esrosedotblog

I still get nervous when I know that grades are about to come out from MIT. There is a slim snake of anxiety that travels from my throat down to somewhere in the lower abdomen. It is an old feeling, familiar. That doesn't mean that I like it. But that is what keeps me from slacking off or not doing my best.

If anyone asks you if a grading system works or if having no grades is a good educational system, have them call me. A grading system works all one's life and I could not do anything without numerical feedback. Maybe that is because or why I became an MIT guy.

MIT uses the 1-5 system. None of that pansy 1-4 stuff. A 3 is dead in the middle, a C. Period. How do people with a 1-4 system have a middle? I suppose 2.5. I don't know.

Anyway, I got my grades from MIT today.

I am a member of the Educational Council. That means that I am one of a thousand alumni who interview prospective MIT students the world over.

We each get about 30 in our pool. Yeh. 30,000 applicants. Of the 30, maybe 25 show up and ask for an interview. Of those, maybe 20 follow through and get the interview. Of those, maybe 5 drop out in the process. So I "have" up to 15 live ones.

Then the sorting begins.

At the end of it, the ones who finally apply are asked to grade their interview.

Hence, my grades today. Results? Better than ever. Almost all 5's and only two 4's out of those who stayed in the pool from the interview until admission or not. Some just go to other schools or opt out.

Sadly, none of my kids got admitted this year. But that is just part of the deal. I would have liked it if the usual one or max two would have made it but not this time.

Oh, yeh? The school mascot is a beaver. What else? The engineer of the animal world.

Labels: MIT