<p>I withold value judgments, being less expert in pranking than in most anything. I found it to be entertaining as a layman :)</p>
<p>We would gladly receive attempts at retribution, but they would obviously have to happen <em>here</em> (in Pasadena) to be worthy, since there wouldn't have been anything interesting about pranks "on MIT" pulled at Caltech.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in another thread, I have the highest regard for MIT students and their long history of distinguished hacking.</p>
<p>I was a prefrosh at CPW. Here is my opinion:</p>
<p>The shirts were clever. The way they were rolled you could not see the Caltech back. I thought the shenanigans with the sign was funny, but I just caught word of it, I didn't get to see it (I went into Boston that day). Didn't hear or see any of the other stuff though (MIT is a pretty big place and I spend a day away from it). Just remember this though, you guys had a long time to prepare, and you're giving MIT a week or so.</p>
<p>haha I heard about the shirts too. But that prank was not so original, MIT's COOP store sells the same shirt but with "harvard" (front) "because not everyone can get into MIT"...anyway some prefrosh got a good laugh, but many of them are pretty convinced MIT is the right place for them.</p>
<p>I got wind of this as a prefrosh at CPW. It was cool.</p>
<p>The Caltech pranks were ironic. Although the general theme seemed to be making people want to go to sunny Caltech, the whole thing actually enhanced my CPW experience. Being in the midst of such cool, secret going-ons made MIT even more appealing to me. Of course, I doubt the Caltech people actually thought their pranks would convince a large number of people. It was just fun.</p>
<p>MIT and Caltech should join forces against Oxford. They're the real enemy.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm pretty sure they weren't seriously thinking of this as a recruiting tool. More like a way to add extra fun to CPW (and hopefully our Prefrosh Weekend if the MIT hackers live up to their lofty reputations.)</p>
<p>I didn't get a shirt, but when I came to school today people were coming up to me asking if I got one because they wanted to buy it from me! (They read it on slashdot. Hee.) I was insulted. =P</p>
<p>The Tshirts were pretty good, and the COOP DOES sell those Caltech shirts, I saw one there just Saturday. (I bought the Harvard one instead. <em>grin</em>)</p>
<p>The sign, which I didn't see (until the MIT students had switched it) sounded incredible.</p>
<p>Everything else wasn't really quite so impressive. No one really noticed the stickers or flyers (I didn't until I was specifically told about the hacking.) And the balloons in the dome weren't visible from the ground. And honestly, most of the prefrosh were wondering what "CIT" was. Haha. I mean, I've honestly never heard it refered to as anything other than Caltech, so when I pointed out the balloon to the other prefrosh I was with, we all started brainstorming what else "CIT" could stand for. Watching the MIT students get the balloon down was fun though.</p>
<p>Did anyone else talk to the Caltech students? Because they DEFINITELY just turned around and started telling ME everything about how they pulled off all the hacks. I was like... "umm....!!!!!!" (They had fake MIT ID cards, which I found impressive in the sense that it was so thorough.) </p>
<p>I was only upset when they started trying to recruit us. The one girl worked in the admissions office at Caltech and was encouraging us to go to Caltech. But they waitlisted me so =P. Other than that, though, I will say it was a lot of fun to see all that going on. They were all definitely within the spirit of hacking (harmless/non-offensive). I'll agree though, it made me like MIT even more. I'd already decided to go there anyway, so I got all caught up in an "MIT pride" kind of thing. Hee. =D</p>
<p>I will say an honest "Good work" to Caltech.</p>