My Road to Yelp Elite
Fact: The quickest way to attract students (and usually professors) is to promise food of any kind. Whereas I should be asking, “Interpretable natural language models talk vs. a mentorship lunch for women in computer science?” … I find myself asking, instead, “Do I want free Brazilian BBQ or free Indian curry?” Some graduate students […]
Fighting Depression
“Who is she? Why does she look so sad?” It was a summer day in 2013. After lying in my bed and staring at the ceiling without doing anything for the entire day again, I finally got up. When I looked into the bathroom mirror, I saw my eyes filled with tears. What is worse, […]
The Case for Quantum Morality
I should start by saying that everything that I’m about to write may or may not be completely bogus. Still, I haven’t convinced myself that it’s not bogus, so I guess I’ll share it anyway. I want to make the claim that our understanding of physics should influence our ethical decisions. To ease you […]
45 Dreams Deferred
Dressed in a freshly dry-cleaned suit for graduate school visits, I marched proudly and eagerly into my first one-on-one interview with a prospective PI. “Hi, I’m Amanda!” “Nice to meet you, I’m Rob. Are you good at failing?” “What do you mean?” I stared blankly, taken aback by his bluntness. He smiled knowingly and leaned […]
Overheard at MIT
What if you could be a fly on the wall in the place where some of the most important things were invented? Arriving to MIT Sloan as an MBA student, I was determined to be involved as much as I could in the MIT ecosystem and the Boston entrepreneurship scene. This enabled me to hear […]
Bundle Up!
I grew up in Puerto Rico (PR), where the average temperature is about 85 degrees Fahrenheit in “winter” time. Despite not knowing what winter meant in New England, I decided to come to MIT for graduate school. I knew that it would be an adjustment, and a few things caught me by surprise, but if […]
Eat Your Vegetables
I’ve made a HUGE mistake… It’s Wednesday afternoon, and I’m standing in my kitchen staring at a pile of vegetables meant to feed a family of 5. One problem: I’m a family of one. How will I eat all of this spinach? Is it even healthy to eat this many beets? This one looks like […]
Community Health
This past October my wife lost a family member—someone who was very close to both of us. We quickly jumped on the first plane to California. I hastily composed an email to my advisor, letting him know that I would have to leave town for a few weeks. His message back was succinct—short enough to […]
Why Choose MIT?
When asked the entitled question (“Why Choose MIT?”), especially by prospective students whom I haven’t gotten to know well personally, I’m often at loss as to how to respond. The follow-up question that I’ve always secretly wanted to ask back is this: When your initial reasons for going to MIT are no longer true, can […]
Plan to Feel Unprepared
There are few things more intimidating than standing in front of an MIT classroom after your very first semester, preparing to lecture on topics you just finished learning about. I was in this situation during my first IAP (Independent Activities Period). I had been dreading the thought of teaching this lecture on International Climate Policy […]
Reaching the Summit
I saw the police car just a little too late. I looked at the speedometer, and unlike the rest of the morning when I’d been sticking to the speed limit, I’d somehow drifted up to over 80 mph. Sally, my friend and hiking buddy, murmurs, “Oh no,” as she sees the red and blue lights […]
Winter Is Coming
“California native picks MIT for the beautiful Boston weather.” This is a headline that you will never see in an MIT advertising brochure. Whenever I go back home to visit family in sunny SoCal, the most common reaction I get from people when I tell them I go to school here is, “Ooooh, so you […]
So What Do YOU Think?
The 10-day orientation boot camp for my degree program was over. My future classmates and I were wrapping up the camp with a barbeque party on the MIT sailing pavilion alongside the beautiful Charles River on a windy evening. The sight was magnificent – in the west I could see the sunset amid the ballooning […]
Did You Walk from Korea?
Arriving in from the sweltering heat of a typical Korean summer, the crisp cool weather and matching blue sky which Boston greeted me with was the perfect weather for my start as a new graduate student. And as a graduate student should be, I decided to be frugal and take the T (subway of the […]
To MIT with Love
“… you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future…” It was a rainy monsoon evening of August, almost a year after my first visit as a tourist to MIT. I had decided to finally go meet (read as: go on blind date) with the guy chosen by my parents. In […]
Why Study Anything but Engineering?
Why study anything BUT engineering at MIT? In my case, why study Supply Chain Management and Operations? MIT is Infinite MIT offers cutting-edge research opportunities and access to infinite resources and some of the world’s best professors. For instance, the university has one of three domestic tokamaks, has the Media Lab (which works on cool […]
How Can I Keep from Singing?
For me there is nothing more sublime than sharing one’s voice with fellow singers and creating beautiful chords and melodies. Singing has been among my favorite activities to take my mind off engineering and sequential thinking, and to explore my emotional and creative sides. I have been singing since early high school, but when I […]
New Year’s (Un)Resolutions
In 2016, I made 18 New Year’s resolutions (all of which I considered to be achievable. No comment here on how well I did with that particular challenge). For 2017, I’m sticking with five. Perhaps, though, they are better represented as (un)resolutions, as my core principle for this year is doing less and focusing more. My […]
Not Just a Grad Student
From the day I moved to MIT, I worried about whether I belonged here. Was I smart enough? Would I be able to handle the intense, rigorous workload? Would I be able to balance my work with my life, and take care of my physical, mental, and emotional health? Why did my department’s admissions committee […]
