CPW Wrapup by Matt McGann '00
Final thoughts on Campus Preview Weekend 2006.
For those of you who attended: How was it? What was your favorite part? What was the biggest surprise? What would you tell those who couldn’t attend?
For those of you who couldn’t make it: What would you like to know?
It was great to meet so many of you! See you again in the fall =)
The best part (and my favorite!): meeting the people, hands down. Whether they were prefrosh or current students, everyone was just so friendly and excited about being at MIT! CPW was just so amazing and so much fun. Every single day was chockful of activity.
To those who couldn’t attend: MIT a cappella simply rocks. =]
It was such a blast, exceeded above my expectations like no other. =] Like Minh, favorite part is meeting new ppl and learning about different (and sometimes wild!) aspects at MIT. Oh and did I mention, free food at every hour and nightly frat parties? =P
and of course, the a capella groups own everything. can’t wait to try out next year!
It was amazing!!!! <3 Love MIT!
Seriously, I did everything — I went to classes, watched the concerts, met tons and tons of people, ate free food, went on the tangerine tours, and, of course, went to the frat parties!!
We got back to our dorm between 3:30 and 4am every night…
I loved everyone there — I really thought they people would be less social, but everyone is so friendly. Plus, I never knew that people from other Boston colleges party at the MIT frats — that’s pretty cool.
I’m gone from 50-60% sure about MIT to 95% sure.
You guys are all awesome!
CPW was great. It really made me fall in love with MIT.
I think the main factors was:
1) perfect dorm for my personality
2) people were friendly
3) the academic fair really got me excited about my major (as were the events for the course i was interested in)
4) the activities fair got me excited about having a life “after classes”
5) the a capella show was AMAZING. Seeing all that talent just made me fall in love all over again. The a capella show is a must.
it’s really the people that make it a loveable place. talking to the profs, the counselors, the faculty, the students… it just made me feel at home.
I’d have liked to have had more interaction with the professors but I don’t know if that’s really possible. Maybe in the future (it’d be hard/crazy to pull off) you could have a “lunch with a professor” thing that you could sign up for. It would be nice since, after all, they will be teaching us. Now is it a realistically possible idea? That I don’t know…
ahh but in the end. I heart MIT. The cannon made it so much better.
It was so much fun. Especially the cannon. Haha, Caltech has been aggressive about that. I’ve gotten 3-4 emails about how funny they think it was (except Fleming House, which sounded rather upset). Plus, the students were really nice; they always came up to you and introduced themselves. And there was so much to do, and so much I missed because there was only so much time. Oh well, I suppose I’ll just HAVE to come next year to experience the rest.
CPW was amazing it really let be see what MIT is all about. It is definitely not only about books. The best part was meeting all my future classmates. I like the welcome session with the acapella group. Especially when they turn off the light and had those fluscent (glow in the dark) straw things. I had a good time made me feel better about attending MIT
The best part? I’d say the cannon, but we all know that just can’t be beat.
Other than that, I’d have to say the people. I loved the atmosphere of MIT – it felt like there was something for everyone, which was great. I stayed in Baker House, which felt like a great fit for my personality. I’m definitely considering living there. (My host will be happy if she ever reads this…) The classes I went to were awesome (save for 5.111, but that’s because it felt like a repeat of AP Chem), and I’m uberpsyched about my major and about being at MIT next year.
Long story short:
Liquid nitrogen ice cream! Free food galore! Meet the Bloggers party! Free food! 9.07! French classes! Amazing people! Free food! ESP!
Did I mention free food?
MIT owns my soul now. And possibly my firstborn child.
I wish I had been there!! Speaking of a capella, I’d like to hear about the Logs’ performance. Just wondering Matt, where are you going to be at ISEF this year? I can show everyone the way because ISEF is in my home state!!
The two most important things I learned at CPW:
1) That I am definitely going to MIT
2) How to make a bomb out of liquid nitrogen
Like, seemingly, everyone else, I loved CPW because of the people.
However, I was surprised (and disappointed) by the level of involvement of fraternities/sororities and the focus on partying as a way to attract prefrosh. The message that “MIT students are NOT JUST NERDS and like to party and have fun just like everybody else” came across so strongly that it’s started to convince me that this isn’t the school for me; despite the presence of friendlier communities like Random and various student clubs, I felt like I wouldn’t be as welcome as a more stereotypically outgoing and well-rounded person.
The amazing array of activities was of course a big plus… but overall the backlash against MIT’s “geeky” reputation has started to make it seem a little less friendly to those of us who kinda liked that in the first place. *blush*
Attending CPW was definitely one of the best decisions I ever made. The most important thing was experiencing MIT in live and living color as opposed to learning about it from pamphlets. I felt that I got a real understanding of what the community was like and was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and work hard/play hard ethic of the students. For those who couldn’t attend, you guys don’t have to worry about whether you’re making the right choice by coming to MIT. It’ll be the best thing you can do for yourself!
CPW made me so much more certain that MIT is the right place for me. Thus, I hope to see everyone again in the fall! =)
P.S. MIT’s a cappella is incredible! Kudos to the MIT hackers as well! lol
about all the comments about fraternities and sororities and parties, i’m in a fraternity and i still consider myself pretty geeky, so don’t let the parties and such make you think people there are not nerdy.
Hey Matt!
Cpw was crazy fun! :-D Thanks for all that
In other news, though, check out this Onion article
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/47207
-D those MIT frats…
The best thing was meeting ppl, as I expressed in my last blog entry, people at MIT make it such a wonderful college. I love it!
To anonymous:
Of course the fraternities and sororities are involved. Close to half of frosh men pledge fraternities. This doesn’t mean that they (or their parties) are not geeky. And if what you really want is ultimate geekiness, you can get that too, depending on where you go. That’s part of the beauty of the housing system.
will you be at ISEF this year?
In response to “anonymous”‘s comment, I definitely did notice the large presence of frats/sororities on campus, but there was also quite a bit of stereotypical geekiness to be found – it just depends where you were. For instance, on Friday night while a good portion of my fellow prefrosh were heading off to frat parties, a few prefrosh (including myself) and current students were sitting around in Epsilon Theta eating fondue and playing Shadows over Camelot, which I must say is one of the nerdiest board games I have ever played. I really don’t think there is any need to worry about MIT being “not geeky enough”, though I understand where you’re coming from.
I <3 MIT…
I posted my photos of CPW, all 525 of them, if anyone wants to see them:
http://gallery2.comclub.org/v/mit/cpw
I also have 8 hours of video, which I’ll be cutting up and posting some of.
I had an awesome time at CPW. I know it’s cliche by now, but the best part was the people. In fact, I’ll be more specific. The best part was the prefrosh. It was so amazing to be surrounded by intelligent people who not only could converse but were downright excited to be talking about geeky things. I wonder if CPW is a trick to get us so attached to our fellow prefrosh that we can’t go anywhere else.
Oh well, it worked… I’m sold
–Quentin
P.S. If anyone else wants me to host their photos, I’d be happy to.
frats/sororities –
i personally didn’t go to any frat parties, and still had a great time. went on a tangerine tour Friday night, and played some intense card games (Mafia, ERS), plus Psychologist and Charades, till 5AM with some cool ppl @ McCormick on Saturday night. Granted, there weren’t that many of us – maybe 20 max – but I still had a GREAT time. (playing Mafia with CS majors is crazy, they figure out who the Mafia is way before everyone else does…)
Also, heard that CPW is basically a party weekend for MIT, and that most MIT weekends aren’t so party-laden.
Went to Zeta Psi for a Boston tour on Saturday. They had a robot vacuuming the house and another mopping the kitchen floor. just an example of fratlife + geekiness =)
As for the person who asked about the Logs, they are AMAZING. best a capella group there, I thought. BUY THEIR CD. http://www.mitlogs.com/recordings.php
No man! The chorollaries were better.
but Resonance definately stole the show
http://web.mit.edu/resonance/www/cds/index.html
Well, I was already sure I was going to MIT before I even got to CPW…but meeting all the intelligent- yet fun- people made me want to quit high school and jump right into college. Almost. lol. Anyway, thanks to all you guys who made it so awesome! Marilee Jones rocked that battle of the bands!