esrosedotblog

KIDS

I went to the seminar today as an MIT Educational Council member.

My first time.

It was over in Claremont. Between Ontario and Pamona. 90 minutes. Easy.

It was not what I expected at all.

And it was great.

The orientation was for all the MIT applicants from Cucamonga (look it up) to the Colorado River.

Almost all of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

Up to 200 kids plus parents.

It was orientation for me because I got to see the slide show and talk that the MIT rep does/did.

It was great.

It brought what I knew alive. Now I have the feel of the important message as well as what to do when I get stuck.

I will be interviewing up to 19 kids between now and December although' they' say that we will usually only see about 30%.

There are many who are just now deciding whether to pursue this or not. When you apply it costs some money.

So after I heard the spiel, he got 6 of us up to do a quick intro and then stand across the front of the room to answer questions that didn't get answered in the Q&A!

Talk about on the job training!

I got about ten questions. All of them good and all of them quite answerable.

My alumnus 'boss' to who coordinates for the entire area told me that he has rarely been stumped.

Besides, our job is to get a take of them, not they of us.

I can do that.

It was very worthwhile.

One mess up was that I thought there was a supper which was actually a luncheon.

I was not the only one.

It was interesting that the audience today was predominantly asian and multiracial. Well not that I am checking ethnicity or anything.

MIT has always been at the forefront of equal representation although the application is color blind, legacy blind, sports or other star blind and so on.

The other surprise is that the student body is now half women.

When I went there we had 25 co-eds out of a gang of 2500 undergraduates.

MIT is and has always been a meritocracy. Liberal in the sense that they do not discriminate.

The first campus gay group in the country started at MIT. After my time.

Another surprising thing is that they have so perfected their admission process and the support of undergraduate learning that there is no wholesale washout of the freshman class.

When I went, about half of us who started were gone before the end of the freshman year.

No longer the case.

They have only about 5% who do not return. Most of these are people who didn't feel that they fit in at MIT.

A few take a year off.

Less than 10 were asked to leave for academic reasons.

Wow.

Of course they get 12000 applications for 1200-1500 slots so there is a lot to choose from.

They tell the kids that they must have A's and B's but the SAT scores are not used as a filter. They are considered but the kids' personality and independence are more important.

Nice to know.

I think that I would have a lot easier time of it at this MIT and get a better education even though in 1958 it was the best you could get at all levels.

I would never do it another way.

Well, I might study harder and ask for help more. I really slid by but I had a wonderful time in the extracurricular and in the life in Boston.

I could have been president of the gay group if we had one.

Let's say that I was more well rounded than the average tool.

Labels: MIT