Haiku, Tanka, and a Promised Response

I promised to blog about why P's are so awesome the first semester, so here it goes. During our first semester at MIT, all freshmen are on a special grading system known as "Pass/No Record." Basically, if you would have earned an A, B, or C for any of your classes, the actual grade is permanently hidden and converted to a "P" (for Pass). Only the P shows up on your official transcript, although you are told your hidden grades eventually.

On the other hand, if you get a D or F in any class, that class permanently disappears from your transcript, leaving "No Record" it was there.

As a word of caution, some med schools (most notably Johns Hopkins, though I've been told there are two others) have been known to ask for your hidden grades. MIT can furnish an official record of some or all of your hidden grades, but they are very reluctant to do so. Moreover, I'm not sure if Johns Hopkins and other schools ask for grades only in relevant classes (like biology) or in all your first-semester classes...so if med school is in your future, I would encourage you to look into the matter more fully. I'll hunt around as well and keep you updated if I find any reliable info.

Anyway, the upshot of Pass/No Record is that you, for all intents and purposes, have no GPA whatsoever during your first term. This is a little awkward on resumes or when your friends ask you how you're doing...but, trust me, in the long run it's worth it. ;)

Come spring term, however, you're on an A/B/C/No Record system. This is basically just like normal grades, and you do start to accumulate a GPA, except that D's and F's still disappear.

There are a few reasons for why Pass/No Record - sometimes mistakenly called Pass/Fail, as in the popular sentiment "All Hail Pass/Fail!" - exists. In my opinion, the most important one is that it eases the transition from high school to MIT. I actually have a lot to say about the "transition," but I'll hold off on that for now, since it's actually a major theme in my next entry for the official MIT blogs. (The enry's about halfway done at this point. Yeah, yeah, I know...)

Other benefits of Pass/No Record? It drastically reduces the stress you might otherwise feel during your first semester, when (for many students) this is the first time they've truly been challenged by academics. Additionally, it gives you more freedom to explore MIT - academically, socially, and extra-curricularly. (If that's even a word.) It gives you a chance to figure out what kind of studying and p-seting, and how much, works best for you. It is not, however, an opportunity to slack off completely. So don't get any ideas. =P

For my own part, I tried not to abuse P/NR too much this past semester, but it still ended up coming in handy. ;)

Anyway, that's the "promised response" part of this post. The haiku and tanka part refers to an interesting conversation I've been having (via Facebook) with my friend Heidi - a freshman at that little school up the road from MIT - about our break. Thus far, it goes something like this:

Heidi

a haiku:

Talk is cheap, but pokes
are cheaper. Merry Christmas -
how's all with you, Paul?

***

Me

Seventeen is just
Enough syllables to say
That I am well. You?

***

Heidi

well myself, as well.
but you're not s'posed to cheat through
a haiku - details?

***

Me

I begin to like
This strange method of talking,
Though your words confuse.
I think we may need tanka
To fully communicate.

***

Heidi

I mean that I want
to hear how your break's going.
In tanka, of course.
And I've a suggestion, too:
what are your IAP plans?

***

Me

Of course, I see now.
Though break has treated me kindly,
Here in the Midwest,
Oft my heart longs for Boston
Like a lover his belov'd.

Beginning again,
I anticipate IAP
With spring eagerness:
Lab and the Hunt of Myst'ry,
Charm School and fraternity.

***

Ah, the things we Boston kids get into. ;)

OMG OMG OMG

So I know I said wasn't going to check 8.012 (Physics), but I couldn't help but wonder if my 18.02 (Multi-Variable Calculus) grade was available yet. And so against all my better judgment, I peeked. This is what I found:

Grades of Paul Baranay
Course 18.02 (Fall 2007)
Exam and Homework Grades

Final Exam (Final)	248/250
Letter Grade (Letter)	A-

Holy. Crap.

I aced a class at MIT.

I aced a class. At MIT.

Wow.

...Even though I still have one final left to take, even though I still have no clue how I did on the 8.012 Final of Doom or the 7.012 Final of Moderate Suckiness, I am so unbelievably happy right now.

Lead us not into Caltech, and deliver us from finals

I have survived three of my four finals.

Of course, I don't know how I actually did in any of them. But I feel confident. Even in 8.012. The irony of currently not knowing how I did in 8.012 is that, as a matter of fact, my test was graded last night and the score is sitting online, waiting for me. Just two or three clicks, that's all I'd need, but I've decided to resist the temptation until after I finish my last final (5.112, aka chemistry, tomorrow morning). Sounds sort of like college decisions, doesn't it?

Anyway. Soon to come, perhaps as early as this weekend: thoughts on first semester, including what classes I actually took; reflections on what it takes to succeed in one's classes (especially something like 8.012); hopes and dreams for IAP and spring semester; and probably even more occluded references to my UROP , which I will be continuing during IAP. (Okay, just kidding on that last one.) There may even be a long, somewhat angst-ridden reflection on what it might have been like to go to Notre Dame instead of MIT - or you can read about that on Shannon '12's blog instead, where one of my comments was longer than her entire entry. (And yes, Shannon, you are now officially a '12. You better come. =D)

On one final note, I'm really proud for coming up with that subject title. At some point, maybe I'll even try to adapt the entire Our Father into an MIT theme. Oh, the possibilities...

So much to blog, so little time

There's a reason I haven't blogged lately. It has three letters, begins with M, and ends with T. The middle letter is imaginary.

It's not that I don't want to blog, or even that I don't have things to blog about. Cases in point: my classes, p-sets, tests, why I love Pass/No Record (but am trying not to overuse it), UA Senate, my UROP (!), reflections on being in a fraternity, thoughts on East Campus/West Campus, general advice on college applications...and so on.

So much to blog, so little time, right? Actually, as it happens, I probably won't be able to blog this week at all, because I have an ungodly amount of work to do over the next three days (3 p-sets, one assignment for F/ASIP, and the mother of all 8.012 tests). I've already started on most of that stuff, but even so, I have a sinking feeling that the next few days are not going to be pretty.

But enough of pessimistic proclamations. My point is, I have lots of things I could blog about. At the moment, I'm planning on having my next entry be about general advice for applying to colleges (MIT and elsewhere). But I also wanted to open this up to the people who still bother to read this, especially since a fair number of you are prospectives. What are you most interested in hearing about? Whether it's one of the topics I've already mentioned or something totally different, let me know!

Good News / Bad News

Bad news: 18.02 test this Thursday.

Good news: As long as I don't mix up flux and divergence, or something similarly idiotic, I feel reasonably confident I'll do well.

Bad news: 5.112 and 8.012 p-sets due this Friday.

Good news: I've already finished my 18.02 p-set - which is due Thursday, the same day as our test. Cruel, huh?

Bad news: 8.012 test next Thursday.

Good news: It's next Thursday.

Bad news: Most of the V masks are gone from the Infinite.

Good news: Hacks still make me happy.

Super-amazing-awesome news: I STARTED MY UROP TODAY!

More to come later, when it's not three in the morning and I have time to write more than a five-minute entry. ;)

Welcome to the Institvte

So, I'm back. I'm sure you were all anxiously waiting for me. ;)

Picking up right where I left off, classes here are simply amazing. Currently, I'm going to 5.112, 7.012, 8.012, 18.02, and 21H.001; and I love all of them. All of the lecturers are amazing, and I actually understand almost everything that's going on! Amusingly enough, the hardest part has been simply finding the right classrooms. Getting to 10-250 - a gigantic lecture hall where most of the freshman classes are held - is no problem, but my physics classroom...well, let's just say it's hard to find 4-120 when you're really supposed to be in 6-120.

As an aside, those of you keeping track at home may have noticed that I listed five classes up there. Yes, I know that's not really allowed for freshmen. Yes, I'm doing it anyway and I love it.

Okay, I lied - taking five classes is fine, but it means that I'm very busy running around to different places, so I don't really love it. I do love all five classes though, and it's really sort of sad that I have to drop one, which I will definitely do by this Tuesday. The reason I'm (temporarily) taking five classes is because of that scheduling conflict I mentioned earlier. Since one of the ways for me to resolve that conflict is to drop 21H.001 and take 7.012 instead (read: ditch my wonderful humanities class for an equally-wonderful introductory biology class), I've been going to biology lectures and recitations just in case I do just that.

Plus I get to see Eric Lander lecture, which is pretty freaking amazing, considering he, you know, helped sequence the human genome. And his co-lecturer, Robert Weinberg, isn't exactly a slouch either - it's not everybody who discovers the first human oncogene. Incidentally, I know practically everyone knows and loves Lander, but I've always been deeply interested in cancer research, so I really hope everyone taking 7.012 learns to appreciate Weinberg as well. I guess time will tell.

But enough about biology. Physics is also going great - I love Professor Burgasser, mainly because he makes his hour-and-a-half lecture just flash by. I've already starting writing down some of his quotes, such as, "The position vector is a bad vector...well, it's not bad. It's misunderstood." Also, his idea of "visualizing vectors" involves taking big rolls of measuring tape and sticking bright yellow felt arrows on one end. It's actually pretty hilarious, especially when you have three of them extended around the classroom at once.

Or maybe you had to be there.

So I could say more, but I'm sort of boring myself now. I'm sure I'll talk about my other classes later on.

So apart from lectures and recitations, the other big thing going on right now is Rush. Basically, Rush is MIT on steroids. In the past week or so, I have been go-carting at 40 mph, kayaking in Vermont, paintballing in the woods, and eating very well. And as awesome as all that is, it's the fraternity brothers themselves who really make Rush so enjoyable. The key difference is that all the brothers are still MIT students first and foremost. And that means a lot of things, but for me, one of the most important implications is they really understand that MIT is a lot of work, because they've been there.

Anyway, tomorrow tonight is "bid day" for the fraternities, and...well, I don't want to say too much, but I'm optimistic. :D

A few other things have been going on, but basically there's my first two days of MIT in a nutshell - hope you enjoy. Now I'm off to catch a few hours of well-earned sleep. ;)

The shortest post about classes ever

As you may or may not have noticed, I sort of dropped out of the blogosphere for the past few days. This was due to a combination of factors, not the least of which was the start of classes.

Which are actually pretty exciting. And I did plan on telling you about them, but as I said before things around here move very fast, including me, and I've gotta run.