I take mainstream. What this means is that I take it with the rest of the class of 2015 unlike the rest of my GIRs which are taken in ESG. A genuinely enjoyable class, Senior Lecturer Peter Dourmashkin puts forth extra time and effort to make it interesting. With an abundance of physical demonstrations and weekly labs, the concepts are emphasized outside of memorization of formulas. 8.01 forces you to really get what's going on, a quick scouring of the formula sheet will get you nowhere. As someone who enrolled at MIT as a potential Course 8(Physics) and who has since changed from 6-2(EECS) to 6-3(CS) to 6-3 & 18(Mathematics), freshman classes have an interesting job in solidifying your major choices.

     18.02 - Multivariable Calculus

18.02 is easily one of my favorite classes. Taught by ESG's own Gabrielle Stoy, ES18.02 has the important job of expanding the relatively new concept of Calculus to the three space world we live in. Covering everything from vectors to partial derivatives to Stokes' Theorem, 18.02 is a great example of math that'll apply to concurrent and future classes. Leaving 8.01 after learning about Moment of Inertias, I walked into 18.02 to find today was about doing double integral examples of  moment of inertia and finding centroids. While it was mathier than what we had done in Physics, the concepts were all there and applicable. Finding true enjoyment in math for math's sake, I've found 18.02 has swayed me to the course 18 side of life. Still clinging to 6-3, time will tell which I choose or whether I double major or not.

     5.111- Principles of Chemical Science

Chemistry with Dr. Patti Christie is one of the primary reasons I joined ESG and 5.111 has yet to disappoint. As someone who came into MIT with a weak background in Chemistry, everyday is something new. Covering a wide array of subjects, from models of the atom to Reduction/Oxidation reactions(current), 5.111 is one of 3 classes that satisifies MIT's Chemistry GIR. With 3.091(Solid State Chemistry) and 5.112 (Principles of Chemical Science) being the other options, 5.111 is what you would consider General Chemistry. 3.091 has an "emphasis on solid-state materials and their application to engineering systems." While 5.112 is about the same class as 5.111 with the assumption the students have a few years of Chemistry experience. Covering more subjects and at a faster pace, 5.112 is comparable to 8.012/18.014/18.022/18.024 in that it's mainly for folks who love challenging themselves or would like to major in those fields. At the end of the day, 5.111 in ESG takes the same tests, has the same problem sets and uses the same notes as the mainstream class. The only difference lies in location and the amount of personal attention you receive.

     21W.021- MIT 150: Inside, Live

This is a writing class about MIT and all its cultural, social and historical nuances. The goal of this class is to discover more about ourselves, student life, and what makes MIT, MIT. A CI-HW (Writing Intensive Humanities Course) the basis of this class lies in two realms, writing and discussions. Every day has a few readings to write about beforehand and we come to class prepared to have discussions over our interpretations of the readings and what we thought. Having fallen in love with this Socratic method early on in High School it's been an interesting experience that I have genuinely enjoyed. The writing portion consists of 3 papers that need to sum to a total of 20 pages written. Every paper you write is then peer reviewed in one of two methods. The first method is through small peer review where you meet up with the teacher and two other students and you discuss the ups and downs of the three papers on the table. Writing a letter to each of your fellow group members, the small groups provide a great forum for understanding how other people read your essays. The second type of peer review is a class wide one. Three students in the class hand in their essays early and the rest of the class writes letters and has a sizable, 20-40 minute, discussion about each essay. Both are extremely helpful methods that have both revealed how other college students read my essays and what it is I consistently do wrong. To top it all off, I've learned more about MIT than any Wikipedia page could ever teach me.

     EC.A740- D-Lab Discovery

D-Lab Discovery is a freshman advising seminar all about teaching "creativity, problem solving and prototyping skills". With most of the seminar setup into modules, every week a new topic of interest is covered with the emphasis on global development. The next section I talk about (Casting) is about a module from this seminar where we hoped to get a deeper understanding of metals so that we could further development in third world countries. While I've currently dropped the seminar due to time constraints, the lectures on Creativity and the weekly homework projects were interesting and forced you to think, excuse the cliche, outside of the box.

     PE.2011Q1.0608- Beginner Pistol

An introduction to pistol shooting, Beginner Pistol is one of the fastest filling classes at MIT. Filling up spots in a matter of minutes, beginner pistol is coveted because of it's fulfillment of a requirement for a Pirate's Certificate. Available to students who have completed Pistol, Archery, Sailing and Fencing, the Pirate's Certificate is a bit of MIT lore. Taught by one of the funniest men I've ever met, Mike Conti, the class was a hoot. Starting us off slow, Mike taught us from the ground up making sure safety and proper technique was the name of the game. At the end of the day I gained a respect for firearms and took one step closer to a Pirate's Certificate.

Casting

Groggily shuffling from my room to the basement of the infinite at 8:55am, I counted down room numbers 4-012, 4-013, 4-014(The Foundry). Taking off my backpack to rummage for the foam sculpture that was to be cast in aluminum, I walked into a modern day foundry filled with convention ovens, centrifugal casters and molten metals. Greeted by two of my fellow D-Lab Discovery Seminar classmates, we patiently waited for Michael Tarkanian to guide us through the casting process.

This week's goal for D-Lab Discovery was to "Discover Metals". After going through different types of cold molding that are used in developing countries, we moved on to the Lost-Foam casting method that the folks over in course 3(Material Science) are well versed in.  Also meeting with Shaymus '12, a senior in course 3 who was there to smelt medals for the people in 3.091(Introduction to Solid State Chemistry) who had scored a perfect score on the periodic table quiz, we were guided through the ins and outs of the foundry. Explaining how all of the equipment worked and how the foam-casting process would go today Shaymus showed us his mold and talked about the history of the process. Soon after talking about how centrifugal casting allowed for detailed jewelry work, Mike walked and began to suit up. Telling us how the process would go he instructed us to pack casting sand into every caveat of our foam sculpture. Mike then began to heat up the convention oven and tell us how we were in for a treat. Sticking in the aluminum bar he discussed how convention ovens worked from an 8.02(Electricity and Magnetism) point of view. Pointing out the shape of the oven he told us how the molten aluminum would behave, but rather than explaining it, let me show you.

*This may or may not have occurred.

After all the casting was said and done we parted ways to head back to a normal day at MIT.

Birthdays!

A few weeks back I spent my first birthday away from home and a special one it was. Catching up with the folks I graduated with, I finally turned 18, in all its lottery ticket buying, election voting, and sweepstakes entering goodness. And what better way to spend the day than longboarding, everywhere. Waking up in the wee hours of the morning, a couple of friends of mine decided it was about time we find a hill in the blasted flat lands we call Massachusetts (and I'm from the legendarily flat plains of Kansas). Boarding around Cambridge we found a small hill here and there and rode down them. After exhausting our resources we called it a day, it was a bit too cold to spend scouring Cambridge. Heading back and checking Google Earth Elevations we figured there had to be a better way. Remembering a video I watched of folks longboarding in parking garages, I suggested we try it ourselves. Listing the parking garages that were readily available, we went around and tried our luck on some steep inclines.

(High fives to the person who finds Alex J. '15 in this picture)

Having fun, the hours dwindled away until the sun had set and it was about time we become productive. 8.01 loomed over all of our heads and no amount of procrastinating would solve our energy problems, it was mostly kinetic energy that wouldn't cooperate. So we found ourselves trudging back to Simmons to finally hunker down and work. A few problems later dinner time rolled around and my friends headed off to put their meal plans to good use. Twiddling my thumbs whilst watching cute cat videos and wasting an inordinate amount of time, another friend walked (Teri O. '15) in and suggested we finally take the time to walk to the art store and get the PSET notebook I've been coveting. What exactly is a PSET notebook you might ask, and the answer would be this guy!

A place for me to rewrite all of my problem sets on clean white paper with, and I emphasize the importance of this last trait, perforated edges. Searching far and wide we found Blick Art Store in Central Square. Excited at the prospect of not doing work, we scurried off and spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at art supplies before dropping by McDonalds and heading back to East Campus. But on the trip back a problem arose. Teri O. '15 had forgotten her jacket in the DuPont Athletic Gymnasium after swimming. Half way to EC we pulled a 180 and walked back to the grab her jacket. After prodding at various doors in the Du Pont Gym to no avail, we called it quits and headed back to East Campus once more. Having wasted way more time than the typical Reddit user the night before a paper was due, we finally arrived at East Campus. And what did we find?

It was all an elaborate ruse to get me off campus. In a very "ahhh you got me!" wag of the finger type of way I thanked everyone, collectively named the Wolf Pack(Teri O., Matthew O, Alex J., Tiandra R., Jonathan L., Joseph F.) '15 and unwrapped my presents. My favorite present has to be the closet. It was EXACTLY what I needed.

And with that I'll end another blog post. Tune in next time for posts about Hall Thanksgiving, New York City, and The End of the Semester (with a hint about what's to come during IAP).

I was making the trek from East Campus to the Z-Center one day when my favorite song of the musical theatre genre came on ("Seasons of Love" from Rent). As I belted out the ways they measure a year, I began to wonder what units I use to measure my life. The first quantity that came to mind was distance and the easiest unit of measurement I found was music. But music lengths were too subjective; a song by two different artists can have drastically different lengths. So what specific songs define the distances in my life? A walk from East Campus to Simmons was equal to 3-4 Regina Spektor Songs, 2-3 Deadmau5 Songs, or 1/2 of an Ethiopian Song. The late night shuffle to La Verde's at 3am finds itself clocking in at  3-4 Zelda OST, 2-3 Queen Songs

The more I thought about it, the more units that arose. Almost all sprouting from cultural references and important concepts in my life, I found the units that defined my life did more than just that, they defined my character. So I tried out one more measurement to see where it ended up.

Let's try measuring "ridiculousness". The first unit that comes to mind is Chris Dodd's proofs(Interphase), followed by the ridiculous television shows that were my childhood (seriously, how did no one notice Yugi grew 2 feet every time he played cards?!), to the length of a FIRST Robotics' Build Season, to the state of political relations between Greece and Turkey over the Aegean Sea(Debate).  The culmination of these units created a full picture of what made me who I am. So take a moment out of your frantic day and answer me a simple question.

How do you measure a year in the life?

Defined as the period between grades where life is at its best. Where one stays up until 4am, not out of necessity but out of enjoyment, and wakes up when it can no longer be considered morning. Summer is a time for pools, Pokemon, and playing in no particular order.

While my last summer was spent cooped up in a cubicle for 40 hours a week, I never lost that boyish charm when it comes to the two and half month periods that defined my childhood. For the first time in three years I didn't have a book to read, a paper to write or a set of problems to get started. But for the first time in three years I genuinely wanted something to do.  MIT is no walk in the park and I wanted an opportunity to preview the material, get study habits down and start college life early. The answer? The Interphase Program.

So what is Interphase? According to the OME's Website "Interphase is a rigorous seven-week summer residential, academic and community-building program for admitted MIT freshmen that instills subject mastery of calculus, physics and chemistry, and helps them explore their cultural identities through reading, writing and discussion." but I find this definition is lacking in a few places (like, when they say rigorous they neither joke nor kid). So to fully describe Interphase, I have to break it up into three categories "The Academics", "The Exposure" and "The Fun".

The Academics

Academics during Interphase is broken up into four classes that are supposed to model your first semester at MIT, Calculus, Chemistry, Humanities (Writing), and Physics. Your Calculus and Chemistry classes are then also broken up into sections. Calculus had three sections that model 18.01(Single Variable Calculus), 18.01A(Accelerated Single Variable Calculus), and 18.02(Multi Variable Calculus)  while Chemistry had two sections that model 5.111 and 5.112. 

I was in Calculus 2(18.01A), Chemistry 1(5.111), Physics(8.01), and Humanities(21W.XXX), so I'll take you through a day in the life of an Interphaser. 

Taught by Dr. Eric Hudson, a past 8.01 teacher and one of the best lecturers I've ever met, Physics started the week off at 9:30, bright and early. This was the one class that was in a large lecture hall (54-100) and had everyone in Interphase together. We sat in groups of  two and learned in a style similar to that of TEAL(Technology Enabled Active Learning). While there weren't weekly experiments, clicker questions and demonstrations were the norm. We also had four wonderful teaching assistants who made understanding the material a walk in the park and who took two days out of the week, and a few evenings, to translate the foreign language that was lecture.

Taught by Dr. Chris Dodd '11, PhD in Mathematics at MIT, Calculus 2 was also known as PROVE ALL THE THINGS. Following an intense session of Physics, Calculus 2 never ceased to turn your world upside down. Thought you knew Riemann sums, spent a few months on Taylor Series, a master of integration? Think again. Chris Dodd was the first person to give me that "this is MIT" feeling. Genuinely proving every concept he wrote on the board (including the Law of Exponentials) I can't imagine learning math any other way. In true MIT fashion, Calculus 2 taught you math from the ground up and thoroughly kicked our butts on that path. But thanks to two amazing TAs, life was made bearable and math was made fun.

Taught by ESG's(Experimental Study Group) own Dr. Patti Christie, PhD in Chemistry at MIT, Chemistry was one of my favorite classes. As someone who came into MIT with nearly no background in the topic (I think we got up to naming?), this was the class I feared the most.  Learning from one of the best teachers I have ever had, Chemistry took on a whole new meaning. Finding enjoyment in the daily "CLICKER QUESTIONS" and gaining a new found  respect for the macroscopic world, the GIR I was destined to hate became my favorite.

Taught by Dr. Steven Strang, Director of the Writing and Communication Center here at MIT, Humanities was a place to discuss different topics and see how people's cultural differences shined through in their opinions. Dr. Strang also teaches 21W.754 (Rhetoric) and our humanity class had a large emphasis on teaching us Aristotle's Art. We learned how to weave words to do our bidding and analyze articles to avoid manipulation.

The Exposure

One of the largest parts of Interphase that leaves all of its attendees better off for MIT is what I would call "exposure". Exposure to 10+ companies at a miniature career fair, exposure to MIT's UROP and Internship opportunities at a Lab Tour, exposure to the resources that would benefit our lives here at MIT (eg. S^3), and exposure to the faculty (including Chancellor Eric Grimson whose 6.00 Lectures made CS fun for me).  These study breaks and trips were a great wealth of knowledge that opened up my eyes to the multitude of opportunities MIT has.

The Fun

The last part of Interphase, it was also one of the most powerful. With dozens of late nights, it was "Mandatory Fun" and the new people we met that kept us sane. In true MIT style we worked hard and played hard.

Now, I could describe the fun that was had in words, but there's no fun in that. So here's the "fun" of Interphase through pictures and videos, make sure to read the alt-tags! (Picture Credit to Teri O. '15 & Mari K. '15)

And there you go. Interphase in a Nutshell. The Office of Minority Education is providing 70 MIT Students a year an invaluable experience and I recommend everyone apply. Interphase was both the hardest and most rewarding summer of my life and I couldn't recommend it enough.

Current Living Situation: Now on to fun stuff. I currently live in East Campus, more specifically 1st East, home of the Disco Dance Floor and other things of pure awesomeness. Each one of our 10 halls has an amazingly rich culture and history, and I highly recommend checking out a few of the past blog posts about it(each one of those words is a link) along with this amazing i3 video.

Potential Major: 6-3/18 (Computer Science and Mathematics for those who have yet to memorize the course numbers) is most likely what I'll be majoring in. I say most likely for the sole reason that it will/maybe/possibly change in the future. With as many exciting majors as MIT offers, I'm not sure how anyone settles down with just one for four years. For now I'm looking forward to potentially having a UROP(Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) in either the Media Lab or CSAIL(Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab) and working towards better integrating art and computers and how humans interact with their robotic counterparts.

MIT & Me: For someone who's only officially been a freshman for two days, I've already had a fair amount of interaction with the Institute. Actually, I've been on campus for almost 2.5 months now, and I've loved (nearly) every moment of it. June 26th was when I first stepped on campus for Interphase, a 7 week summer program that concentrates on giving ~70 freshman an introduction to MIT level classes. For those of us whose first time on a college campus was senior year, it was an eye opening experience and a great orientation to MIT. The week following Interphase I also participated in an FPOP, the best FPOP, DEECS(Discover Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), where we spent one week building robots, touring Boston, and learning about course 6. Right after that came REX(Residential Exploration), Orientation and Rush(Fraternity), aka "The Calm Before the Storm". All events that are a blog post for another (hopefully soon) time.

All in all, that's me! Read my bio to the left for any holes, or shoot me an email at natgblog@mit.edu if you have any questions. I look forward to blogging for you all soon!