Maitrayee Dhaka | January 19, 2009
"Why Did The English Literature Lover Want To Apply To MIT?"
So. (This is how I begin most of my posts. If you think it's lame, well, stop reading.)
Till about year and a half ago (around late September-ish 2007), I had no intention of applying to MIT. The list of their achievements just freaked me out.
They had people who invented cars by the time they were freshmen, astronauts as alumni, and about a million other people I would read about in the news. It scared me. I thought it was nerd school. I thought people there did nothing else but study, study and go to some secret lab to invent something.
Then, I came upon the MIT Blogs. The first post, I think, I read was Ben's. Then Matt's. Then Daniel's. Then Laura's. And then everyone else's. Soon, I was pretty much checking twice a day for new posts, reading all the archives, doing OCW Calc when school math pissed me off (This is when I still didn't like math). By the time I came back in Dec 07 from Summer School in Melbourne, my previously math-hating self had begun to think it was cool. But I still wasn't the "2390 SAT, 2400 SAT Subject Tests, 12 AP, Ranked First all my life" applicant. I still am not.
Yeah, I was lucky enough to take APs, but nearly no one understood why I took them. It wasn't to prove I was cool, or because I was deranged, but because the way those classes were taught were simply awesome, very different to anything that I had ever been exposed to. And people didn't understand later, even after my results were out. All they saw were the grades. Who cares that you puked in the middle of the Computer AB AP exam when you ended up getting a one? Suddenly I had people telling me "Um...it's okay, you know. You'll still get in somewhere. Not MIT maybe. But somewhere."
But how could I not apply? Maybe I won't get in. But it's my dream school. I had to apply.
Reading the blogs made me...fall in...love(?) with MIT. It was like I was there. The people who wrote it, and the people described in the post, the place itself, was something I realized I'd like to be around for more than just four years.
At a point in time, my day comprised of coming back from school, looking out for a new post, scanning comments on a Snively post for an upcoming controversy, and repeating this every three hours.
A lot of people know that I love English as well. I love poetry. Then they hear "MIT" and they're confused.
" Isn't it nerd school? Just math and physics?"
I thought that too, until I started reading the blogs. Doubts were slowly done away with. Now, I'm still a literature lover. But I also love math and science. And I applied to MIT.
Another reason I'll always love MIT, irrespective of whether I make it to the Class of 2013 is a bit personal but I think I can share it now. Junior year was a tough one for me, academically, and more, personally. I wasn't in the best shape. There was a point where I seriously considered shifting over to the Humanities. I didn't know anymore why I liked Science. School made it worse. Then APs came. And then the MIT blogs came. I read about people who got excited about the same things as I used to. I don't know how to put it, but in a way, getting to know these awesome new people made me go back and remember why I really wanted to do science. And I began to love it all over again, more than I ever had before.
As I said, I may not make it to the Class of 2013. But it's been an awesome two years. It's helped me overcome my own problems, and it's introduced me to some phenomenal people. I've met the kind I hate, the ones I immediately connected with, ones I awe, ones I respect tremendously, and ones that scare me because they're so similar to me. I also won't hate MIT if they reject me. I love it too much. I may not end up visiting the blogs every hour like I usually do, but I probably will end up checking out whether Snively still creates controversy, or what Matt has to say, or what new food pictures Yan has put up.
At the end of the two years, all I have is gratitude. Seriously.
Oh and Snively, if you're reading this, I agree with Ahana. You do resemble Sheldon Cooper.
Have a great day.
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The author has filed this entry in the, "Miscellaneous", "The Application" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
Hello Maitrayee! I also love literature - I love books; but I also love math and physics.
I feel what you are saying and I am with you every step of the way...
One cannot be too sure of getting into MIT but I will continue visiting the blogs, and for the chance to even apply in the first place we shall remain grateful...It is everyone's dream school.
Posted by: Oci from Cambridge, UK on February 11, 2009 10:02 AM
Hi Maitrayee, I happen to check MIT's site every 3 hours or so too. Well, these blogs have made me feel like I'm not alone. (They have changed my mind too--- I do not feel like I sent my application through the toilet to the great ocean of applicants where I am just a small drop). Good luck!
Posted by: Samy, Guatemala on February 11, 2009 12:02 PM
@ Maitrayee..
Hey me 2 4rm Mumbai...where do u live..
Who knows who will be in class of '13..??..??..??..Do u have ne idea..??
Posted by: Mohit on February 11, 2009 01:02 PM
you're not alone, i have a great interest in literature and unknowingly am very good with it... still dunno why?
Posted by: sepideh on February 11, 2009 02:02 PM
well i know how it feels like maitrayee ...felling in love with MIT ...checking blogs twice {or a lot many more times} a day .well i hope you make it to the class of '13
i'm applying next year but just happened to come across this site from paul'11's blog .
Posted by: navdeep on February 11, 2009 11:02 PM
hey i dint noticed it first time ...
don't mind
but with a little bit addition and removal of some alphabets your name sounds something like "trigono maitree "
cool !!!
since u love mathematics {even if school math pisses you off }
no offense ...
Posted by: navdeep on February 11, 2009 11:02 PM
Hi Maitrayee!!
It's great to find other poetry-and-physics/math lovers out there ^__^. I'm going to be a physics major, but it's gotten to the point that a lot of my high school teachers are confused about why I'm NOT a creative writing major.... Hehe, yes, I love the looks on people's faces when I say I want to be a physicist poet....but the thing is, being both is completely possible (and completely awesome!!! ^__^). I hope to see you here soon ^__^.
Best of luck,
Rutu ^__^
PS: I love your name!
Posted by: Rutu '12 on February 12, 2009 01:02 AM
Hey, just a caveat -- if you've had doubts in the past about whether or not you are REALLY into science, do NOT go to MIT. I was on the fence between science and humanities, and I got into a bunch of schools where I could have pursued either, but I ended up picking MIT. Then, of course, I changed my mind about wanting to be an engineer. And regardless of what they try to tell you, and regardless of how amazingly the bloggers can write, MIT does NOT have a good humanities department. In fact, from my experience and those of most of my friends, humanities at MIT suck. A lot.
I'm honestly just telling you this because it's led me through several years of heartache, and I'm now in the middle of the transfer process, trying to gain readmission to schools that let me in a few years ago and I stupidly turned down. Be sure you are ready for MIT. It is a place for scientists at heart, not writers or musicians who happen to enjoy science in their spare time. Some scientists happen to be good at literature and music and the arts; that's only natural. But if you decide you want to study liberal arts, you will feel very alone, and you will have a hard time doing it, and people will give you strange looks and ask "what are you going to do with an ENGLISH major?" (actually, there is only Writing, not English, as a major) and you will not get NEARLY the same experience you would have gotten at a school with a better-rounded curriculum. Don't make the same mistake I made.
On the other hand, if you think this is what you really want, go for it. I was seduced by the blogs and admissions counselors' openness, and by my awesome CPW -- but CPW is not representative of what it's really like to be at MIT during hellish weeks of nothing but work, work, work. There are a lot of amazing things about MIT, obviously, or this parody site wouldn't exist -- and to the makers, VERY well done. I remember when I was excited enough about this school to have participated in such a project. Oh, how I miss those days... Reality can be cruel.
Posted by: Ex-MIT Student on February 12, 2009 01:02 AM
@Ex-MIT Student
I really really appreciate your suggestion and concern. Maybe I shouldn't have just titled it as the Literature lover. Fact is, I love English. But I love Science way way way more than you can imagine. I did have a doubt about taking Science in the first month of Junior year, but, trust me, I haven't since. The thing is, I hadn't been exposed to 'real' science till then and I was scared.
I love literature, but not so much that I'd do a degree in it. I'd never be able to do Liberal Arts. Maybe it came out wrong, but I'm a scientist at heart, not someone who enjoys it in their free time. Maybe it just didn't come out right in the post.
Thanks to the last two years, I realized exactly why I loved science. I didn't like math, but after seeing a version of it outside school math, I have come to love it. I realized I never really disliked it, because I had never known what it was really like.
I also know how hard MIT can get. Even though it might be hard to imagine, I really do. I didn't want to go to MIT when I was in the tenth grade, because I was scared. It sounded like jail. But I came to figure that it really isn't. Also, I never assumed MIT would have an awesome Humanities department, and never did I assume it would because of the way some of the bloggers wrote. I applied to MIT because I believe it’s one of the few places where I’d fit in.
Again, I appreciate your concern. I hope you get in wherever you want to go. Glad you liked the site!
@Rutu'12
You like my name? Gee thanks! :)
@Mohit
If I knew who was going to get in, trust me, I'd tell you.
@Navdeep
lol.
School math is okay now. Calc is awesome everywhere so that remains :)
@Everyone else
I love literature. But I love science way more. While nothing beats a cool Calc problem or a complicated Mech one, an Auden is awesome as well. As I said, I’m a physics junkie. But I like English as well.
Posted by: Tree on February 12, 2009 05:02 AM
In defense of the MIT Humanities department, I've immensely enjoyed both my HASS classes here - even though I've technically just started the second one - and I personally know at least two people who are majoring in literature. The HASS classes are varying and taught by awesome professors, including professional authors/poets/etc. So MIT + humanites = yayness ^__^. So whether you want a degree in it or you just want to make sure you never leave the world of words and poetry, the humanities dept. works ^__^.
Posted by: Rutu '12 on February 12, 2009 08:02 PM
I totally agree.
I owe a lot to MIT. I found myself, basically.
Posted by: Monorina on February 13, 2009 01:02 PM
Yay for the Physics people who love poetry.
Believe you me there are plenty of them :)
Philosophy is awesome too.
Posted by: Aditi on February 14, 2009 12:02 PM
HEY! Nice to see another Maithreyee! (mine's with an "i" at the end, but same thing, lol)
gives me hope that i may be able to get in class of '14 :)
i totally feel the same way-- the blogs made me fall in love even after i discounted it as a math/sci-where-my-parents-want-me-to-go type school.
Posted by: Maithreyi on February 15, 2009 09:02 AM
