done with the b.s. by Waly N. '24

For my last blog as an undergraduate, there would be nothing more suitable than submitting it at 11:59 pm as I do with my assignments. So here is MIT by the numbers (MIT wrapped, if you will)…

 

5 MISTI experiences

I’ve traveled 3 times over IAP, and 2 times over the summer (counting the upcoming one)! 4 times as an instructor/workshop leader, and 1 time as an intern! I will have done GTL-Korea twice, GTL-Armenia once, MIT-MEET, and MISTI-UK. All of these were through MISTI, so they were cost-neutral meaning I got a stipend (to eat and live), flights covered, and housing. While doing MISTI, I’ve taken two personal side trips: 1 to Tbilisi, Georgia, and 1 to Tokyo, Japan. This upcoming summer, I’m doing a robotics research internship in the UK :)

 

433 units taken

Over my time, here I’ve taken 45-60 units each semester. I included my 17 GIRs and my 238 units past the GIRs, 180 of which I needed to graduate o__o. I didn’t ASE out of any GIRs, so I took each and every one 

 

13.25 Hasses 

I love humanities classes! When I was deciding on colleges, I knew that I wanted to do lots of humanities classes even if I went to a rather STEM-heavy school like MIT. I think I took enough classes number-wise to double major if I had taken them in the same area, but I was rather broad. The reason this isn’t a whole number is because I’ve taken a 9-unit Drawing class and been in a 6-unit music ensemble (Rambax MIT). Full classes usually are 12 units here.

 

2 Classes dropped on the week of Drop Date

I dropped 2.001/Mechanics and Materials and 6.008 on the week of drop date. 2.001 was honestly the roughest class I took here personally and wasn’t helped by dealing with trying to adjust to in-person MIT, classes for my major, a new dorm, mental health, and more. Sophomore fall was a shitshow, and I hope to forget that time. I dropped 6.008 cause I have never disliked a class so much before and it was a little birthday present to myself >:)

 

2 occasions of THE SAME laptop breaking

My laptop has had a rougher time through MIT than me. It broke during my first year, got repaired, and then broke again on me this spring with 2 days left in the semester. This time, it just randomly shuts down and won’t turn back on. I guess it really wanted to graduate early…

 

4 semesters of TA/LA-ing

I’ve done a bit of teaching at MIT as well! I’ve been a TA for Single-Variable and Multi-Varible Calculus in ESG (my first-year learning community) and I’ve been an LA (lab assistant) for 6.100A/B (Introductory Python) for 2 semesters.

 

3 Dorms

I’ve spent my time here almost equally divided between living in East Campus and Macgregor. I had a small stint in Simmons, which I did not like (personal take, it’s a fine place I swear), leading me to move out to EC. Outside of that Simmons stint (which was about 2 weeks), I’ve never lived in a dorm with an elevator. I usually don’t mind, but moving out is really rough.

 

8 semesters of being on CC

I’ve been my class year’s Social Chair since Freshman Fall. It’s been 8 semesters now, and I really love the other people in Class Council (I should express it more oops ;-;). I was very much considering leaving Class Council at the end of Junior Year, but the people are what made me stay. 

 

1 broken and fixed suitcase

Over this past Spring Break, my friends and I went to Spain! And immediately upon landing in Spain, I realized Iberia had broken my suitcase wheels, which to be fair had been well-traveled already. We had to awkwardly drag that suitcase around for the next week since it had all our stuff. Just two days ago, I fixed that wheel through! I had to hacksaw off the old rivet to replace the wheel though…

 

12 Teaholic visits
Teaholic is a new boba store that opened not too far from MIT campus. It’s definitely my favorite in the area, so much so that I have earned a free drink there. I haven’t had a drink that I dislike there (though I find all of them sweet so I order 30% sugar) and I really enjoy seeing the guy (I’m so sorry, I should ask your name…) at the cashier who remembers me every time :)) 

 

21 blogs

Over the course of MIT, I’ve written 21 blogs, counting this one. Something about not having a fixed deadline always made blogging a bit hard for me, and I wish I had written more during my time here. But I think I’m happy with the pieces I’ve actually put out till now, and though I deeply cringe every time someone mentions they have read them, I guess I do feel a bit happy as well. 

 

1 scare of losing my brass rat

After a week of living blissfully, I realized I had not seen my Brass Rat in a while. After tearing my place apart, I could not find it, and I had days to order a new one in order for it to arrive before commencement. A few days later, the night after I called to order a new ring but no one picked up the phone, I found my brass rat in the dryer. It was in my laundry basket.

 

3 times of watching 2.009 live

I love watching 2.009 final presentations live! I’ve managed to luck out with the lottery 3 times, and have found each one to be really enjoyable and make me have an existential crisis about what I want to do with my life.

 

8 DT dances and 2 interludes

After being practically forced/heavily encouraged by my GTL teammate to dance with them in our recap video, my junior fall I joined DT. I found dance fun but didn’t know of many spaces for beginners until someone told me DT was open to everyone (not in a “everyone who is good enough” way but actually everyone). I just saw an audition before and was like “yep, no way I would get in.” Since then, I’ve been in 8 full dances ranging from Beginner in my 1st semester to Intermediate/Advanced in my 4th and 2 interludes, which are shorter dances with limited practice time. 

 

1 choreographed dance

In my final DT semester, I co-choreographed a dance for the semester’s show! The songs we used were Save Me by Nicki Minaj, Silence by Khalid/Marshmellow, Am I Dreaming by Metro Boomin/Roisee/A$AP Rocky, and Starwalkin’ by Lil Nas X. Choreographing was unfamiliar territory for me (luckily not for my co-choreographer, who was very well seasoned in the art), but I really enjoyed the process and our dancers were great ;-;. They gave me an Anya “heh” shirt at the end of the semester as a gift. I think I would have said even more sappy stuff to our dance at our final show than I already did but I already was kind of close to crying…

 

3 TKD tournaments

I’m not active in MIT’s Club Sport Taekwondo anymore, but when I was I went to three tournaments (2 at MIT,  1 at the University of Vermont). Quick disclaimer, this is not cause I was good. Pretty much anyone could go to a tournament to see what it was like. I realized I did not enjoy tournaments very much and they just stressed me out (other than enjoying watching other people kick ass), but these were still cool experiences I recall :)

 

3 major class events planned

Being on Class Council meant we plan class-wide events for 2024s, usually one per year. We held Twenty Fourmal in our 2nd year, Oceantation in our 3rd year, and Disorientation in our 4th year. Twenty Fourmal was a substitute for Freshman Formal, which we could not hold. Oceantation was an event at the New England Aquarium, where prefrosh usually visit during Orientation (we did not). Disorientation tends to be at the same venue, but we held ours at the Museum of Science instead. Outside of events, we plan class merch (hoodies, pants, jackets, stickers, graduation stoles) and smaller things like study breaks or food trucks.

 

2 summers with DynaMIT

For two of my summers at MIT, I spent the last week being a mentor for DynaMIT which is a program that does STEM outreach for students at local schools. I really like working with outreach programs and enjoyed doing DynaMIT both virtually (1st time) and in person (2nd time). I would have done it a third time, but I couldn’t because of my internship dates.

 

3 hosted CPW prefrosh and 2 hosted WISE students

I’ve hosted my fair share of prospective students in my room (usually on an air mattress). I think it’s fun to be a resource to a student curious about MIT with questions because I was definitely once that student (huh, I guess that’s part of why I write on the internet). 

 

8 mugs acquired

People keep giving me mugs at this place, which I really love as a gift but really hate to move when I’m packing. So far I’ve collected 8 mugs (one of them doesn’t have a handle but isn’t really a glass either, so idk), all of which have been free. I am currently struggling to pack these mugs.

 

4 PE Classes taken

So to graduate at MIT, you need to take 4 Physical Education classes. For myself, I took Air Pistol, Archery, Intermediate Soccer, and Swimming. All of them were fun minus swimming because I hated the pool (the instructors were great), and I’m pretty happy I had to take some PE classes overall. 

 

15 keychains collected from trips

A cheap souvenir I like is keychains since basically all cities have them in some gift shop and they are cool to hang on my backpack. From my own trips (and one or two from a friend), I gathered 15 keychains from 15 cities in 3 continents.

 

15 transportation cards collected

I am a public transportation fanatic. In fact, my graduation cap is themed around the MTA (which I have my gripes with, but I do like their train logo designs). So every time I visit a city with a semblance of public transit, I collect a ticket or card. So far I’ve gotten X, and hope to get many more. Funny enough, the cities I have keychains from and the cities I have cards from do not fully overlap.

 

2 dormspammed sales

I tend to start packing at the end of the spring semester and then hate myself for having so much random stuff I don’t need. So I have resorted to giving things away sometimes and also selling stuff on Dormspam with friends, which is basically emailing most of the campus a slideshow and begging them to buy my stuff.

 

594 Manga/Manhwa chapters read

I haven’t read a book outside of classes in a while, but I do enjoy fancy picture books a lot. Most of the ones I have read are completed works, but I follow one monthly. During my time here, I read Bastard, Tokyo Ghoul, parts of Tokyo Ghoul: re, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun (I refuse to say the English name cause it sounds too cursed), Blood on the Tracks, and I currently am reading Oyasumi Punpun. If you know any of these works, you can see that I have a tendency to like darker stories…

 

66,999 emails received (give or take)

I forward all my MIT emails to my Gmail which means I basically never read my emails on Outlook where they first arrive. So I took a check at my Outlook and yep, that’s how many emails I’ve gotten while I was here. The number seemed a bit too perfect, so I sent myself a test email to see if it would go up, and it indeed hit 67,000 after I did that. The actual number is actually a bit higher cause I have occasionally read an email through Outlook before, but it should be fairly accurate. 

 

41 K-drama episodes watched

I never watched a K-drama before MIT, and it wasn’t until my senior year I watched very much. I watched 1 episode of Squid Game back in my 2nd year. During my 4th year, I watched Moving (over the course of a single weekend, oops) and Mouse, which I both enjoyed. I think I liked Moving slightly more, but Mouse gave me more food for thought. 

 

1 humanities minor

This semester, I realized I was weirdly close to a minor, so I submitted my application (late)! I’ll be graduating with a minor in Comparative Media Studies, which is a department I’ve really enjoyed taking classes in here :). For my minor I took 1 introductory and  1 advanced media studies course, along with classes in educational game development, the use of assessments in education, photography, and computer science education’s past, present, and future.

 

1 engineering degree

And last but not least, I’ve earned my degree! I didn’t know if I would graduate until the final grades came in and have been a nervous wreck for a hot second. After the long nights and not-acted-on plans to drop out of this place, I am done with MIT’s B.S. (most specially in EECS)! It has been a pretty bumpy ride ngl, but the ride has come to a stop To anyone who read my blogs during my time here and watched (or I guess read) me grow during my time here, thanks :). I hope to catch up with some life updates sometime, someday in the future. For now, it’s off to life post-MIT 🥲 and whatever that entails.

IHTFP.