An illustration of Angie's profile. She has shoulder-length, curly brown hair, light skin, and is wearing a purple shirt. She also has glasses and one star-shaped earring.

the threek post! by Angie F. '28

my lovely lovely year on maseeh three

I shouldn’t have ranked Maseeh first. That’s the thought that kept creeping around the back of my mind during all of REX⁠01 Residential Exploration, better known as REX, is a multi-day experience for first year students to explore MIT dorms and find their future home on campus. REX occurs during Orientation Week, and all the dorms hold events showcasing their unique cultures! , as I ran around events at what seemed to be every dorm but the one I was slated to live in for the next year. I’d been warned about this: at Campus Preview Weekend (MIT’s admitted students weekend, also known as CPW) , many upperclassmen told me that, while Maseeh didn’t have the culture other dorms had, its proximity to campus and quick access to a dining hall made up for it. As long as I had individual friends in Maseeh, I’d figured, dorm culture wasn’t too important, and I ranked it first on my housing intent form when it came out in May. However, after getting to campus and dancing, having my face painted, getting covered in whipped cream and feathers, and yelling at a table at Burton Conner, I decided that that was the dorm for me– at least until East Campus, who was responsible for building the giant fort I spent a fair amount of the rest of REX at, reopened. I filled out my FYRE⁠02 FYRE, the First-Year Residence Exchange, is a system that allows you to request to swap from your temp dorm into another dorm you'd prefer living in at the end of REX. Also commonly used as a verb (to FYRE in or out of a dorm) form and was unsurprisingly turned away: lots of people had had my same idea, and only one student ended up FYREing into Burton Conner. I shrugged it off pretty quickly and started filling my time with EC events, deciding that Maseeh (floor three, or M3, to be more specific) was as good a place as any to start and end my days at, even if the hours in between were spent, well, anywhere else. I could have spent my whole year like this; one fateful night, however, I walked by the floor three lounge and met…

THE THREEKS!

18 of the threeks, the MIT freshmen this post centers around, pose for a playful photo at our freshman formal, which took place on the 50somethingth floor of Boston’s Prudential Center. They’re arranged in two uneven rows in front of tall glass windows streaked with rain, so the dark, wet night outside glitters behind them.Most of the guys (about five) wear navy or charcoal suits—one pairs a navy sweater with cream chinos and brown shoes—while the dozen or so girls are dressed in cocktail-length gowns in bold jewel tones and black. Everyone leans forward slightly, pointing three left fingers down and three right ones up so that their hands read “M3”; they’re also all laughing or grinning at the camera. The mood is light and irreverent—more silly than posed. A narrow neon-yellow rectangular frame mounted on the window glows faintly behind the back row, subtly outlining the center of the group. The polished beige floor and white window frames complete the clean indoor setting.

the M3ers, or threeks, at freshman formal!

“now to describe who threeks are. individually, we are interested in a variety of things–we have athletes, dancers, musicians and more. what we have in common is a love for side quests (aka doing dumb things for wondercoin), an unmatched sense of humor, and just threekiness (it’s hard to put into words).”

– Janhavi

Unlike other dorms, who have established cultures that likeminded freshmen found their way to during CPW and Rex, Maseeh attracted an extremely wide variety of people who were then randomly assigned to floors, most of whom I probably would have never met otherwise. As some of my fellow M3 residents put it…

“M3 is a place I never knew I needed until I found it and now there’s no going back. M3 has such a diverse group of people not only from different parts of the world but different mindsets and interests that create an unexpected but splendid community. Unlike other living groups that already have some sort of culture (Bombers, B1ers) we had to start from ground 0 and create our own culture.”

– Lisa

“I don’t even live on M3! It was a twist of fate that I met Zaee, Peter (M3 residents), and our Simmons friend Jerry on the subway to the aquarium trip. I kind of got adopted in and am now pretty ingrained in the M3 family. So to any prefrosh who need this: go do things, even if you don’t feel like it/are scared/yada yada. I personally did not have a great time during REX, and was on the verge of not going to the aquarium either. But I went, and BAM! Single most instant connection I’ve ever had with a group of people, who I feel safe, accepted, and loved by. This extends to all of M3! We’re all a little different. We look like a group of randos from the entire assortment of high school cliques. But we mesh like oobleck, and I think we all kinda love that we’re all weird as shit in our own ways.”

– Nicole (a.k.a Nic G a.k.a Nicool)

A boy and two girls standing together and smiling. The girl in the middle is holding a small apple pie in a box

peter, zaee, and nicole!

Aside from two floormates I knew before freshman year started, the threeks are largely unlike many of the friends I’ve met through classes, clubs, EC shenanigans, etc. And yet, somehow, when I get back from a day of locking in or balling out or both, it’s not my room but the lounge I feel like I’m coming home to. They’ve turned Maseeh 3 into a place that is both welcoming to everyone and easily distinguishable from any other floor in the building, and given me an incredibly different experience from the cultureless but convenient place to call home I was promised during CPW. What does that experience entail, you may ask? Here’s some of what we like to do…

THRIP! THREEKTREAT!

“If you told me when I came to MIT that I would be going on a retreat with some randos that live down my hall, I would wouldn’t even know what to say because that’s a highly specific scenario but nonetheless it was the best thing I’ve done at MIT so far (in terms of nonacademic work of course). I’ve learned so much from this group of people and have had too much fun with them.”

– Lisa

I unfortunately was unable to attend threek retreat due to a series of scheduling mishaps on my end :( but I’m still putting it first on the list because it is one of my favorites of our new M3 traditions, planned largely by our friend Aleks (a.k.a Garbuz). The Threeks all went to Maine for a weekend and had a grand ol’ time. 

An overcast winter morning: leaf-bare tree branches coated in snow fill the right side of the frame, while a small gray shingled house with a white roof and attached garage sits beside a calm inlet. Power lines crisscross the scene, and a distant American flag flutters faintly above the shoreline.
the view from the house!
Six threeks in semi formal outfits gather around a cluttered granite-topped island, busy with meal prep under two bright pendant lights. Lisa, who is wearing a white dress, is the only one actually cooking: she is chopping up vegetables while Anooshka and Renuka put together a “Star Wars” puzzle. In the background, Izaan, wearing a green sweater rummages, through an open pantry.
fancy threeks cooking fancy dinner
Six threeks sit cross-legged on a hardwood floor around a scattered circle of playing cards, facing a stone-trimmed gas fireplace with lively orange flames. They wear cozy sweatshirts and pajamas, some studying their hands, others gesturing animatedly. The mood is relaxed and warm.
threeks love card games! "fish?" texts are common in our group chat at any hour of the night
A black and white image of a car covered in snow.
A beach with a snow-covered rocky shore. The sea is foamy with waves, and the sky is partly cloudy but overall bright
A blurry photo taken from the top of a staircase of a girl in a bear onesie. She is standing near the bottom of the stairs, hands mimicking claws and teeth mockingly bared
not sure what this was all about
NICOOL!
Four threeks stand on the beach, awash in the purple haze of the sunset. Three are mid conversation, while one of them is turned away from it smiling at the camera
really nice sunsets

“During retreat some stories I can think of is when we dressed up for a dinner we cooked ourselves to make it seem more fancy, or when we played hot seat for the millionth time, or when we walked to the beach at night, or when we saw snow on the beach in the morning and a guy was cross country skiing there. Or when we had the huge snowball fight!”

– Lisa (again) (my goat)

“M3 RETREAT. There were some brave souls who did a cold plunge (not me I was passed out on the couch).”

– Nicole

Wondercoin

It was 4 in the morning in a New Vassar study room when my best friend Carlos told me that he had an idea. 

It boiled down to this: we already did embarrassing stuff all the time. What if we could get paid for it? Furthermore, what if we could pay our friends to embarrass themselves for us? And so, Wondercoin was born. With a conversion rate of roughly 50 Wondercoin per Dunkin’ Donuts Meal Deal (inflation hit us hard when the price went from five to six dollars), every friend of ours who chose to be part of our system could propose and accept challenges to and from other friends in exchange for our currency, which they could cash out for real money at any time (though I don’t think anyone ever has). Here are some things this has led to…

  • My acapella audition: I’ll let my texts with threeks Carlos (rodman) and Keegan (keegman wonder) speak for themselves:
A dark-mode iPhone Messages screen shows a conversation between me and Carlos (labeled as “rodman”). I ask “How many wondercoins for me to go.” Carlos replies, “Can you sing.” I answer, “Not one bit. I’ll perform the song of your choice.” Carlos adds, “This is legit like 20 wondercoin.”
Another dark-mode Messages screenshot shows a group chat, called “Wonder Family Group Chat.” I say“keegan im boutta do this post gym for a base rate of 20 wondercoin (from carlos)/ do you have any song requests and how many wondercoin are you willing to offer” Keegan (labeled “keegman wonder” sends a skull emoji, then says: “That’s an EASY 20 wondercoin. I may reward more based on the performance. Idk about the song though.” I reply “bet ill see if i can record it. carlos what about fireflies? carlos and fireflies go way back.”
Carlos says: “Do fireflies do it do it. 10 more wondercoin if you make up a story about how much this song means to you. The story being at least 2 minutes long” I reply: “ill see what I can do.” Then I send a photo of a light-blue table, with a banner printed with “SYNCOPASIAN – MIT East Asian A Cappella” and a cartoon eighth-note fish logo. On the table sit a turquoise water bottle, an open mint-green laptop, headphones, and several small photos of the a cappella group. A pair of sneaker-clad feet poke into the bottom edge of the frame, suggesting that I’m looking down at the table.

I had originally planned on going to auditions for Resos, our fellow threek Ali’s a capella group. However, while looking for their audition room, I lingered in front of another group’s table for a bit too long and was asked if I was interested in trying out. I shrugged and nodded: I didn’t know much about a capella, but all the groups were more or less the same at the end of the day, right? A few minutes later, I would read the sign on the table I was in front of and discover that I was horribly wrong. I’d signed up to audition for the Syncopasians, MIT’s East Asian a capella group. They perform original arrangements in not only English but also Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and other East Asian languages. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that they’re the only group on campus that does this, which is pretty awesome! The only problem with this is that I am not East Asian, nor do I know any East Asian languages or consider myself well-versed in any East Asian culture. Uh Oh. Regardless, I remained steadfast and shuffled into the audition room with my head held high. I stuttered my way through some vocal warmups before getting to the main event: my rendition of “Fireflies” by Owl City. However, I could not bring myself to perform such a meaningful song without first explaining why it was so important to me and my journey as a vocalist. Here’s a transcript of my introduction to my performance:

“So my song is ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City, and this is a song that’s very important to me. Growing up, it was mostly me and my older brother, Keegan. He really likes this song, um… sorry, I’m, like, a little… a little nervous… but yeah, uh, he really likes this song, he’d play it for me a lot. And then when I was 12, I found out I’d had a twin named Carlos who I’d eaten in utero, which is like funny now but when I was 12 I was like, sad about it. And then my brother really helped me and comforted me through that, and he played this song for me after”

Then, it was time to sing:

After ten excruciating minutes, I was set free and rewarded with a slice of cheesesteak pizza. Eating my prize on the building two benches, I felt incredibly light, like I’d broken through some invisible barrier of self-consciousness and could now unashamedly embarrass myself in any way I pleased. I walked home feeling wholly in charge of my life. Later that weekend, I discovered I’d been rejected from the Syncopasians; a few days later, Carlos revealed the truth behind my audition to a friend in the group, who asked him if the bad singing was part of the bit. I’ve come to terms with the fact that, like most great artists, my craft may never be appreciated in my time.

A picture of a plate of cheesesteak pizza balanced on someone's seated legs

“It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

  • The 6.1200 performance: I don’t know why I keep ending up singing. I also didn’t get any Wondercoin for this. One fateful day, I ran into Christine (non-threek) and Anooshka outside of Maseeh, and they told me that (with our professor’s permission) they were going to sing a song about graph theory (to the tune of “Fireflies,” in honor of my recent audition) during our 6.1200⁠03 6.1200: Math for Computer Science lecture and that I was going to do it with them. I said yes before I really thought about it, as I tend to do. We put on quite a show if I do say so myself:
  • The tour incident: This was a big one. Lisa and Anooshka goofed off in front of numerous campus tour groups while Izaan stood nearby in a hot dog costume and other threeks hid and watched. One of them involved them arguing over Anooshka’s imaginary “situationship of three months,” another involved them loudly pretending to eat the hot dog costume while Izaan tried to convince them it was a costume.

All of them ended with the three of them promoting our floor’s CPW event…

…The M3 Hot Dog Eating Contest!

We held a hot dog eating contest during CPW to meet incoming freshmen (a.k.a prefrosh) and give them a taste of life on floor. MIT Admissions’ very own Petey ended up winning by a landslide, eating three hot dogs in about three seconds and leaving the crowd in shock. 

A selfie of a blonde boy in a hot dog costume

keeganita

T-Shirt Exchange

During our first semester, Carlos planned a t-shirt exchange, in which everyone was randomly assigned a threek and had to buy a shirt for them. This was when I was still beginning to get more involved in floor activities, so I didn’t participate in it, but seeing how much fun everyone had with it definitely pushed me to try and become closer friends with everyone on hall! As for the shirts themselves, well… let’s just say that they are top threeekret.

Anooshka’s Flag Changing Ceremony

One day in January, mysterious posters began to appear around M3…

A single sheet of printer paper, slightly wrinkled and taped to a white wall, advertises “Anooshka’s semesterly flag-changing ceremony.” The text is in a dramatic cursive font above a collage set against cartoonish flames: photos of a bespectacled man saying “i miss yulia,” Guy Fieri giving double thumbs-up, a Spongebob image with the speech bubble “Be there or be squar,” and two small photos of the same rectangular flag display—one labeled “FLAVORTOWN,” the other covered by black boxes with white question marks, linked by a green arrow. Event details read “January 29th 2025, 10 PM (sharp!), Fariborz Maseeh Hall, Room 3009.” A handwritten note along the bottom declares “Formal dress required!”

hmmmm

Anooshka had decided that she was going to start every semester by ceremonially changing the flag above her bed, and she had invited us all to join. The ceremony featured a dance performance by her and her roommate Emily, live music, a speech, and all our threeks in their fanciest garb.

Two women, Anooshka and Emily, dance joyfully on a bed beneath the same “FLAVORTOWN” banner, Anooshka wearing a pink cowboy hat and black suit and Emily wearing a navy dress, laughing with her arms raised. Friends nearby snap photos and cheer them on. The wall behind them is decorated with rows of Polaroid photos. The vibe is celebratory and chaotic.
anooshka and emily's dance
the flag is revealed! it's the "no weenies allowed" flag from spongebob (spot the other piece of spongebob decor on anooshka's wall)
and the crowd goes wild
A boy and a girl smile and laugh in what appears to be a Mexican restauraunt.
the night ended with a trip to beantown taqueria

Concerts

“you should write about the rex orange county concert!! a bunch of us went and it was a blast. we went to insomnia cookies after and stayed up till 5am talking.”

– Renuka

Additionally, many of our threeks are talented musicians and dancers, taking part in Mirchi⁠04 MIT's competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team! , MIT Symphonic Orchestra, Latin Dance Club, Ohms⁠05 MIT's South Asian fusion a capella group! , and others!⁠06 i heard one of us almost made it into syncopasians, but alas... M3ers typically roll out en masse whenever a floormate has a show, and it’s always really awesome to see everyone coming together to support a friend. 

Selfie of nine young adults sitting on teal seats in a brown, high-roofed auditorium.

threeks at MITSO!

and more!

“one of my favorite m3 memories is stargazing late on the night of halloween. at like 2am we all went out to killian with blankets and hoodies and just talked and hung out and frolicked and raced each other on the grass. at this point we didn’t know each other as well as we do now, but this was like a core bonding moment for us. most of my other favorite m3 memories involve staying up till sunrise just talking about important and completely unimportant things, watching dumb movies, doing blind karaoke, giving each other rides down the hall in Carlos’s laundry cart, and TRADER JOES STUDY BREAKS (lots of love for Raechel, Chyna, and Seth). “

– Janhavi

A group of teens on MIT's Killian Court at night, in front of the Great Dome. Some are sitting on a picnic blanket in the grass, others are standing up taking pictures of the sky. There is warm lighting coming from the building behind them
we all went outside and enjoyed the first snow of the school year together :)
"Lots of quiplash where the answer to almost every question was 'Keegan'" - Nicole
we put together a ping pong table for the lounge!
renuka got me valentine's day flowers :>
friendship bracelets!

“M3 is genuinely one of the best things that has happened to me!! since we didn’t really form like a normal friend group it’s really interesting to see how different we all are at time, but genuinely such a family at the end of the day and we all get along so well. words cannot describe the love i have for threeks. i went through a lot of emotional stress during the first few months of freshman year, dealing with bad imposter syndrome and the end of a 2 year long relationship. the only way i grew out of that challenge was with the help of threeks. i got so much love and support and the genuineness shines out of these people. i love our late night talks and daily crash outs and i’m so glad i am part of such an amazing friend group. my favorite people of all time tbh”

– Renuka

My friendship with the threeks was arguably one of my most unexpected ones, and, even though I’ll be moving to East Campus (which prefrosh should also check out– here’s a very EC-centric blog post I wrote and our section in the MIT Guide to Residences. Definitely watch the video :p) in the fall, I’m planning on maintaining it for the rest of my time at MIT. In fact, lots of the things that drew me to East Campus during those first few months of freshman year are the things I ended up loving about M3. An abundance of people with silly ideas and the will to commit to them; how welcoming and supportive everyone is; creativity that manifests itself not only in the artistic pursuits of many people on floor but also in the way everyone approaches life, constantly looking for opportunities to sidequest and ways to make every day fun. Despite being incredibly brilliant and talented, everyone on floor is very humble and always tries their best to lift others and their achievements up. I’m so grateful to have had the chance to connect with and learn from the threeks this year, and though I ended up finding community in East Campus, M3 will always have a special place in my heart as my first home at MIT. To any prefrosh reading this: advice from upperclassmen is generally extremely useful, but consider taking a second glance at some of the places they overlook and deciding for yourself what to make of them. You never know what you’ll find :) Threek out!

A stretched out image of a young man with brown hair and a slight smile. The image is captioned "BANG!!!" in white impact font with black borders

  1. Residential Exploration, better known as REX, is a multi-day experience for first year students to explore MIT dorms and find their future home on campus. REX occurs during Orientation Week, and all the dorms hold events showcasing their unique cultures!⁠ ↑
  2. FYRE, the First-Year Residence Exchange, is a system that allows you to request to swap from your temp dorm into another dorm you'd prefer living in at the end of REX. Also commonly used as a verb (to FYRE in or out of a dorm)⁠ ↑
  3. 6.1200: Math for Computer Science⁠ ↑
  4. MIT's competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team!⁠ ↑
  5. MIT's South Asian fusion a capella group!⁠ ↑
  6. i heard one of us almost made it into syncopasians, but alas...⁠ ↑