2024 ring premiere! by Mel N. '24

The 2024s got their first look at the class ring on Friday!

Having a class ring, or Brass Rat, is an integral part of the MIT experience. It’s a tradition to get your ring in your sophomore year to commemorate being halfway through your degree. And it’s also been a hot topic to blog about, going back decades.

My friend Sarah Z. ’24 is on RingComm, a student group that designs the Brass Rat and manages events like Ring Premiere and Ring Delivery, so of course I had to show up to Premiere and cheer for her super loudly.

Grace M. ’24 and I trekked over to Kresge Auditorium together, where Premiere was being held at 7:00. We were a little late, but Sarah said that it was fine because they were actually starting at 7:30 to let everyone trickle in.

There was a bit of a line when we got there–nothing too bad, though. They tapped us in to make sure that we were, in fact, MIT students (and also probably to make sure our COVIDPass was working), and I hung my coat up. Then we walked right up to the back row and settled in.

I saw people wearing matching bucket hats scattered throughout the crowd, and a few other fun outfits. It was one of many traditions for Premiere.

“I honestly didn’t realize there were so many ’24s,” I said to Grace at one point.

Maybe that’s because the 2024s haven’t had a lot of events where we’re all together as a class. Our orientation was virtual, and even though we’ve had stuff like the Twenty Fourmal⁠01 to make up for not having freshman formal, the '24 class council held a formal for us back in november and the class photo, I don’t think my mind ever conceptualized how many classmates I had.

Also, some kid was psetting for 18.06⁠02 linear algebra at the end of the row–or it might’ve been 18.600?⁠03 probability and random variables In any case, it looked like it was difficult, involving LaTeX, and definitely not something I wanted to think about at the moment.

“Are you psetting right now?” I asked him.

“Oh, I’m actually a ’25,” he said.

“Oh.”

So shoutout to that ’25. Hope he finished his work and enjoyed the show.

At around 7:30, RingComm stood up and it was time to get the ball rolling. They started off by introducing themselves, accompanied by enthusiastic cheering. Then they went into more details about the history of the ring and classic elements that are included, accompanied by very enthusiastic cheering. I’m serious, people were cheering after every single sentence, making it a little hard to actually hear, but I appreciated the energy.

There were also a bunch of raffles with the chance to win gold rings, and the winners had to text a number to claim it within 3 minutes. I unfortunately did not win anything…but I recognized a few of the people who did, which was really cool!!

Finally, it was time for the big reveal: what was the ring going to look like?

They showed this image, and the crowd lost their shit.

I’d had a long day and I’m pretty sure my vision is getting worse, so I was squinting at ripped Tim the Beaver and the duck thing like…wait, is this actually the ring?? lmaoo

And then once I looked closer…

AMONG US?????????????

But as it turned out, it was yet another tradition to show a joke bezel before the real thing. Here’s what it really looks like:

If you want more photos, the 2024 Brass Rat website has a slideshow and more info, along with this cool model:

Outside of the auditorium, RingComm had prepared little goodie bags for us, with booklets about the Brass Rat, water glasses, “toothpick holders,”⁠04 shot glasses, lmao and Ring Pops.

And thus concluded Ring Premiere.

The next step is actually ordering the ring–and to do that, I’ve got to figure out what size I want, and also what kind of ring I want, because there’s a lot of options. And then once all our orders are in, we’ll have Ring Delivery.

But in the meantime, it’s crazy to think that I’m almost halfway through MIT. These past two years have changed me so much, in good ways and bad ways, and I have no idea what the next two have in store for me.

Still, though–I’m glad that I’m here.