To MIT adcoms/influential MIT alums...why are you on CC?

[molliebatmit]

<p>I’m with Chris and Piper – I know most about MIT, and I’ll step in on the main boards when there’s something I can speak about, but often I don’t have the expertise. I used to spend more time there a few years ago, too, but my life has gotten more hectic as I’ve progressed through my graduate training, and some things had to go. I’m occasionally on the Harvard board, too, as I’ve learned more about Harvard during my PhD.</p>

<p>

@CalAlum

CollegeConfidential is definitely a mixed bag; the quality of any given board depends on the community that maintains it. Because of posters like Mollie, Mikalye, Karen, Oasis, MITChris, Jessie, Laura, and many others, this is a particularly reliable and useful board, imo. The “compulsive helpfulness” to which Mollie refers may be part of it, but the desire to provide good and useful information, even when standing hip-deep in a swamp, fits with MIT’s mission.

Absolutely. Being compulsively helpful is something that grows out of an MIT education – it’s very in line with the collaborative nature of MIT. </p>

<p>When I was a senior, I [observed</a> that](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml]observed”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml)

We are almost pathologically helpful… And the helpfulness doesn’t extend only to MIT students – if you come here on a visit, and you are wandering around lost, I will bet you five dollars you can stop any random undergrad in the hallway and say “Hi, I’m a prefrosh and I’m lost. Can you help me find [the Student Center, the Admissions Office, my mommy]?” and that random undergrad will point you in the correct direction. He might even walk with you to your destination. (This only works with undergrads. Grad students, like slightly rabid cats, are a little less compassionate.)

Thankfully, I haven’t become rabid yet in my advanced graduate age. :)</p>