<p>Okay all you Caltech kids -- what's the deal. (Oops, forgot the intro. Hi, I'm Mollie, MIT '06. Nice to meet you.)</p>
<p>I'm applying to the biology PhD program, and there's a question on the application which asks me to list "significant extracurricular activities". This is a trick, I know it! None of the other grad apps want ECs -- most seem to be interested solely in how good a lab rat I've been over my undergraduate career.</p>
<p>So what's the deal? Is this the super-top-secret Caltech weeder question? ("Aha, this girl participated in an extracurricular! She's not a real lab monkey! Off with her head!") Are they really interested in my life outside the world of biology? Is it just something for the admissions committee to read when they're bored?</p>
<p>...thanks for indulging my fit of conspiracy. :)</p>
<p>Y'know, that's a great question. I'm not involved with grad admissions, but I'm going to stop by David Baltimore's office tomorrow (teehee, just kidding, I'll pick some less scary biology prof) and ask.</p>
<p>I'm only two degrees of separation from Baltimore already -- one of my recommenders was his postdoc. That practically makes us buds ;) Ok, no it doesn't.</p>
<p>I'm just sort of glad it's Caltech which asks the EC question, as I think they will have a better intuitive understanding of MIT cheerleading than some of the other schools I'm applying to, due to the similar proclivities of the undergraduate student bodies. (Why MIT cheerleading has to be understood, for example: we do this</a> cheer at actual cheerleading competitions, for godssakes. I suspect that many of the other cheerleaders at this competition hadn't ever heard of some of the terms in that cheer.)</p>
<p>Well, to be honest, I don't really feel qualified to exhort one school over the other for graduate work. After all, I'm only applying to other schools for my PhD because the MIT biology department won't accept MIT biology undergrads for biology PhDs.</p>
<p>I'm pretty much applying to the biology programs to which I'm applying because they have highly-ranked programs with faculty who are doing research I have an interest in... I'll worry about the finer points of fit when/if I get interviews and acceptances!</p>
<p>Very diplomatic mollie. However, I'm not asking to make a comparison b/w schools. He will not be going to do M at CMU because has done what he wanted to do and MIT has similiar strengths in his study areas.
Any +/-'s that could be apply to a prospective MIT grad student.</p>
<p>Perhaps then the forum of Stanford, MIT, or mollie's private message box would be a more appropriate venue... my S* tires of this. :-P</p>
<p>mollie, btw, I haven't forgotten about you, just been swamped the past few days. Will ask a biologist about why they want to know about your cheerleading : )</p>
<p>mollie -- here it is directly from the biology executive officer (Caltechspeak for department head):</p>
<p>
[quote]
I doubt that the answer to that question ever makes much of a
difference to the Graduate Admissions Committee, but finding out
about extracurricular activities is a way of finding out more about a
person. Obviously there's no right answer, and the applicant doesn't
need to list anything.
Best regards,
Pamela
<p>Hey Mollie. I've heard that our school cheer is something like:</p>
<p>E to the u du dx,
E to the x, dx.
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
3 point 1 4 1 5 9.
Physics, Bio, Polymer Chem
We'll beast'em all cuz we're from S&M.</p>
<p>That's suspiciously like the MIT school cheer. Who cheated? ;)</p>
<p>*
I'm a beaver,
You're a beaver,
We are beavers all.
And when we get together,
we do the beaver call.
e to the u, du dx, e to the x, dx.
cosine secant tangent sine, 3.14159.
Integral, radical, mu, dv,
Slipstick, sliderule, MIT!
*</p>