Fall 2024 by Fiona L. '27

Classes

(12 units) 6.200 [Circuits] – I LOVE this class. Adam Hartz should legally adopt me. /hj I thought circuit theory was the coolest thing ever (until AC came in and confused the shit out of me), and I thought the weekly labs were even cooler than that. Every week, I’d mentally dread the labs, given that they were on a Friday afternoon, but I’d always come out of it with a cool device, feeling a sense that I’d really learned a lot in those three hours. My favorite thing I build has to be the light sensing robot, a robot created using light sensors and wheels that scurries away from light. I named my robot Adam Hartz, and Adam personally came to look at my robot *flushed* *flushed* *flushed*.

(12 units) 6.191 [Computation Structures] – Amazing and intriguing content, but the lectures didn’t work that well with my learning style. I found it really cool to program in a hardware language, even though we didn’t get to work with hardware :( I appreciated the grading scheme for the class—fixed grade cutoffs with 20 “extra” points possible from a design project. Unlike some other classes, which were “technically” graded on a curve (poor performance classwide -> instructor knows a test is harder -> instructor lowers grade cutoffs), there was no such thing in 6.191.

(12 units) 18.600 [Probability and Random Variables] – I was peer pressured into this by Jay B ’27. Although I didn’t get the chance to take this class with Professor Sheffield (I was with Prof. Mossel, who my friends and I affectionately referred to by his kerb, elmos), I still really enjoyed the content. The first third of the course was probability, which compared to the latter two thirds of the course, random variables, felt deceptively easy. Although I enjoyed the probability section better, I still liked learning about different kinds of distributions and ways to think about chance as a function.

(12 units) 21W.774 [The Art of Comic Book Writing] – I LOVED writing and drawing comics, although I definitely could’ve appreciated more grade transparency in this class. As an extra credit project for this class, I attended a panel where I got to meet the author of one of our assigned comic readings, and I bought a signed copy from him! I really liked each week’s readings, and I felt like I grew a lot from each writing assignment.

(3 units) 8.A22 [Black Holes (idk put the full name)] – This is an advising seminar I participated in as an associate advisor! I learned that despite how incredibly cool “astrophysics” sounded to me and how much I loved Physics 1 / Mechanics, astrophysics might not be that fun. But was made this class worth it was the discussions, and how Prof. Ed used its two readings (Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and Chandra Prescod-Winestein’s “ “) to defty weave together a dialogue about physics and social justice.

(6 units, dropped) 16.632 [Intro to Autonomous Machines] – For some reason, this class didn’t jibe with me like 6.200 did. Although I appreciated the chance to build, I personally didn’t like the pace of the class, and preferred a class that went into both theory and hardware, like 6.200 did. I originally chose this class because I wanted to be in NEET (talk about what NEET is), and had a mini internal crisis during the middle of the semester where I struggled to decide whether or not to stay in NEET.

Extracurriculars / On Campus Jobs

Paid Notetaker – A paid notetaker position was offered for both 6.191 and 6.200. I took both of these positions, thinking to myself “I’m going to come to class anyways, so why not get paid for it.” Paid notetaking is a pretty good opportunity when it gets offered, and it’s typically more likely to be offered for larger classes like 191 and 200, since the notes you take get sent (anonymously) to a student with a DAS (Disability and Access Services) request.

Blogging – My first semester of blogging! I was so excited about this, given that I didn’t apply to the blogs as an incoming freshman because “I’d never get in!” and then proceeded to spend my entire freshman year daydreaming about being a blogger and idolizing all the bloggers and mentally planning out everything I’d blog about if I were a blogger. I loved attending blogger meeting every other Wednesday and getting to know all the other creative, quirky, and deeply caring souls of the blogger page :) (and Petey et al. I guess) I felt like I wanted to blog about every little thing that happened to me, but what actually happened was that the busyness of the semester made

ESP – I wasn’t as involved with ESP this semester, since Splash, the program that I was directing, was postponed to Spring semester. However, I still stopped by a week of Cascade (ESP’s Spring Program) and came to meetings.

Amphibious Achievement – I was also peer pressured into this by Jay B ’27. I had a really good time with this club—I spent Sunday mornings as an “academic mentor” (Amphibious Achievement offered the opportunity to be an academic and/or athletic mentor), going through lessons with kids, and helping them on whatever school work they had that week. Me and my mentee were both in a sticker-making workshop, where we learned concepts in graphic design, marketing, and ordering custom products. Working with the kids every week was a delight I could count on every weekend, and I loved learning more about their lives and interests. When we were short on mentors, I sometimes worked with Jay’s mentee—I learned more about his interest in guitar, and recommended him uBlock origin (I’m not sponsored I swear), which he said removed “99% of his ads.”

Along the way, I checked out some other extracurriculars, such as attending some meetings of Arcturus, a build team, and trying out for a dance team.

Outside of School

-many organizations sent rejection letters into my inbox. :(

-I feel like I did less “cool things” in my free time than in other semesters? It’s very very hard to find the time for it though :( I did spend time decorating my room though!

Lessons Learned

-most people don’t maintain a 5.0 forever, and the amount of people with one decreases every semester

-STUDY STUDY STUDY for tests. always.

-doing homework in advance is a very good thing (i credit roshni p.m. ’27 for helping me get on track)

-tell people you’re going to be late if you are (maybe this is just for me, given my tendency to be chronically late to everything)

-never let the desire to get good grades (which is an understandable and respectable desire) block out your love of learning. viewing my classes through the lens of “learning” was the most surefire way to shift my attitude from “i must persevere this challenge” to “i want to learn this new cool thing.”

-a good sleep schedule is the cornerstone of everything, whether it be a good mood, focus/attention span, health, not feeling like your life is out of control, and not feeling horrible all the time.

-a good recitation leader can make a big difference

Good Memories

-This year, I seemed to find new friendships in the most surprising places, whether it be 6.200 lab hours or 4am in a lounge. Although I feel like upperclassmen aren’t as desperate for friends as freshmen are, I feel like that’s a good thing, in a sense? That way, I let myself get to know people I really resonated with.

-Going on a duck tour with my advising group!

-Taking my RPM kids to Franklin Park Zoo’s light show! It was hard to make happen, especially since the program would not cover an Uber to the zoo. We had to take public transit there, and I was afraid of getting the route wrong. The lights were really beautiful! I was really happy, since I feel like I was able to exceed the freshmens’ expectations of the event.

-MY MOM CAME OVER FOR FAMILY WEEKEND!!! AND SHE ATE THE STIR FRY I MADE!!! AND SAID IT WAS GOOD!!!

-Taking people to visit my pink and cute room :)

-People enjoying my pink and cute room :)

-Saw SIX the musical!!!

-Attended PP Phormal and BC Formal. PP Formal was in an F1 Arcade. I tried racing and came in second to last place. :’(

-Seeing quaint New England towns [Kennebunksport, Ogunquit, Portsmouth] decked out for Christmas! Along the way, my friends and I also saw a giant gingerbread house in the lobby of Wentworth by the Sea.

-I tried a bunch of new food places, from Fire + Ice (a hibachi place in Boston) to Ripple Cafe (right next to campus) to Pho Basil to Shabu Zen Hotpot (and more!!!!)

-Becoming a Friend of the Ohms, visiting the Ohms’ performance at UMass along with Jay B ’27, and trying to decide which famline to be incorporated into.

Bad Memories

-Eating at Al’s French Fry

-Breaking my old phone *crying face emoji* (However, this happened right after my mom brought over a new phone for me, since my old phone was already >5 years old. I guess it was the luckiest time for that to happen?)

-Not succeeding in converting people to 21W at a SHASS event :(

-The time I saw a RAT (not referring to myself I mean an actual rat) in my room and I had to call Unit 12 to get rid of it and some lady with rat traps (the sticky kind not the kind that will accidentally chop your fingers off) came and we spent a bunch of time banging everything in the room together at 3am (im so sorry to everybody else in my suite). The lady was really nice, although the horror of finding a rat in my room places this firmly in “bad memories.” After banging everything a bunch of times, we figured that the rat must have already left. At that very moment, the rat scurried out of my room.

Memories which Exist outside of the binary classification of “Best” and “Worst”

-During the 6.200 final exam, I took a makeup exam with 2 other people. I was terrified to find that there was a packet with REAL CIRCUIT COMPONENTS on our desks. I was pretty psyched out going into the exam, although I got the circuit to work in the end! (it was nice to get confirmation that I had gotten a question correct.) Afterwards, I walked out of the room and into a winter wonderland—apparently, the first day of real snow was the last day of finals season (when I happened to have two finals). I spent the entire day coping from my finals while simultaneously being enamored with the snow in a way only a Californian could be.

-Sneaking into Next Dining in order to obtain milk for mango lassi.

-Going to Vermont with some of my friends to see the Ben and Jerry Ice Cream factory. There was a sign at the end that promised free samples of broccoli cheddar ice cream. That turned out to be just a prank :(((((( Which made me sad because I was really really interested in seeing what broccoli cheddar ice cream tasted like. The leaves in Vermont were all dead because we had ventured into Upper New England too late, but it was undoubtedly a bonding experience. The whole time, we were racing against the clock because two people on the trip (me included) had a Next Haunt run that very night at 10pm.

-Meeting the most brainrotted individuals at UPenn AND Brown. I went to Philadelphia during Indigenous Peoples’ Day Weekend and was welcomed into a living group that put pictures of wolves on their doors. There was a picture on the wall of the suite that we referred to as “The Sigma.” Four days couldn’t have felt shorter as we explored Philadelphia, did laundry, had a picnic, and played “Red Flags” (a card game) together. There was also a UPenn shower curtain there. (In the future I aim to meet the most brainrotted individuals from EVERY Ivy League school, just for the memes.)

-The phrase “skull emoji” being the most commonly used phrase between me and my friends.

-Getting addicted to Vester Cafe, due to their marketing techniques which I was very susceptible to (Vester punch cards, double punch Mondays), their insanely good strawberry matcha, and the fact that certain people I knew were always there!

Feels

This semester seemed a lot more stable than the semesters before. I had started off the year already mentally used to college life and living in a dorm and the intensity of social life in college, so it wasn’t completely overwhelming like in freshman year. I had learned how much commitment was “too much,” so I wasn’t completely overwhelmed all the time.

When I look back to this semester, I think about a car driving down a road peppered with leaves. Maybe the same car that I was in when I saw the Ohms perform at UMass Amherst. Sometimes the road was bumpy, and the speed limits rose and fell as the road thinned, twisted, became slick with ice. But there was always solid ground to drive on, always the lines in the road for me to follow. I had all the “mental framework” of college that I had developed in the past year of floundering around and feeling overwhelmed. Things have calmed down, and I’m really glad for that.