Ashley's Day at MIT

From Jamaica to MIT!

Hi all! My name is Ashley, I’m 20 and I’m a rising sophomore at MIT! Before coming to MIT, I finished high school in Jamaica and then did an extra three years in an American boarding school, The Hotchkiss School. My GPA from my high school in Jamaica was a 4.0 and my GPA from Hotchkiss was a 3.7 unweighted. I got a 1540 on the SAT my junior year. I also took SAT chemistry and scored 770 and SAT math level 2 and scored 760. I also took AP chemistry (5), AP Calc AB (5), AP Physics (4) and AP Biology (4). For extracurriculars, I was the captain of my school's a cappella group, the president of the West Indies Culture Club, senior advisor of the Cultural Connection Club, board member of the Black and Hispanic Student Association, proctor, member of the STEP team, Junior Varsity tennis player and I mentored kids at the local elementary school every week. Along with three other students, I founded the BLISSummit which is an inter-school affinity group and conference for black-identifying students. For awards, while in school in Jamaica, I was ranked tenth in the Caribbean, third in History, top History student in grade, top girl in grade and won the True Campionite award (“For that student that exemplifies the school’s values”). While in high school in the U.S, I won the Science Award (“For top performing science student in the grade”), Faculty Prize and the David Lord Fitzgerald Prize (“For that student most notable for their positive spirit, strength of character and compassion for others.”)

Drinking From The Firehose

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located on the edge of the bustling city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 80-mile long Charles River separates MIT from Boston, the economic and cultural hub of New England. MIT admits roughly 1,365 undergrads out of 30,000+ applicants every year to form an undergraduate population of about 4,500 students. 48% of MIT’s undergraduate population identify as women and 56% identify as members of a US minority group.

It is easy to tell that a love for numbers pervades the MIT community and is an essential part of the MIT experience. MIT majors (called “courses”) are numbered rather than named. I, for example, am a course 6-9 with a minor in 21M. This translates to I’m majoring in Computer Science and Neuroscience with a minor in Music. Computer Science (Course 6) is by far the most popular major, accounting for more than 1/3 of the undergraduate population!

The MIT community’s devotion to numbers is also evident as one walks through the 168 acre campus. Again, all the buildings are referred to as numbers. For example, the iconic MIT dome is building 10 and the infamous Stata Center is building 32.

My major is a pretty popular joint-major program (also known as Computation and Cognition) that has a lot of flexibility to accommodate the wide diversity of interests of the students within the major. It has a required core of mathematics and probability in addition to the foundational classes in neuroscience and computer science. Beyond that, students have a lot of flexibility in their choice of laboratory subjects, program electives, an advanced undergraduate project, communication-intensive subjects and additional neuroscience and computer science classes. 

Outside of their majors, MIT students are required to satisfy MIT’s robust core curriculum program. The core curriculum requires that all students take two semesters of math, two semesters of physics, one semester of chemistry and one semester of biology or test out. The core curriculum also requires a minimum of eight subjects in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, including three to four in a concentration of your choice.

There is no way to sugar coat it, an MIT education will definitely challenge you. Sprinting from club meetings to office hours and staying up until odd hours of the morning to finish PSets will be exhausting. Former MIT president Jerome Wiesner famously said, “Getting an education from MIT is like trying to get a drink from a firehose.” (leading to this iconic MIT hack). However, getting an MIT education will also prove to be an incredibly rewarding and enlightening experience for those who are up to the challenge!

Rise and Grind

As someone who tends not to focus very well at night, I like to use my mornings to get a lot of important things done. From Monday-Friday I get up at 6:00am to get to the gym at 6:30am. Luckily, most MIT dorms have gyms inside the building so sometimes I workout there but usually I workout in the Athletic Center which is right across the street from my dorm! I workout for about an hour and a half, get back to my room and try to leave my dorm by 8:30am. Between 8:30am and 12:00pm I will get something to eat, and get as much work done as I can before my first class (which usually starts at 12:00pm!). 

Some MIT dorms, including mine, have dining halls in the buildings as well. During my free periods I will usually return to my dorm to get some lunch (the food is almost always really really good!!) and get some work done in the dining hall. Last semester, I was working in the mailroom in my dorm which means logging the packages as they arrive and handing them out to students as they come to pick them up. You can almost always find me in the dining hall or behind the mail desk in the afternoons! Working in the mailroom is pretty chill so I will usually try to get some work done while I’m behind the desk.

My evenings vary depending on the day of the week. Some evenings I am working the mail desk, some days I have labs in the evenings, some days I have a cappella practice. But one thing remains unchanged: I do homework/study every evening, usually until pretty late at night. I am somebody that usually takes a little longer to firmly grasp material and the work at MIT is especially challenging so I spend most of my time studying and doing homework. A lot of undergraduate students spend their evenings/afternoons in UROPs (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program). UROPs allow students to work directly with MIT faculty and graduate students on a variety of interesting research projects. 

The City That Sleeps

On the weekends I usually wake up a little later than I do during the week (usually around 9:00am). I will head to the gym and the dining hall before taking a shower and heading to a cappella practice. In the afternoons I will usually try to get some work done. MIT has a large Greek Life presence which means frat parties are happening almost every night. Most of the frats are across the river, separate from the rest of campus, so it's not hard to separate yourself from that environment if you want. 

Another really cool thing about going to school in Boston is that there are almost 120 colleges in the greater Boston area. Ironically MIT is considered to be the school with the best parties so students from all over Boston come to MIT for the parties. I’m lucky enough to have friends that go to different schools in the area so I can go to events on other campuses as well (I love going to recitals and performances at Berklee!). 

Boston also has some amazing food spots and is definitely a great city for you if you're a fan of seafood! Cafe Luna is my favorite restaurant in the world and it’s right beside MIT! 

If I have nothing to do, I’ll get some blue bikes with my friends and ride around the city. My favorite places are the Esplanade, Seaport and the Harvard Arboretum. Recently, I have also gone on road trips with my friends from going to watch the leaves turn in Maine to meeting up with friends in New York City! MIT students can rent cars at a very discounted rate so I try to take advantage!

In the winter, the city gets decorated and it looks like a big snow globe! However, I’m not a big fan of the cold so I’ll most likely stay in and watch a movie. 

Although Boston has a large population of college students, not many places are open late. Even bars and clubs close pretty early. I’m almost always back in my room getting ready for bed at 1:00am the latest. My friends have joked that Boston is the city that sleeps (and has a strict bedtime!).

Written by Ashley Williams, PathIvy MIT Ambassador