Looking Back, Looking Forward by Hamsika C. '13

So a couple days ago, frustrated as I was by the fact that I wasn’t getting anywhere with my biochem studying, I decided to take a break and wander through the videos on my computer. I’m sharing a particularly choice one with you – with full knowledge of the fact that I’ll probably never live it down.

Oh – and I also found one of Quinton, from the elephant parade last semester :)

Haha, I hope that was at least mildly entertaining. I definitely needed a few laughs this past week – there is sooo much going on right now: tests, problem sets, papers, C-Show dance practices (more about C-Show in a later entry), random other extracurricular stuff, ahhh. I wish there were a pause button for life.

Or maybe just a fast-forward button – because I cannot waittt for CPW 2011! I hope you ’15s realize exactly how excited we all are to see you on campus. We get to find out which of you we’ll be host-matched with this Sunday at a short training session, and in just a week, we’ll finally get to meet you in person.

For those of you coming to CPW – be prepared for an amazing time, complete with the prospect of little to no sleep. There’ll be free food everywhere, random events in the middle of the night, hundreds of people wanting to meet you, and tons of opportunities to get to know what MIT is like. I know several of you tuned into the CPW webcast two weekends ago and already have an idea of how to navigate CPW. In case you missed it though, here are some tips/general thoughts on CPW 2011:

1. Be spontaneous – You’ve seen the CPW schedule online, and you can tell that the 3-4 days you’ll be on campus will be absolutely jam-packed with events. Definitely hit up the major events (ex. Welcome Ceremony, Activities Midway (free stuff!), Closing Ceremony, Faculty Speeches, etc) – but also feel free to stray a little bit. The point is to get to know other members of your class – so if that means missing a dose of pancakes at 2 am in favor of staying up till 5 am just talking about life, go for it.

2. Make sure to check out all the dorms – Every dorm at MIT has its own flavor: McCormick Hall (my dorm) is generally characterized as clean/friendly/quiet. Random Hall is…well, random. Burton-Conner pretty much has a different personality on every floor. Baker is almost always social and lively. Go to them all, talk to residents, and take tours – make use of this chance to get a head-start on deciding where you want to live next year.

3. Visit some classes and chat with professors – I know that one of my biggest concerns when deciding whether or not I should MITriculate centered around the workload here at MIT and whether or not I could handle it. During CPW, I sat in on an 8.02 (Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism) lecture as well as a 7.013 (Biology) lecture, just get an idea of what MIT classes were like. 8.02 was particularly neat because they did a ton of in-class demonstrations, in honor of CPW. I came away from those lectures feeling a lot better about the difficulty of classes at MIT – they’re not quite so impossible as they seem :)

4. Speak with current students – despite the rampant stereotypes, MIT students are not extreme nerds who sit around on their computers coding all day. People here come from a range of diverse backgrounds, are excited by a variety of topics, and spend their free time doing all kinds of interesting things. Chat with us! Ask us anything you like – whether it’s about classes, student life, crazy fun times we’ve had on campus. We’re open to any and all questions/conversations.

5. GET FREE STUFF – Consider this your ultimate goal at CPW =P Get to events early so that you don’t end up with 7 XXL shirts like I did and so that upperclassmen masquerading as prefrosh don’t swipe the free stuff that was rightfully yours. On a related note – make sure the suitcase/bag you bring to CPW has a little extra room. You’re definitely going to be going home with more than you what you came to campus with.

For those of you who can’t make it to CPW: don’t be sad! Orientation is essentially an extended version of CPW, so you have plenty of fun heading your way in the near future. Plus, I can tell you that based on the 7 prefrosh I know/have met so far, your Class if fabulous :) I actually got a chance to host one of your classmates, Aarti ’15, last night as part of the Overnight Visit program (hehe, she just called me saying she’s awake =P).

And I’ll get to see the rest of you soon! Get pumpedddd for CPW 2011.