Field Trip! by Hamsika C. '13
I meant to blog this a long long time ago.
Thanks to the carefree nature of my elementary and middle school years, I have experienced a fair share of field trips, including a couple to the Museum of Science, one to a theater production of “There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom,” one to a ranch, and a few others I can’t seem to think of at the moment. When high school came around, the notion of field trips was tragically displaced and represented instead by the title of ‘school-sponsored activity’ – not nearly as catch-phrase-y and often accompanied by a frustrating mass of release forms.
Regardless, it is my hope to now give you a virtual field trip of sorts – into my dorm: McCormick Hall :)
To begin with, here’s the front – in all its December snow-covered glory:
McCormick has two towers, each with seven floors and its own penthouse. The tower on the left (called the East Tower) is filled with several singles, whereas the tower the on the right (logically called the West Tower) consists of a mixture of singles, doubles, and triples.
On the first floor of McCormick, you’ll see a lot of little rooms called ‘date rooms,’ in which people generally lock themselves up during exam time and study until their brain cells are no less than fried. You’ll also see a courtyard:
And two large living rooms – appropriately named the Brown Living Room and the Green Living Room:
A lot of interesting goings-on take place in these living rooms – house meetings, dance practices, a capella rehearsals, study sessions, and much more. Right next to these living rooms is our dining hall:
McCormick’s dining hall is open for dinner five days a week (Sunday – Thursday, except during IAP – which makes me sad because I have to walk over to Baker dorm next door and don’t get a chance to fully exploit my potential to be lazy). The food isn’t bad – there’s a good deal of variety, and McCormick residents get a 50% discount at all the dorm dining halls (in addition to a $300 base semester fee). I get tired of the food every now and then, though, which is fine, since there’s a Shaw’s grocery store pretty close to campus :)
If you take the East Tower elevator up to the East Penthouse, this is what you’ll see:
A music room –
A kitchen –
A reallyyy nice common room (with a TV!! except I don’t get to watch TV that often…) –
In the West Penthouse, you’ll see a similar common room (minus the TV) –
As well as some study cubicle-type things –
Notice how clean everything is? It’s because boys can’t live at McCormick! Haha, just kidding. It’s true that boys can’t live here, but the cleanliness is not due to their absence but rather due to the amazing members of McCormick’s cleaning staff, all of whom are super-friendly and do a great job of keeping McCormick absolutely pristine. Unfortunately though, I still have to clean my own room. This is generally a serious concern, since room-cleaning takes on a somewhat lower priority during the school year…
The above picture was taken a long time ago by my roommate Jeanne ’13; while it accurately demonstrates the size of our room, it does not provide a faithful representation of the extent to which our room can look like utter chaos. I cleaned my side of the room at one point though, as evidenced by this picture:
So that basically concludes this field trip. During the Early Action Telethon, a lot of you new admits asked questions about dorms – I hope this helped out a little! Let me know if you’d like to know anything else about McCormick :)
Oh – one more thing: a view from the East Penthouse balcony –
See why I love my dorm? :D
McCormick looks so nice!!! I hope I get to go there this summer, for WTP=).
Looks amazing. =) And a music room! Does all the dorms have music rooms? Dining hall looks gorgeous, common rooms are awesome too, and that ‘LOVE’ thingy made out of pictures on your wall is really nice. =) Thanks!
You can’t forget the Annex!
Its a cute little brownstone attached to the side of McC for about 20 more residents and is super home-y and amazing
Hamsika, if you haven’t hung out there much, you should
its a fun corner of McCormick
Nay, I thought date room is a place for dating
>Notice how clean everything is? It’s because boys can’t live at McCormick!
I send you an slap for this, catch it peacefully (just kidding)
Singles! Yay! McCormick looks pretty awesome. I wanted to go to the Ashdown house to live in but i’ll consider putting in McCormick for the lottery. It’s looks amazing.
nice dorm to live in and the view from the East Penthouse balcony is awesome
Thanks, Hamsika, that’s a nice and insightful virtual tour.
Wow this place looks amazing! Btw out of curiosity, did you get to MIT with any sort of financial aid?
That definitely rearranges my priority of dorms in MIT (of course, in case I really get in!).
This entry is extremely helpful… and of utmost importance: beautiful!
Two things I noticed that I really about MIT dorms
1.They all look very kept up, comfortable, and somewhat roomy. They same very easy to live in and enjoy.
2. Single rooms! I’ve been told it is’t all that difficult to get one ,even as a freshman. (Correct me if I’m wrong, current students.)
Hoping for Mcgregor myself
That loud noise you all just heard was my moan of agonized longing…AARGH approximately 8 weeks till decisions!! Beautiful, beautiful dorm, Hamsika…
PS: MUSIC ROOM! Eek! Awesome! :D Maybe I won’t have to get myself a “hotel mute” for my violin after all…
Lol, reCaptcha: “cologne French”
Some of these rooms look even better than those you would find in hotels in my country. SERIOUSLY.
@Anonymous on January 28, 2010 09:36 AM: I’d think that all MIT dorms are better than hotels, in terms of the atmosphere. Only my home shall beat it. Home sweet home.
Hey Hamsika dii,
Is it you who is sitting in the room and studying in the third last picture ~!! ie. http://s835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/hamsika/?action=view¤t=9429_316316685413_533945413_9489439.jpg
Well, its a nice way to study like that !! isnt it !! Funny !
I appreciate it, and the collection of photos on the wall is really nice !!
Thanks !
yay. i helped you with the field trips thing.
anyways. mccormick looks REALLY nice. i like the cleanliness
Wow, neat… Like Anonymous (JAN 28, 0.:36) said, Those rooms are better than the Motel I slept in before the SAT test… (I live an hour away from the test center, viva high way, and I am car sick…)
Let me count how many field trips I had so far, 1, 2, 3… 4! Yep, 4. (1-3 was in China)
The first time was in elementary school, I walked to school everyday (take about 30minutes) and we got a field trip to a spot that is a 2 minutes walk away from my house, nice…
The second and third time, different school, but still in EL-school, we went to a park that is an hour away by bus, then we walked 30 minutes up a mountain, then another hour walking down… hurray, another hour on bus back home.
The fourth time, I went to Wonder Land Ontario, YAY, had 2 rides, Pirate ship and The Bat, and that was it… 3 hours on the bus back and forth…
VERIFICATION: hearing assuming (Words to my mind, but even if you typed it wrong, it still works, try it people)
*
1. Spelled MY LAST NAME wrong. Unbelievable
2. More importantly, what I LIKE about MIt dorms, (thought it should have been prosenisbly obvious.)
The common room and West Penthouse have awesome windows. That’s all you need in a room — awesome windows (and closet space). Great view as well.
Awesome skyline!!!! That is THE AWESOMEST dorm common room I’ve EVER SEEN!!
@Anonymous, Mehemt
Recaptchas use two words. One word has been identified to a high confidence, call it the control word. The other word they are trying to identify. The control word is often distorted to a greater degree. If you answer the control word then you are a verifeid human. When three people agree on the other word, and there are no conflicts they begin to use the second word as a control word for other recaptchas.
Also MIT is a great place, but there are other engineering schools out there. I believe success depends more on how well you take advantage of your surroundings than the actual surroundings.
looks like Mehmet ain’t gettin’ into MIT
Dorms look nice but it’s the people you share it with that matters for me.
Are there other dorms that have similar awesome views?
@Anonymous: Yes! Recaptchas work even if you type them wrong!!