what I’m doing this IAP by Kai V. '25

MIT has an Independent Activities Period, which we call IAP, during the month of January: some people treat it as a four-week extension on winter break, some people take classes or work on campus, lots of people are holding cool events and workshops.

IAP is my favorite time of year. It’s cold and dark and quiet outside; the river has frozen over; some mornings, any inch of skin exposed to the air goes numb in minutes. But this means the sunlight feels so bright (when it’s there) and hotpot with friends is justified (people are less busy than during the semester, and colder and hungrier) and a whole host of possibilities are available that get pushed to the back of my mind during the school year.

All my previous IAPs have been really fun. In freshman year, I did MITOC winter school⁠01 The MIT Outing Club runs a winter school every IAP where people go on lots of hiking, climbing, skiing, etc type outings around New England. , worked on my plasma physics UROP, and spent twenty hours a week on SEVT⁠02 Solar Electric Vehicle Team . In sophomore year, I helped with the Pi Day video animation and grinded for Battlecode with two of my friends. In junior year, I worked on a nuclear security UROP from 9-5 every day (though I was usually there more like 8-6), and when I got off work I’d walk to the climbing gym or the pool, and then cook dinner with friends.

This IAP I’m doing some similarly fun things! The things I’m doing that are new to IAP:

• I’m taking 8.08: Statistical Physics II. It’s a 12-unit class (the same as a normal class over the full semester) squished into four weeks, so it’s quite intense; we have two hours of lecture and one hour of recitation every weekday, and a lengthy pset each week. I’m keeping up with the material fine but I do feel like I need to figure out how to synthesize my knowledge, since the class goes at a rapid pace that doesn’t allow for much reflection. Though the focus is statistical physics, the class delves into more general stochastic methods applied to biology or economics. Actually, much of the formalism used is the same as in quantum mechanics, even though we’re describing totally classical systems. So I’m excited to see where this leads and how to apply it to broader situations than a colloid floating in a fluid (which is what we’ve been talking about for two weeks).
• I’m part of the ensemble for MTG’s⁠03 MIT Musical Theater Guild, which puts on a musical every semester production of Cabaret; putting on a show within 4 weeks is pretty hard, the rehearsals are beginning to amp up, and next week we’ll be starting to practice full runs of the show. I’ve wanted to audition for a musical since I got to MIT and saw MTG’s Firebringer in freshman fall. I have no performing experience, but musicals hit me in a way that no other medium has accomplished, and I knew I wanted to be part of one—I just kept psyching myself out of auditioning, year after year, because I knew I would suck compared to the other candidates (and I did!). I think one of my most fulfilling experiences in all my time at MIT was acting as sound engineer for Into the Woods in freshman year. I was crying every night we put on that show, which is crazy, because you just know every beat of the show after a few runs through. Musicals are such a blatant expression of emotion—Kano put it so well in her blog, that each song can act as (among other things) a window into how the characters are really feeling, with none of the requirements of realism or social conformity that straight acting is under. It’s a really special medium. I was looking forward most to singing and dancing, but I’ve also had to act a bit (in a minor background role) and that has been surprisingly really fun.

Some more things I usually do anyway:

• I’ve been bouldering—during the semester I go around twice a week; I’m trying to go more often now that I (in theory) have more time, or at least fewer deadlines. It can be a bit frustrating since I’m at this unfortunate stage where all the problems of a certain grade feel trivial to me, and all the problems of the next grade up feel super hard. But this means I am forced to push myself every time I go, and to appreciate smaller milestones—e.g. making it to a part of a problem that I couldn’t reach last time, even if sending the whole thing still seems impossible.
• Reading! I so don’t read enough, especially for someone who takes writing semi-seriously. I’ve been trying to read a bit every day before bed, with varying success. Currently I’m reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes and really enjoying it.
• Retaking figure skating. I did fine in this class in the fall! But you’re allowed to retake a PE class and I’d definitely benefit from additional structured practice, so I just registered for it again and am going twice a week during IAP. One of my goals for 2025 is to do a single toe loop (lol the most basic jump yes). Will it happen this January?? I WILL make a whole post about it if it happens. I’ll record myself doing it. You’ll see.
• Food… IAP is a weird time for meals if you’re not on a dining hall plan, but fortunately I live at pika and we have a mealplan that anyone can join! I have one cook shift a week and get to eat yummy food every night for free as a result :)