Sunday, December 16, 2007

Comments, Collected

I'm taking a quick break from my studying for finals (in particular, 8.012, commonly called Physics for Masochists, and now I know why) to pull together some of the comments I made on the MITblogs today.

To those not admitted:

This is hard to hear or accept right now, but a rejection from MIT is not a judgment on your value as a person or as a scholar. It simply means that, in the admissions officers' eyes, you would be happier attending college somewhere besides MIT.

Is that cruel? Maybe. But in the long run, I think you'll find that they are right. Don't give up your dreams simply because of this. Getting into college is important - but why should you let it define your entire life, all your dreams, from this point forward? Take the time to mourn, to scream, to come to grips with the decision. And then, get back on your feet and do what you all do best -

Fight for your dreams. :)


To those deferred:

[answering an earlier question:] No tubes for regular folks, unfortunately - at least, that's what happened to me last year. It'd be awesome if they changed that, though. (How about it, Matt? :D)

By the way, I know a ton of people who were deferred and then accepted, so don't give up! I even know several who were waitlisted and admitted, and they are among the strongest students I know. (Like Ken, who actually lives on the floor above me in Simmons. ^_^) If they hadn't told me they were waitlisted, I never would have guessed. I think that just proves that a deferral from MIT truly is not a statement on your academic abilities.

Finally, for those of you reading this who are waiting to apply regular, that's what I did and I'm doing just fine. Although I'm still stressing over finals. :D


For those admitted:

You know what you guys get to do now?

CELEBRATE! Last March, the night I was accepted, my family and a few close friends went out for dinner. Nothing too expensive or fancy, but it remains one of my most cherished memories.

After tonight, though, it's back to studying hard for finals and second semester. No senioritis for MIT students! :P


Melissa, Daniel, Snively, Milena, and JKim also had some very helpful and insightful comments, which I definitely encourage you to seek out. :) If any of my other blogger friends posted and I forgot to mention you, my apologies. As you can guess, my brain isn't functioning at its full capacity right now.

One of the most surreal aspects about knowing roughly one-third of the MIT Class of 2012 has been admitted is realizing that I'm so close to not being a freshman anymore. Soon, there'll be a thousand other people who know less than I do running around campus!

And, weirdly enough, some of them will even be blogging about it. o_0

But now, since it's well past two o'clock and practically everyone else in the Athena cluster and reading room has disappeared, and also because I can almost literally feel my brain shutting down...I am going to bed.

30.5 hours until my 8.012 final. Oh boy.

7 comments:

FreeLance said...

good luck on your finals !

wow, physics for masochists, I don't think I'll ever be able to survive that ! (except if there is a lot of Newton's laws involved, then maybe there's a possibility...I like trajectories...a lot...)

Kate said...

I feel so left out as a "Regular" regular applicant.

Anyway, good luck with finals!

Anonymous said...

Haha, Kate, I felt left out later on when the regulars got their decisions (both for MIT and for my school). I knew where I was going December 9th. Things happen much faster for other people - you get a decision and two months later you agree to go there! Not so for early people.

So don't feel left out ^.^

De Petagma Saru said...

Hey Paul, thanks for the post! Good luck with finals! lol The part about deferral was a good read. It was very reassuring. Hopefully you'll see me there [maybe blogging] next year!

Unknown said...

good luck on your finals!
I'm definitely procrastinating from studying right now... :s

Shanahan said...

I think your comment was officially longer than my post. :)

Between your advice, advice from a few of my college friends, and basic common sense, I've definitely started to realize that the whole high school write-an-essay-the -hour-before thing isn't going to fly so well in college. I think Anthony (maybe, I don't remember at this point) put it the best (and I'm totally paraphrasing here)- "You know how you could spit out a math assignment in the 15 minutes before class or write an essay the day it was due in high school? Yeah. Everyone's like that here. You can't do that anymore."

If anything, after I got into U of M I starting getting a work ethic. Sort of a reverse senioritis thing- I did little work up until I got into college, and then promptly learned how to do homework at home. The whole getting into MIT thing just made me temporarily addicted to facebook, more so than usual. As for learning the material and such, the way I look at Calc homework has changed dramatically- it's no longer just to get an answer so I can say that I did it, but now I'm trying to figure out why I took the steps I did, because if I don't know why I'm not going to feel like I really know what I'm doing. (Also, we only have one nun left at our school, too, but she's worth at least 25)

I really appreciate your comments on ND, though- a few of my best friends will be heading there next year, and I know I'll be having thoughts just like yours about a year from now. Especially as a 4th generation Domer, it's going to be pretty hard not to wonder what things would have been like.

But I agree with you- it was pretty much anywhere but Notre Dame this fall. It's just not the school academically for someone that would get excited about MIT, and I'm sure that you realize that, too. In the long run, MIT degree is something to be more proud of than one from ND.

And now this is a really long comment as well. I really appreciate the advice- you're awesome, and I hope finals didn't eat your soul.

Milena said...

Dude! The link to my blog actually links to Omar's. Although, we do spend most of our time together, and some might argue we're joined at the hip. Nevermind. We're almost the same person.