The State of Things by Snively '11
Deflated, that about sums it up.
BOOM! CPW is now over and dear sweet gummy bear in the sky was it exhausting. I don’t think I went to bed before 5 every morning. From BBQs to building things in East Campus to leading dorms tours to Meet the Bloggers to bouncy ball drop to the academic fair to the CPW festival to the random exploring of campus, I’m not sure my body can handle much more of this. Let me describe my last couple minutes for you.
[background] I’ve just woken up at 11 o’clock after going to bed at 6.
I drag myself up, into the bathroom, shower, dress, and stumble back into my room. I check my e-mails, surf the internet a little bit, and then tip over onto my bed and fall back to sleep. I’m not really laying on my bed, I’m kind of shoved into it, feet hanging off the edge, arm crammed against the wall, computer right next to me, CPW schedule right by my head. I finally just lost the ability to stay awake and died. The next thing I know I’m being woken up by my prefrosh, Chris Mills, and told that he’s leaving. I stumble out of bed, slightly delirious, and posed for a quick picture with him before he grabbed his bag and left.
CPW was amazing, thanks to everybody who came. I think it’s fairly safe to say that you have destroyed our campus. I look out today and the sky is full of clouds, it’s dreary, all of the students are still in bed, broken, and there is this sense of dread permeating everything, the dread of what is due next week. I met all sorts of exciting people, did all sorts of exciting things, and am completely bummed that I have mastering physics tonight, a test on Wednesday, and a ton of Toy Design homework due tomorrow (not to mention 18.03).
It was hard to take pictures of myself during CPW (go figure) so I stole some off of the liveblog to share.
Me with our new dean of admissions, Stu Schmill. Matt McGann was the photographer
Me with Danny ’12 at Meet the Bloggers
Expect some guest blogs very soon (we’ll be harassing prefrosh to get them written) and also some video blogs, courtesy of me, Paul, Bryan, and Milena. Over the course of the next few weeks you will begin to see a lot of what MIT is about, which is very very cool.
I hope you had a good time, I know I did, and I’ll see you in August for orientation!
“Matt McGann was the photographer”
Either there was a really big window behind the camera or the lens is really dirty.
The fact that you wore your “I’m blogging this” shirt cracks me up
.
Yay!
Danny Bankman.. you lucky duck >.Danny Bankman.. you lucky duck >.<
btw Snively, great shirt
During CPW I heard that one professor (I think it was Chemistry/5.111) refuses/can’t be bothered to give students specific reading assignments, and just makes them hunt for the relevant passages in their text books. Is this correct? How do you deal with profs. who can’t be bothered to do the basics? Is there any recourse? Is it usual for undergrads to be treated this?
Best of luck with Physics tonight.
“dear sweet gummy bear in the sky”???………someone’s been eating too many CPW desserts……not that I blame you, I’m emanating sugar at this point…..
elf. ^__^
I’m working on my post right now. With 301 pieces of media and tons of random memories running through my head, it’s hard to decide what to write about first!
@Till
That makes very little sense. Why should you be sorry for the kids temped in west campus? Also, hypocritical? Care to elaborate?
So, I’m disappointed I didn’t win anything in the raffle @ the BC BBQ – I did get a paddleball though. and cotton candyyyyy!
I think Till confused Oasis’s comments with yours.
And as for Oasis: well, I’m glad she’s happy with 5.111. But, given the work load at MIT, and given that the other professor gives specific reading assignments, and given the cost of attending the place, I would have expected just a little bit of consideration from the professor. I mean, perhaps I’m not as much of a masochist as Oasis — perhaps I’m a little more concerned with equity. I don’t want to be spoon-fed, but I don’t want to be put at an unfair advantage either. And reading assignments are not a lot to ask for.
Hahaha hilarious shirt Snively!
I can’t wait for the prefrosh blogs.
@ Moose – Just a little tidbit here. And I’ll talk as though I think MIT and Caltech are equal in goodness factor =D.
I chose MIT for the culture, Boston, and the size, roughly in that order. I love the culture as a whole, from weird number systems and other words (tool/punt), and I especially love the east side. I liked the hacking and the fire and the boffing, even the computery (though I’m not Course VI). As a Californian, I was a little tired of the constant heat/no weather and I wanted to get away. Boston is a wonderful city (with SEASONS!!!) with so much history and beauty and character. And I like the size of MIT. Caltech is about the size of my high school, which didn’t offer as much in activities and stuff, while MIT is the perfect size for me – plenty of opportunity but at the same time not a class of 9000 people like other schools.
But you may not find that these reasons suit you. Maybe you’d like to easily know every face in your class and have nice sunny days most of the time. So ask people why they chose one over the other and see which way you fall on these things, and that’s how you can decide in the end =D.
It’s a he. By the way
Why would you be put at an unfair disadvantage if professors don’t give you specific reading assignments? Really, it’s not that big of a deal. 14.01 doesn’t do it either, neither did 7.012 (7.012 gave out reading charts, but I felt they were quite different from what was covered in actual lecture).
It’s really easy to find the correlation if you just open the textbook and go to the table of contents. Even non-masochists can do that (and btw, I’m FARRR from being an academic masochist at MIT).
@ Anonymous (about 5.111) –
So I’m in that 5.111 class right now, and I don’t feel it’s that big of a problem (even though some people complain about Klibanoff). Actually, 5.111 is taught by two teachers for the two different halves of the course, and Klibanoff only happened to teach the second half. The first instructor gave very detailed reading assignments, while Klibanoff is more “hands-off” and lets you look for your info. I think this is also representative of all the courses that I’m taking. You’ll find professors who sketch out the textbook material very closely, and you’ll find professors that lets you find your own correlation. I don’t think this is necessarily bad, because this is in part learning to be a more independent student. You can’t expect everyone to feed you the information all the time. After all, you’re not in high school anymore, and I don’t agree that professors don’t write out the textbook correlations are professors “who can’t be bothered to do the basics.” You’re in college – and goodness, you’re at MIT! If you go to class and do your homework, you should perfectly be able to figure out what chapter corresponds to the lecture. And MIT isn’t high school – I truly can’t recall a class that I’ve taken where we just went through the textbook, word for word. So, I definitely think it’s fair for “undergrads to be treated this,” and I actually think it’s not such a bad idea.
To all of your who stayed on west campus for CPW and are reading this: I’m sorry. And I’d like to make a comment about Snively…how can you condone professors being “hands-off” about text book readings, and then talk smack about physics teachers who are far more “hands-on”? Seems to me like you’re way too hypocritical to be doing prefrosh any good.
I got home at 2 a.m. I hate Ohio Airport now. CPW= Amazing. That photo of you and me makes me laugh, because it is so clear that both of us are incredibly exhausted.
Yeah! Go Danny!
@ Oasis
I kinda laughed a bit when I read “she” because if one follows the link on “Oasis,” one clearly sees who you are.
Also, I’ve had teachers do the same thing – for Calc sometimes the teacher even puts the wrong page numbers [by mistake] and we have to figure it out. For physics last year, we didn’t even use the textbook, and in AP US history we were just told to follow along in the textbook, but were never told what pages. It wasn’t a big deal.
P.S. New House is pretty awesome. [cept bathroom floor was all wet on saturday]
Snively, you’re in Burton Conner??? I was put there, and I met JKim, but I didn’t see you there! *tear* I wish that I could have gotten the autographs of the bloggers that I did meet [I met Matt! =)] but both times, I seem to have been awed into “non-think-ness.” lol, ah well!
Hey, is it too late if I wanted to write a blog too? I have a lot of pictures…
@ moose:
One of the ways I learned the most about MIT was just by wandering into random dorms, sitting down at a lounge, and talking to students. So if you have time to do that, follow someone in and find a gathering of students taking a break/giving off the ‘I want to procrastinate’ vibe, and ask them about MIT. I’m sure they’ll have a lot to say, especially in context with Caltech.
@Snively
You repeatedly trashed a professor’s teaching methods, but yet condone what the chem teachers are doing. I think that’s hypocritical. You need to be careful about what you say and be more politically correct.
And I’m sorry for the kids that stayed on West campus because they probably heard a bunch of lies about East Campus from the close-minded people who inhabit stereotypical west side dorms, such as yours. This is evident by the amount of pre frosh (the ones I saw were predominantly Puerto-Rican) who came to the East Side and trash talked the dorms-obviously something they must have picked up on the west side. Thus, by saying such things, the west side is corrupting their minds, and making them biased, opinionated, and elitist, which is the last thing we want at MIT.
And if you delete this, you prove my point.
@ Roshan
Hey, were you staying at Burton 1?
I’ve got a somewhat-relevant-but-not-really question. I’m so upset that I couldn’t come to CPW- it sounded amazing! The only thing that makes it worse, if that’s possible: I arrived in Boston today for a campus visit. All of you lucky peoples are still here and some were just leaving, and it was *depressing* to hear you all talking about how much fun it was.
Which brings me to my question.
I’m taking a campus tour tomorrow and am going to be walking around the school- WooT- then back to Nevada on Tuesday afternoon. Will any current students be awake enough or have time to talk to me or enlighten me re: life @ MIT? I don’t know if I’m going here or Caltech, and it’s definitely agony. I NEED HELP. Do you think anybody’s going to be able to talk to me? muchas gracias- sorry for rambling.
@moose
Can you be a little more specific in what you’re looking for? Also, would you mind filling in your e-mail address when you post a comment?
sorry, but I have one more question. What do you think are the chances I’d be able to see inside a dorm? I don’t know what I am/am not supposed to do if I’m not here for CPW. arrgh. sorry again- I know this technically isn’t supposed to go here, but I didn’t know where else to post. X( *frustration*
@ Snively:
Sorry- just got your previous post, and now I feel really bad. this one has the email address.
I’m just trying to get a good feel for what typical life at the school is. I found that at Caltech, I learned the most from talking to people. However, by talking to people during random wanderings today, the most I learned was that everybody was tired from CPW. I don’t want to impose on anybody, cuz I know everybody must be really tired. This is also my only chance to learn anything about MIT, though, and I only really have one day. I just need insight. I’m having a REALLY hard time making a decision, and anything that can help would be appreciated. Thanks- moose
lawl… cleverly done
wait, why not just write Chris S.???
Haha Judy…I love how we have a time lag =p
Yeah, maybe I should stop posting as my CC sn…since I don’t really post on CC anymore =(
Um…time lag again.
Cuz Oasis’s so much more cooler than chrissu =)
Oh and um Snively…feel free to delete all this. Sorry to spam your blog.
I never had CC. To me, it’s like an Asian Drama (and I mean like those bad Asian dramas).
Oasis = tropical = cool
um yeah, Snively, you can delete my random comments too
“For the love of god, people have told you that it’s a different blogger and all you’d have to do is click the hyperlink to realize that it isn’t me.”
If it really was you pretending to be someone else, I’m sure you would’ve put the link to someone else. Just kidding
Ouch, I didn’t know such immaturity existed in MIT, with the little bias against different parts of campus. Tsk, tsk, you should be ashamed of yourself, Till. Saying “the west side is corrupting their minds” is not a good way to be taking seriously.
But calm down, Snively. He just got a bit emotional after defending a professor
Who knew MIT had a gansta flare to it sometimes
East Campus had its own fair share of brainwashing.
“Baker?”
“Boring.”
“McCormick?”
“Girl Baker.”
“MacGregor?”
“Antisocial Baker.”
“Next?”
“Far Baker.”
“New?”
“Cultural Baker.”
“Burton-Connor?”
“Baker + East Campus. But not as cool.”
“I’ll just live in EC.”
“5 WEST FOR THE WIN!”
Thanks to everyone who has replied to my posts for your insight, and thanks so much for taking the time to show me around campus today, Snively =D I didn’t think that it was possible for MIT to get any cooler in my mind, but it did- and I am leaning towards MIT now. Woot!
PS: @ Snively- hope your playtesting thing was successful =)
Whoa. Okay, quick story:
I was hosted in a quad in Baker, probably the most “west” of the west campus dorms. All the guys in my quad were really social, in frats that hold really sick frat parties (like Aftershock: >500 people on two adjacent roofdecks), basically the type of person you’d think to totally lambast EC for its “weirdness”.
So I was taking a nap in my host’s room after sleeping for only two hours the night before, when a really social, talkative girl came into the room and started talking about a guy she just started dating. From East Campus.
One of the guys in my host room initially said something like, “Oh, East Campus people are weird”, but there were two other guys around who definitely said that East Campus guys might be a little strange, but they were still totally okay and friendly and cool people overall.
And seriously, all the prefrosh I talked to (ranging from really nerdy to really athletic) who went to a certain citric event thought that the people from East Campus were pretty cool. So yeah. That’s that.
Who else is reminded of the Cold War Germany split with all this East vs. West talk?
lol, EC is weird to me, but just because I’m not a cat person, a fantasy/sci-fi person, or a “dark lord of Krotus” person. No one from WC ever disses it around me, I’ve just heard factual stuff about it from prefrosh who stayed there, people who live there, and the following blog:
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/residential_life_housing_options/beyond_the_iron_curi_mean_mass.shtml
@S
I’m pretty sure that Next house is the most west of the west campus dorms.
I was hosted on east campus and people on west campus were always telling me “east campus is so weird!” “I’m sorry you had to stay there” and stuff like that. It kinda made me feel like I was doing something wrong…but east campus was really cool…I liked it a lot.
…I’ve not bothered to waste my time with this miniature flame war until now, but what is up with all this spam? Engaging bloggers and students in thoughtful discussions is something I enjoy seeing. But completely unjustified assaults on someone’s personal integrity, that have nothing to do with the actual issue at hand, is quite another matter.
Also, since it’s clearly such a hot issue, I’ll make sure to talk about my thoughts about what East Campus and West Campus mean at MIT. I’m sure others will be doing so as well… If I can say one thing now, though it’s that you should always keep in mind that stereotypes will only ever be just that: stereotypes.
Ok, I didn’t want to get angry, I really didn’t, and excuse me everybody else, this may be a little harsh.
@Till
I left the professor’s name out of the post for a reason. I’m exceedingly careful about what I say, maybe you should try excersizing some common sense and some decency, eh? I’ve taken the liberty of removing the professor’s name from your comment, but if you’d like to prove a point then I’m sure he’d really appreciate you publishing his name again.
Next, why the hell do you still think that Oasis and I are the same person? For the love of god, people have told you that it’s a different blogger and all you’d have to do is click the hyperlink to realize that it isn’t me. You go to MIT, right? You should know how to use a mouse button and recognize that blue, underlined word.
“This is evident by the amount of pre frosh (the ones I saw were predominantly Puerto-Rican) who came to the East Side and trash talked the dorms-obviously something they must have picked up on the west side.”
Yes, you’re right, west campus obviously has a vendetta against east campus. In fact we have meetings in the porter room where we discuss the best way to discredit EC and exert our supremacy. You seem to have something against west campus, but I can assure you that the feelings are one sided. Maybe some west campus students are afraid of EC, but by no means are the majority of students here elitist and corrupt. For the love of God, stop thinking that the world is out to get EC, stop thinking that I’m evil, and STOP THINKING THAT OASIS AND I ARE THE SAME PERSON!
Oh, I’ll be deleting the rest of your comments, because this is my blog, I don’t like you, and you have nothing productive to add to conversation. Go ahead, complain, I’m a jerk, but I really don’t care.
I’m sure Snively wouldn’t write anything that is very hurtful or harmful for us Pre-frosh. Maybe there was just a bit of misunderstanding. It’s nothing to get upset about, right?
On a lighter note, I can’t pre-orientation ^__^ CPW seriously swung me towards MIT… for sure !
Yeah, seriously. Is this clear enough for you?
WOAH CHRIS!!! I had no idea you were Oasis … hehe
I’m kind of slow on these things ^__^;;;
Now you don’t even have to click the hyperlink!