Exploring Options
Navigating "big science" as a trainee
After arriving at MIT in September, I was excited to begin rotating in labs. I did my research, so I knew what professors I wanted to work with. I was ready to meet labmates, do some projects, and find a lab I matched with. Little did I know that some professors not only ran their […]
Evolution of the MIT Grad Blog
The blog helped her regain a voice, and she didn't want it to end
Understanding what graduate student life is like at MIT is challenging for an outsider. Before I arrived, I had preconceived notions about what the student body would be like: ultra-nerdy kids that participated in hackathons on the weekend and probably couldn’t chug a beer. While admittedly some of these stereotypes are true, I now embody […]
Where Are All the Women?
Experiences in computer science from visit weekend and beyond
This may sound crazy, but for a brief time, I pictured MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department as only women. Yes, this happened. Due to a weirdly warped golden recall of MIT’s Visit Weekend, I somehow only remember the Saturday Pancake Breakfast for women in EECS: A hundred women crammed in a conference […]
The Many Flavors of Theoretical Computer Scientists
An explanation of my field for non-experts
Sometimes I tell people that I’m a theoretical computer scientist. If they haven’t yet found some sort of excuse to go to the bathroom before I take my next breath, the next question is often an exasperated, “What does that even mean?” I tell them that it’s sort of like math except that instead […]
It’s Not About the Weather
Don't choose a grad program for the location or climate
I’m a first year graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering, or “Course 3” to anyone who’s familiar with MIT’s classification system for majors (more on this later). I’m on my way to a PhD (or as my good friend calls it – Permanent Head Damage, Piled Higher and Deeper, Pretty Huge Diploma, etc.). For […]
