Life On Mars by Elizabeth Choe '13
and by "Mars" I actually mean "3AB, Simmons Hall."
When it comes to housing at MIT, you’ve got quite the array of options. You want to explode things and paint crazy murals on the wall? There’s East Campus. Dining plan got you leery? Cook with your friends at one of the cultural houses, like Spanish House or French House! Want to live with other awesome ladies (provided you’re a lady as well)? There’s McCormick or the Women’s Independent Living Group! With all our dorms and independent living groups and sorority and fraternity houses, there’s got to be one that floats your boat. Us bloggers represent a nice variety of the living groups on campus, reppin’ East Campus, Baker, Next House, iHouse, soon-to-be Maseeh, Random, Burton-Connor…
…and then there’s Simmons. Every dorm has a good and bad reputation. Our good rep? We have really nice facilities. It’s clean. It’s big! It looks cool. And the people are nice. Our bad rep? We lack personality. We’re tame. And while we’re nice, we’re… *gasp*… allegedly-boring. Personally, I love Simmons. I like being able to come “home” at the end of the day and get work done if I need to, without being too distracted or bothered by people playing Rock Band really loud at 3 in the morning. Simmons is about as close to “apartment-style” living as you can get in the dorms. This year I blocked with some friends from my freshman year and we added some super freshman to our hall. I live with my pals but I still get to do my work in peace. In short, I like it here.
So without further ado, here’s a video about life on 3AB (the AB refers to towers. Simmons is divided into three towers, A, B and C. My floor has both towers A and B connected to each other), Simmons Hall:
This is absolutely incredible! Dorms are also pretty cool not what I expected to be at all. BTW Fractals are awesome (referring to you reference to fractals at the beginning of the video)
P.P.S. As lame as the WebKit browser on a Nokia S60 smartphone is, compared to Opera Mobile, you can’t deny that it has FlashLite integration.
As for the video, you have made me (and possibly many others) very, very envious. So what exactly does Kartik do as a GRT? And the college male you exhibited belongs to only a subset (albeit a possibly large one) of college-going organisms with XY chromosomes.
Sooo I’ve been following your blogs for awhile and I just wanted to say hi. (:
Also, they tend to cheer me up after a long boring day of high school, so thanks!! This video was particularly awesome.
I know I first have to be admitted, and apply..and considering I am only a sophomore I might be getting ahead of myself… but how do you choose where you want to live? Can you go on mini-tours of each? Or do they just assign you?
Oh my gosh!! this video makes me so happy i can’t even tell you how awesome it is!!!! I LOVE Simmons so much…except for the crazy long walk to classes.
I lived there for 6 weeks this summer (4AB) and I loved it. the rooms are huge compared to other dorms I’ve seen and its really clean. Plus the furniture in the rooms are pretty cool and so are the lounges. The 3rd floor lounge @ 5:11 was one of my favorites. The lighting in the rooms is not the best though.
ok i’ll stop ranting now. But thank you so much for doing the video! It was amazing.
@the first anonymous:
The summer before your freshman year, you fill out a housing lottery form online in which you rank all the dorms in which you want to live. There are various things to consider, like dining, facilities, distance, culture, etc. You will receive a DVD called “i3” where each dorm puts together a short clip showcasing the dorm culture in case you don’t get to experience it at CPW. So if you don’t visit the dorms personally, i3 serves as your “mini-tour.”
In July or so you’ll get a response telling you what dorm you’ve been put in. If you’re not in McCormick, then you’ll participate in REX during orientation (Residence Exploration), where you can decide to switch dorms or stay. Most dorms have floor rush as well, so you end up picking your floor/room/roommate. The only exception is McCormick (the all-girl dorm), which randomly assigns you unless you and another girl request each other as roommates.
Orientation plans are in flux right now and as such some of this information (especially concerning REX) might change before your class comes in, so just keep an eye out. As to your being a sophomore, it’s good that you’re showing interest and looking into stuff so early
good luck!
WoW! Your videos always take my excitement to a next level. I’m telling you! If you are going to post one more video like this, my excitement will burst out of me and I’ll catch the next available flight and will come to Boston! STRAIGHT AWAY!!! ☺
I hope that MIT will allot me to the Simmons Hall itself! ( I always wanted to live there) And if not Simmons, then atleast Baker House! Please! Please! Please!
This fall will be the time to fall in love with Simmons! ☺
OMG! Best video ever!! It actually gave me a glimpse of college life
I look forward to applying to MIT next year! :D
Lookin’ forward to your next videos ^^
Living in a dorm is one of the things I’m really looking forward to, come September. Hope mine’s in Boston.
P.S. Can’t see the video right now. Am on mobile. Meh.
Thanks for the help, Jeanne
@Vivek: GRTs are like babysitters.
Actually, just kidding. Aside from doing “RA” things like making sure we stay [relatively] out of trouble, they throw study breaks like the one in the video and act as general big brother/big sister when we need help with things like “helpmefigureoutmylifegradschoolcalmmedown”
Ah! I totally missed the filming of this!!! So sad :( Until next time I suppose, Then you guys might get to see my sweet double on 3AB. Awesome video Elizabeth!
I totally need to hang out with you guys more – life is crazy being a senior…
Hey,
That video really gave me a good look into what it’s like to live in a dorm. Thanks for posting it!
If I get accepted, I’d love to visit 3AB during CPW and explore it for myself.
PHYSICS TIME WITH MAITAAAAAA PHYSICS TIME WITH MAITAAAAAA <3
Wow! Their singing is so amazing!