Being Strong in Strong Situations
Having agency even when your choices aren't fully your own
At my undergraduate institution (one of the three big U.S. military academies), every cadet was required to take a class called “The Behavioral Science of Leadership”. In this class we discussed something called strong situations. Strong situations are environments in which a person’s options become limited and there is a lot of external pressure to […]
How to Craft a Personal Statement
Some practical tips and perspective
There’s one part of any application that can always make you freeze: the dreaded personal statement. Writing about yourself is an exercise in embarrassment, anxiety, and existential doubt. Don’t worry; I’m here to help! Let’s get one thing out of the way first. The point of a personal statement is to bring your application package […]
Girly
What a scientist should look like
“Let us choose for ourselves our path in life, and let us try to strew that path with flowers.” – Emilie du Chatelet, Physicist I love dresses and bows, face masks and makeup. When I get ready for a day in lab, I avoid it all. It’s my first semester at MIT, and I wear a […]
A Structured Approach to Course Planning
Strategies for graduate students in a FOMO world
Whether you attend MIT or another school, one of the things you may find challenging is planning the courses you will take over the entirety of your graduate career. As an incoming student of a cross-disciplinary program in Integrated Design & Management, I had the opportunity to select courses from both the School of Engineering and Sloan […]
What the Puck?
How a new sport helped me find clarity in grad school
In my first year of graduate school, I fell on my butt a lot. It’s as if I would forget about my feet. I would be gliding along smoothly, comfortably shifting from one skate to the other, but if a puck slid in my direction — and I had to get it! — my skates […]
