MIT student blogger Ana V. '15

2015 Brass Rat by Ana V. '15

finally unveiled!!!

Last Friday, Kirsten ’15 and I (well actually the whole class of 2015) lined up outside in the chilly weather right outside of Kresge auditorium for a good half hour. For what purpose was this?

^We lined up with our sorority sisters.

               RING PREMEIRE!!!!!

MIT has a very long and rich tradition of  “The Standard Technology Ring” (but everyone calls it the Brass Rat). Basically, every class gets to choose a committee to design the class’ ring. For such a small piece of jewelry, it has so many symbols on it in honor of various events and ideas. Some ideas appear from year to year (such as “IHTFP” and the ivy leaves), while others are meant to commemorate attributes from only the class.

If you google anything about the Brass Rat, you might find that…

Our beautiful beaver looks like this…

Bezel:

Class Shank & Hacker’s Map:

Skylines and Seal Shank:

Our favorite parts of the ring include:

  • It has not one, but TWO space exploration references! On the Bezel’s sidewalk is a footprint, commemorating the life of Neil Armstrong. On the Seal shank you can find the curiosity rover :D ~Ana
  • Remember that awesome movie, Back to the Future? Well in the second movie, Marty travels to the future… the year 2015 to be exact. Thus on the Boston Skyline, you can see a Delorean making it’s appearance in the future. ~Kirsten
  • Also on the bezel is the green building, how it was seen during the tetris hack last year during CPW! I was in Boston when I saw it happen, and it just warms my heart to see it on the ring.~Ana
  • Speaking of CPW, last year East Campus build a double pendulum for brave prefrosh to take a ride in. You can see the double pendulum in action on the Cambridge skyline. ~Kirsten
  • Fenway can be seen on the Boston skyline. Why Fenway? Well, our Ring Delivery (when we get our rings) will be there!! ~ Kirsten
  • Who can spot the pokémon? Yep. We even have a pokémon. ~Ana
  • (And if you’d like a detailed list of all of the hidden symbols, visit this page.)

Ring Premeire was the first time in a long, long time that we remember seeing all of my class at one place at the same time. (And it’s one of the only times that this will probably happen, including orientation, ring delivery, and graduation.) Excitement was/is hard to contain.The hard work and ups and downs of a year and a half of being at MIT made the night a meaningful one…our brass rats are one of the tangible, everyday things that we’ll take with us when we graduate, a symbol of our experiences, a reason for alumni to stop and chat about their time at MIT when it’s noticed, and also a reason for people to ask you about it.  One of my unified professors, who also was an undergrad at MIT, asked the class about our rings and motioned to his own brass rat on his finger. He said it symbolized pride and tradition. He said also he looked forward to May when his brass rat greeted ours.

We’re looking forward to it too. :D

May 2nd can’t come soon enough!