Finding Belonging through Community
Make the time to seek out familiar spaces
There’s a common feeling that many incoming graduate students can attest to: I don’t belong here. MIT seems designed to keep us feeling this way, perhaps as motivation to work long hours, or perhaps to perpetuate its imposing reputation. It starts from the moment of acceptance. Elation and surprise are quickly followed by weeks of […]
Fighting Unfair Rules
Aligning MIT’s actions with its mission
When I got an offer to be a Graduate Resident Tutor (GRT), a graduate student mentor who lives in an undergraduate dorm, I leapt across the hallway to exclaim to my friends that I didn’t just get a GRT position: I got assigned to Random Hall – the quirkiest, nerdiest dorm filled with murals in […]
Culture Goes Beyond Your Lab
Appreciating the quirks and stories that makes MIT special
When I started grad school, I met the other graduate students in the lab – most of whom, unlike me, had not gone to MIT for undergrad. We had conversations about hobbies, research, families, etc. Nothing about meeting them seemed any different to me than meeting students during undergrad, but I slowly started noticing one […]
Fiddling through Grad School
My experiences learning the violin as a grad student
“Do you want to get lunch this weekend?” “Can we get dinner instead? I have a violin class in the afternoon.” You can do that as a grad student? Wow. As a first-year graduate student, I had not yet realized the degree of independence I now had in the choices I made in my life. […]
The Wonderful World of Procrasti-Baking
How I manage grad school stress in the kitchen
You have spent days – maybe even weeks – planning the perfect experiment. You have gathered all the materials you need, written down the protocol in your lab notebook, and made sure all the necessary equipment is available. Line by line, you perform the protocol with precision and manage to get through it without any […]
