by Ann Felhofer
Wow, what a weekend.
I had spent the last two days at MIT meeting other prefrosh, sitting in on a couple of my host Patty’s classes, and eating more than enough free food during CPW. The weather was unusually warm for springtime and the music was constantly blaring – the ideal conditions for Campus Preview Weekend. According to Patty, the saying at CPW goes, “Eat, sleep, party; pick two,” and I had definitely chosen eating and partying; I was exhausted.
It was now 1:00 A.M. on Sunday morning, and I needed to catch my flight at 7:00 A.M. to head back to Wisconsin. After a long day of meeting new people and, well, eating lots of free food, I called it a night and crashed in my host’s quad in Baker. Only my host’s roommate’s prefrosh, Courtney, and I were in the room.
Courtney reminded me a lot of my class’s valedictorian in the way that she spoke. Because she pronounced each syllable perfectly and purely, it almost sounded like she had an accent. Courtney was very well-spoken and never had troubles finding the right words. I could tell she was conservative and abided by the social norms. She took schooling seriously and always did the right thing. If there was a prefrosh sitting alone, she was the one who would invite him to join us. She was very socially conscious of what people thought of her and always looked presentable—a poster child if I ever saw one. I was surprised that we got along as well as we did. She and I had become pretty close throughout the weekend, and I was glad I had someone to talk with about MIT.
“So what do you think? Are you going to come here?”
Courtney twisted her neck away from the textbook she was reading for her high school class to look at me and replied, “I really like it so far, but I know I can’t make up my mind until I visit Yale and Princeton.”
I had thought I was going to have a tough decision between MIT and University of Wisconsin, but she had me beat by far. She was a valedictorian from a very competitive private school in New York who spent the majority of her weekends studying for her high school classes. I was intimidated by her smarts, but I prided myself on my well–roundedness. I was in athletics, student government, and had a great social life in high school. What I lacked in studiousness, I convinced myself, I made up for in having a life.
“What about you? Do you see yourself going here?” she asked.
Not really. I already had a pre-existing list of negatives that I was too stubborn to give up. Acceptance into MIT was a bit of a shock to me, and I already had my heart set on a state school. I had kind of written MIT off and wasn’t even planning on coming to CPW because I didn’t think there was a need to. I had missed the deadline to sign up and didn’t really care, but my parents told me that I had to go and contacted the school. With one week’s notice, I was going to CPW. But I still had my anti-MIT list. Everyone here is ridiculously smart. There’s concrete everywhere. There’s no school spirit. I’ve always considered myself a Wisconsin Badger, not an MIT Engineer.
I don’t think Courtney meant her question to be rhetorical, but I never answered. I just shrugged my shoulders, and shortly after, we both started drifting off on the futon.
I woke up to the sound of the door opening and my host and four of her friends coming in. They were making no effort to keep the noise level down, so Courtney and I sat up and asked them what they were up to.
“We’re going on top of the dome! Come with!”
By this point it was already 2:00 A.M. and I was exhausted. I explained that I had to catch my flight in a couple of hours and declined Patty’s offer. Courtney, on the other hand, accepted.
No way am I going to let this nerd be more adventurous than me.
“Actually, I think I’ll come.” I quickly changed into warm, dark clothes and hastily got introduced to Patty’s four friends, one girl and three guys. Soon, we were walking down the MIT’s Infinite Corridor, which I now had a new appreciation for because I truly understood how infinite it could seem while I was walking along the deserted hall in the middle of the night. We then took a right and started climbing one of the staircases off of the Infinite. Patty warned us to stay towards the outside of the staircase so anyone looking up from the ground couldn’t see us climbing up. Once we reached the top, we came upon a locked door that opened out onto the roof of Building Seven. Patty took out her MIT ID and in one swift motion broke the seal of the lock and opened the door. Well, someone’s had practice with this.
We all walked silently on the roof in a single-file line, not because we wanted to, but because that was the only way that we could fit through the various pipes and obstacles that were very abundant. We talked only in whispers and made sure not to make too much noise with our feet. I could see the dome a couple hundred feet in front of me. I couldn’t believe how big it looked in person. We’re going to climb that?!
When we reached the bottom of the dome, I still didn’t understand how we were going to get up there. There was a seven or eight foot height difference from the surface of the roof to the base plateau of the dome, but the next thing I knew, two boys were hoisting me up and two girls on the top were ready to grab my hands. Okay, the hard part is over.
But once I was on the base plateau of the dome, I didn’t understand how getting to the top would be possible. From where the dome met the plateau that I stood on, a steep angle eventually tapered off to zero degrees on the top of the dome, like a table with an upside-down bowl on it. I knew the first couple steps on the dome would be the hardest because it was the steepest there, like the sides of the upside-down bowl, but I didn’t think it was even possible to get through the steepest part to the more level part of the dome near the top. However, in a Spiderman-like fashion, using both my hands and feet to maximize friction and keeping my center of gravity low to the dome, I managed to make my way to the top.
I took a seat on the dome next to Courtney and looked out at the Boston skyline. It was breathtaking. This was nothing like I’d seen before – the ugly concrete I had seen during the day had become a beautiful masterpiece by night. I could make out the silhouette of the numerous bridges, and the water beneath them glistened peacefully. A couple of boats left ripples that twisted the reflected Boston light into a beautiful picture similar to that of a work of a kindergartener using a box of crayons. This wasn’t the same as the millions of stars that I could see from my bedroom window at home, but it was equally magnificent. I could still see the hustle and bustle of taxis, lights were still on in buildings, and people were walking on the sidewalks below us, but I was somehow removed from it. I was an outsider looking down, and I had time to reflect on my brief time at MIT. The view cleared my head and showed me a side of MIT that I could never read about.
I was glad that my stubborn nature hadn’t let me pass up this opportunity because I had a chance to actually reflect on what I really thought about MIT. I thought about the question that Courtney had asked me a mere two hours ago. Do I see myself going here?
Well, I think I’m definitely warming up to the idea. There would always be something to do. Everyone here has some unique talent, and I could definitely learn from each person. The education here would be first class, no doubt about that.
My thoughts were interrupted by my leg beginning to shake uncontrollably. I guess I was so deep in thought I didn’t realize how cold it was. On top of the dome, there is nothing to shield you from the chilly Boston night.
I guess I wasn’t the only one who was cold, and soon we all began climbing down the dome, which proved to be just as tricky as it getting up.
After doing a feet-first-reverse-Spiderman maneuver (which closely resembled crab-walking) to get down onto the main platform, I was only about seven feet up from the roof of Building Seven. One of Patty’s guy friends jumped down and helped all the rest of us down. We would lower our legs down, and he would grab us by our waist and slowly set us on the ground. I’m pretty sure that in any other situation this would be totally awkward, but there was something about that night and how this was a team effort that made it seem not weird at all. When it was my turn in line, I lowered my legs down. Am I really straddling this guy that I just met approximately an hour ago? After he safely placed me on the ground, I turned to thank him, but I already had forgotten his name.
Once our whole gang was safely on the roof, we made our way back to the propped-open door that led to the staircase and eventually back to Baker. At this point it was close to 3:00 A.M. so I packed my luggage, said goodbye to all my fellow hackers, thanked my host for her hospitality, and went out to hail a taxi for the airport.
I reclined my airplane chair as low as it went, bundled up my brand new MIT sweatshirt, and placed it in the nook between the chair and the window so I could rest my head against my impromptu pillow. I hadn’t slept in almost 24 hours, and my body begged me to fall asleep, but my mind was going a million miles per minute. Is CPW over already? Didn’t I just get here?
I remembered the list of cons that had filled my head before – there’s no school spirit, there’s concrete everywhere, everyone’s too smart. I’m not sure I believe that they are cons anymore.
Here, school spirit isn’t about rallying your group of friends and going to the football stadium to do cheers with your 40,000 classmates and yelling obscenities at the opposing team like I’m used to; it’s about taking part in the rich culture that MIT is known for – the Brass Rat, p-setting together, executing hacks. It’s about understanding all the inside jokes and things that only MIT students would understand- Smoots, the numbering system, IHTFP. It’s school spirit, MIT style.
Sure everyone is smart here, but I am too. They’re intimidated by me just like I’m intimidated by them. Once I get past the intimidation factor, everyone has a unique story that I can learn from. There are thousands of brilliant minds here, and I’m one of them. This is the kind of atmosphere where I can thrive.
I don’t think l could ever be used to concrete buildings everywhere. They sure are interesting, though. Definitely something I could tolerate.
Does this guy really need both armrests?
Sometimes, just looking at a situation a different way makes you have a whole different take on it. Just a simple change of scenery gave me a different perspective on all the “negatives.” It’s hard for a teenager to take a look at the big picture instead of only thinking about the next four years down the road. Yes, MIT will be hard and different from what I’m used to, but it will definitely put me in the best position for the future. I knew that MIT was the right place then. I just needed to, metaphorically and literally, look at the big picture.
Annie Felhofer is entering her second year at MIT and plans to major in Brain and Cognitive Sciences with a minor in Spanish. She loved growing up on her chicken farm in rural Wisconsin, where she could play many backyard volleyball games, do water sports in Lake Michigan during the summer, and have campfires under the stars with her friends. Moving to Cambridge was a great experience for her, and she’s very glad that she chose MIT. Annie plays intramural sports here and is a sister in the Sigma Kappa sorority. She looks forward to the next three years at her new home on the east coast.