<p>LOL @ the latter part of this thread. Do you guys want me to send Ducktape a likely letter? ;-)</p>
<p>Last year I believe we had well over 50 applicants, but only 30-40 had blogs that were decent enough to make it to blogger selection committee (remember that we won't consider anyone who hasn't demonstrated a sustained talent for turning the minutiae of life into captivating prose). We took three and then added Snively a little later, making the blogger "admit rate" less than that of MIT itself.</p>
<p>If you are really interested in blogging next year, it would be a really, really bad idea to live in BC. Just sayin'.</p>
<p>And Mollie, as sad as this is, we set it up so that the students on the selection committee each year are the incoming senior bloggers. We bugged you and B'Owens to do it last year because Melis was the lone senior and we needed three people. The GOOD news is this: now that there's no conflict of interest, you can start a hugely profitable consulting business and charge people lots of money to help them with their blogger apps.</p>
<p>@ la montagne:
"So... I didn't apply for financial aid. My parents can pay for college, and all is well there. However, at some point during my MIT career, I may want to get a job on campus--for example, a paid UROP or maybe a job in the bookstore. My mom was talking to a friend of hers yesterday who told her that since I didn't apply for financial aid I couldn't get either of those jobs (or if I did get a UROP, it wouldn't be a paid one, I guess). Is that true?"</p>
<p>No, I'm happy to assure you that your mom's friend is misinformed. The fact that you did not apply for financial aid will not prevent you from getting a job. Our family declined financial aid (loans only) when my daughter enrolled (class of '11), and yet she was able to land a job during the fall semester with the athletic department ($9.00/hr) and this spring, she found a UROP working on the machine-vision project of Dr. Thomas Serre and others ($10.00+/hr). </p>
<p>The benefit of applying for financial aid is that you might want to take out a loan at some point. We're going to ask our daughter to do this either during her junior or senior year. A small student loan, paid down regularly, will enhance her credit, which will be important down the road.</p>
<p>The benefit of working is to gain experience on your resume and to earn enough to supplement the amount your family will pay. My daughter had not worked before going to MIT, but when she was admitted, she took very seriously MIT's idea that she must contribute to her support while a student. And the work has never interfered with her studies or extracurricular activities. There are many jobs and UROP opportunities at MIT.</p>
<p>Just to explain (perhaps) the comment by your mother's friend that you could not get a UROP or job without having applied for financial aid:</p>
<p>At some universities (including mine), when a faculty member hires a student research assistant or when a department hires a student aide or TA, the cost of the hire--as charged to the faculty member's grant or the department's budget--is substantially lower if the student qualifies for work-study, as part of her/his financial aid package. If the student qualifies for work-study, then the faculty member or department may pay as little as 1/4 of the student's actual hourly pay, with the university picking up the rest of the cost. If the student doesn't qualify for work-study, the faculty member or department pays 100%. We/they will often pay 100%, to get the students we want. But when the budgets are tight, work-study students may have priority.</p>
<p>MIT either works the charges to grants/departments differently, or the potential cost-savings of hiring students who qualify for work-study are not relevant, because the budgets themselves are high enough.</p>
<p>Bottom line: The comment that you need to apply for financial aid to get a job as a student is not actually true anywhere, but at places other than MIT, you may have priority for hiring (in the places you want to work) as a work-study student, for budgetary reasons.</p>
<p>@ myself - I am an idiot, because 11.6% of 10 is most definitely NOT 1.6. That would be 1.16. I'm surprised no one's jumped on me for that one yet (no sexual innuendo intended).</p>
<p>@ benjones - I'm just going to pretend I didn't read any of that. Especially the second sentence and the warning regarding BC.</p>
<p>I didn't have the heart to correct you ducktape in front of the audience that is CC :-p. I'm considering BC, Simmons, and Baker right now. Sounds like you are hardcore BC eh ducktape? </p>
<p>Speaking of UROPs, I wanted to do one at the Harvrad/MIT Cancer Nanotech Center. I wonder how hard it'd be to get that...hehe</p>
<p>I certainly like BC, but I'll stave off deciding on the final list until after CPW. Right now, the only thing I'm 99% sure of is that I'm going to end up on West Campus. Other than that, who knows.</p>
<p>I thought I'd end up on West Campus, and then I watched some i3 videos... and I know it's not a great indication of the dorm as a whole, but East Campus looked REALLY COOL. So I think I'm going to give it more of a chance than I was intending to before.</p>
<p>Yeah, one of my friends who's also a prefrosh IMed me and was like "so, I've been watching the i3 videos, and I think I really like Baker, Senior Haus, East Campus, and Burton Connor." I couldn't think of anything else to say but, "uh, you do realize how different all those dorms are, right?"</p>
<p>It made me laugh. I can totally see her at EC.</p>
<p>the prefrosh ducktape is talking about would be me :P I'm basically basing my decision off of which dorm plays with fire the most--East Campus has like +10000 points so far, AND they build crazy wooden contraptions! Fire! Contraptions! Yes!</p>
<p>hahaa yeah I should probably get on that. I hear she lurks occasionally, so she might come across this and be all, hmm...I wonder how we're going to be roommates if we're living on opposite sides of campus...:)</p>
<p>West campus ftw. Has everyone seen the updated schedule? If finally resembles last year's! It's so long it hurts my eyes. I am totally ready to collect a bag full of bouncy balls from the ball drop. YESSS.</p>
<p>Am I still invited to the meet the bloggers party, or am I too wizened and ancient for that, too? :-P</p>
<p>
I think a lot of students get around this by applying for funding from the UROP office, which has its own money and pays students without going through the lab/department.</p>
<p>@ Mollie - not only are you invited to the MTB party but you are this year's guest of honor and will be awarded an honorary advanced blogging degree. Plus other stuff that I can't talk about here.</p>
<p>Hey guys? You're probably going to hear me make this point again, so you'd better get used to it. :p</p>
<p>The i3 videos are nice. However, the whole point of the MIT system is that you don't really make your choice until Dorm Rush (REX to you guys). Wherever you live during Orientation? That's your <em>temp</em> housing. </p>
<p>It <em>is</em> best to go for places that, based on the limited info you have, you would enjoy living in permanently, for your temp housing, because there's no guarantee of getting to move into that place you discovered that you loved so much during REX.</p>
<p>But the whole point is that you can't really know until you've done REX (CPW helps, but it's not enough time by itself, but the idea is that you have to have seen it in person and interacted with actual residents, in person, before you can decide properly). And you should approach REX with the mentality of having not made your decision yet.</p>
<p>Students have spent years fighting to preserve the right for you guys to have this experience, this choice. Don't blow it off.</p>
<p>^I second Jessie wholeheartedly, and of course we'll have lots more discussion of various dorms after CPW and as the deadline for the housing lottery approaches.</p>
<p>At this point, keep an open mind.</p>
<p>(Also, benjones has made me an offer I can't refuse. If I'm the guest of honor, do I perhaps get to wear some sort of official ceremonial headdress?)</p>