College Fair Season by Matt McGann '00
They say, “You snooze, you lose” — Kevin and Daniel beat me to two blog topics today. Kevin posted the New York Times article on MIT President Susan Hockfield, and Daniel posted the National Public Radio piece on the Time Traveler Convention. Anyway, check both of those out.
Last night, I took a Zipcar up to a college fair in New Hampshire. I’d say the fair was pretty successful, on the whole. I met some pretty cool students, and I didn’t lose my voice =)
The most popular question of the night was, “Tell me about your architecture program.” The answer: MIT’s Department of Architecture is the oldest school of architecture is the United States, and is considered among the best. The undergraduate program is a 4 year program resulting in a Bachelor of Science (BS) or a Bachelor of Science in Art & Design (BSAD). Approximately 85% of MIT architecture undergraduates go on to grauate school to earn a Master of Architecture (MArch) degree, including some who enter a 6 year accelerated combined BSAD/MArch program, which student can apply to in their junior year. In the junior year, students may apply to do a study abroad exchange with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. There’s also an MIT chapter of AIAS to support students.
I considered majoring in Architecture when I was a freshman. I was inspired by Professor Bill Hubbard, who teaches one of my favorite classes at MIT, 4.101 Experiencing Architecture Studio. Also, Professor John Hernandez served on the Admissions Committee this year — he may have admitted you!
I had a few tough follow-up questions to the popular architecture question, which I fumbled at the time but now — thanks to the power of the Internet! — I can answer. “Do you have any faculty working on ‘green’ buildings?” and “Do you have any faculty who focus on landscape architecture?” The answers are yes and yes.
I promised a student interested in dance that I’d post some links here to Professor Tommy DeFrantz and the student group Kinaesthetics Lab. For good measure, I’ll throw in links to the arts@MIT – Dance site as well as MIT DanceTroupe.
Tomorrow, I head to New York City for three college fairs (one each day through Friday), spend Mothers Day with my parents, then briefly back to the office on Monday. Many exciting times ahead.
Today, I leave you with some pictures of the aforementioned Dance Troupe, by Wan Yusof Wan Morshidi of The Tech. These are from last spring’s sold out concert series; this spring’s concert series runs Thursday-Sunday (better get your tickets now!). More photos are available from the DanceTroupe photo gallery.
