The MIT admissions blogs are the
centerpiece of our website where we allow
MIT students to write about their lives
and tell their own stories. We don't
exercise any prior restraint, we don't
give them any talking points, we don't
censor the blogs; its just an opportunity
for them to write about what their doing.
Write about the classes they're taking,
write about their clubs and extra-
curricular activities, write about their
research; write about anything that is
interesting to them.
MIT was my dream school as it was for most
of us who are here. It was that reach
school that many, many people told me
wasn't really an option but I still had
those dreams and that dream of going to
this great school that is MIT. I visited
my sophomore year with my friend from
high school and we looked around MIT and
my tour guide had bright green hair and I
knew that this was the place I needed to
be, and that's when I started reading the
MIT Admissions Blogs. I was one of those
pre-frosh who would refresh the page just
to see and check it everyday to see what
the new blogs where and I was so excited
to see them happen.
I remember when I first read the blogs
it was such a radically different thing
from what every other college was doing.
I think a lot of universities sort of take
the highlight-reel approach to promoting
their school and for me, what I was
interested in was seeing not the high-
lights, but also the behind the scenes,
and at the time it was a pretty radical
thing to put unfiltered student blogs on
the front page of your admissions site.
And it is risky because it is uncensored
and they can't control what we write and
I think that is part of the beauty of the
blogs in that its not some PR agent
writing what they think MIT is, it's
actual MIT students telling you what our
lives are like.
And one of the things that I think is
really special about this place and one of
the things that I think the blogs
communicate is MIT is a place that gives
its students a lot of trust and a lot of
freedom and that is one of the things that
really makes it special.
I had sort of a good sense in my head of
the frequently asked questions, you know,
the things people always assume are true
about MIT that are actually not true.
We actually had someone ask last week,
"Are people at MIT interested in only
science and engineering or are there also
people interested in other things?"
And the answer to that is: yes. Both of
those things are true. People are very
interested in science and engineering
almost everyone is but almost everyone
also has something else that they do and
I got to talk about these other aspects of
my life that weren't just, "I woke up.
I had 27 Psets. I went to class it was
hard." And so I think it really provides
this insight and allows applicants to see
what their lives would look like if they
came. Or at least when I was a pre-frosh
I would think of MIT as big, scary place
that would be a fantastic culture and
place to be a part of but it was so far
out of reach. But then you read these
stories of people who go there and who are
normal and maybe obsessed with cats like
me; just have these normal lives who have
these normal struggles and it really
humanizes the whole MIT idea.
It's always awesome to get the occasional
email from someone living really far away
who you would normally never get to
contact and its great just having them ask
questions about MIT and getting to answer
them and I think that's really the power
of the blogs where we can reach out to
anyone.
But when you get down to it MIT students
often could have gone to any number of
schools and they chose to come here
because they love this place. And that's
why they do Campus Preview Weekend. We
couldn't pay our students enough to drop
everything they're doing and throw a
thousand events of the course of a three
day weekend. We couldn't pay our students
enough to write everything that they're
writing on the blogs with the honesty and
compelling, genuine voice that they're
sharing it with.
And I think that there's really a place
for alums to come back and to now address
the audience of students and not even
just the pre-frosh. As an alum, its in a
sense and obligation of mine to give back
to MIT. There are students who would like
to see what a career path in the bio-
logical sciences looks like and I'm able
to provide that.
I'm really excited to see where the blogs
go and how they evolve with new social
media. I definitely plan on blogging until
I graduate. If I stay here after I
graduate, continuing then if possible.
And I think they will continue to evolve.
I think it will be a great next ten years.