Wow. Glorious.

Good luck on your final!

good luck!!

and that youtube thing was awesome :D

Gotta love physics! It's one of my favorite topics. Good luck on your final!!!

BTW, what exactly is a "hack"? I've heard the term before, but I'm not quite sure what it means in MIT terms.

It's not a hack, I don't think. I believe it's actually someone's art project that the Tech thought was a hack.

Hey, Cordelia.

I'm pretty sure you're right - I think it was a project for 4.301, and the Tech was just wrong.

The red dollar sign was Vinayak's 4.301 final project. Such final projects are public art installations done in imitation of hacks, but approved of by the authorities and in less sketchy places.

In my opinion, it ain't a hack unless you risk being caught doing something illegal/unapproved-of. There are some borderline cases, like the V-O before M-I-T in front of Stata (which was perfectly accessible on the ground, and I assume legal?). I think what distinguished that as a hack was that it was very much not approved of by the authorities, and promptly removed.

Oh, and for Alyssa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_hack

Physics is awesome! Good luck on your 8.01 final!

Anyway, the phone call was an excellent hack! Seems that there have been quite a few this year already. Quite an awesome tradition.. Its nice that the faculty actually seems to approve of students hacking.

Thanks for keeping me updated on the hacks, I enjoy reading about them!

-Adam

I really love ur blog, i hope it isn't a crime, that i'm not a student in ur school. i just love MIT. wish i could make it there.

i'm a programmer from Nigeria

Uka

Well.. You must be finished with your final now. How did it go?

Oh wow.. I just remembered. IAP is coming! Can't wait to hear what all of you bloggers are going to be doing!

-Adam

Keri - I was wondering if they offered AP Calculus at your high school. I am attending a high school where both AB and BC AP courses are held and I have wanted to go to MIT since I was little. I don't think that I would be accepted, however, if I don't take the opportunity to complete the BC course at my high school. Is this reasonable?

Meg -
Students arrive at MIT with a whole spectrum of calculus credits. Here are some of the more common possibilities:

Students arrive with multivariable calculus credit through some university or applies their knowledge of the topic to test out of 18.02 (multivar)

Students arrive with AP Calculus BC credit and receive credit for 18.01 (single variable calculus). They almost always go into 18.02 their first semester.

Students arrive with AP Calculus AB credit. They receive no college credit, but they generally take 18.01a and 18.02a (accellerated courses - 18.02a begins about 2/3 of the way into the fall semester and continues through IAP)

Students arrive with no AP Calculus credit or feel uncomfortable with the background they have. These students take 18.01 their first semester. There are lots of people in this situation.

The admissions office prefers if you have some sort of calculus experience, but it's by no means a necessity for getting in.

I FRELLING LOVE AUROUX. Had I only been there.

Annnnnd if students think *our* artwork sucks, they should check out the campus contributions of the trustees at Carnegie Mellon. I'm just sayin', the Cut was a lot nicer before the thing with the pole and the people walking up (weirds me out every time I see it).

Regarding the 18.02 hack, I'm assuming the phone call piped in over the speaker system or something -- is this correct? Or did the students just laugh at the prof's strange expressions when talking on the phone

What do you think I should take after I take AP calc AB and BC, I am a sophomore right now in AP calc AB, and am not sure if I should take AP Stats as a senior, or some other math course. I go to a small private school so not many students are in my situation, so my school doesn't offer a lot of APs

Blizz-

My only recommendation is that you do what you want to do, not neccesarily what is expected of you. I enjoyed Calc AB last year, so I took Calc BC this year. I would have probably tried something different had I not been interested. Therefore, are you interested in statistics? If not, I'd highly recommend trying to get yourself into a math course at a local college. Talk to your counselor. Chances are, (s)he'll be able to arrange something.

Finally, make sure that when you apply to MIT, you let them know about your limited opportunities. Make sure that they can see that you've made the most out of what you've had to work with.

-Adam

hahah. that lit up my day. =)

Adam -

I just emailed Blizz with a similar answer. ^_^

Also, I checked it out, and the dollar sign is definitely a part of 4.301's final project. The post is edited to fix my error.

that video was so funny. I wish I had a working telephone in my math classroom...

Ah, 5th West traditions...

By the way, did you know that WMBR's broadcasting signal makes all the TVs in EC have really bad reception? Caught your show a couple times, though. It was good!

Hey Meg-

Don't worry about it. I never took a chemistry class or a physics class and my calculus class was a joke. I got a 3 on my IB HL Math test. The key is doing a lot of things well, not being a calculus wiz. Perhaps instead of spending decades a week in AP calc you should take what you like, and do super well in it. I'm not a genius by far, they look for people who work a lot and like it. I'm a frosh, but I've learned that in a lot of ways MIT isn't really about learning freshman year, its about working 20 hours a week on P-sets and living lol. Anyhoo, hope that helped. Oh, if you want to take BC, make sure you're going to get an A in it, thats why I never took chem or physics. Whoo 18.01 and 8.01L!

Keri, wassup!

Peace

omG, Keri is famous! Look at how many people reply to her posts!

You're awesome Keri, and I know you know it :)

OMG more radio show publicity. *squeeyay*