esrosedotblog

I was the first person from my family to go to college.

I do have to say that my cousin Phil went to a business school, two years. And flunked out.

I, on the other hand, as you may have heard, went to fucking MIT.

What was that like for my parents? What was it like for me?

The answer to both questions is nicely put together in this NYTimes Essay.

Taking My Parents to College

I can remember the day very clearly when they dumped me off on Ames Street in Cambridge.

Well, not really true. They did help me unload the car. But I couldn't get rid of them fast enough. Truth is that I dumped them.

They knew that. We had rehearsed this scene over and over.

High drama.

They did not stay with me. I had a week of "orientation" after all which, in reality, was pledge week at the fraternities.

And I had no intention whatsoever of joining a fraternity. None.

Why I felt this way (and still do) is still a bit of a mystery except for my clear identity as an introvert.

Every "advantage" that I heard about frat-life was a threat to my independence.

I did attend some functions. I went to a breakfast for freshman at some church so I could report home that I had tried that.

I went to an orientation that was held in my faculty adviser's home (everyone had one of these, use them or not, I did not)

Mostly I isolated.

Fortunately I was an avid non-drinker then. Had I been on the booze I would have been in the hospital. Instead, I suffered.

As it happened, there was another freshman in my dorm. And more miraculously, this kid was from Newfoundland PA which is only twenty miles from my hick town only hickier. The son of an undertaker.

He was so scared that we could not talk. Even I was less frightened than he was. I am sure today that, like me, he was gay. A queer in those years.

What saved me was the arrival in the dorm of the well entrenched sophomores, juniors and seniors who had lived in this unit "for years".

My roommate was a sophomore who was even more insecure than I was.

Arthur had terminal acne. The room smelled of his medication, that sulfur stuff. His voice had not broken yet. A clarinet player, he had buck teeth and, I am grateful, never played in the room but went to practice sessions of the school concert band. Which was excellent. Made records.

We did not get along but neither of us would admit it.

We stayed the year.

Then I found another kid in my freshman section, Chem Engineering, also a closet case and while we never ever did it our "sensibility", the brother hood of sissies, got us through two years before we finally had it with each other.

A long story. But I am sure all from repressed feelings for one another. I can still see his body. I will not elaborate. Oh. Those were the days!

So, where was I?

My parents wanted to know all the details of my life at MIT. I could share none of it.

Or wouldn't.

How could I tell them about the things that were happening to me? The real college things.

I could also not tell them about the fear and anxiety. The terrible ball clenching terror of class and the threat of failing. I had no alternatives.

They were, or I thought them to be (same things) a third world embarrassment.

I went home the first summer between freshman and sophomore years. Horrific. I was so unhappy.

I never went back after that. I had a dining hall job at MIT that I could segue into the summer, my course got me a lab job in a food manufacturing plant (a layabout job, full of fun, I learned how to be the rebel, my introduction to rebellious thinking in the corporate environment. See below) I lived on campus in a free room in the dining hall. I had so imbedded myself by this time that it was my true home. I can still smell that upper break room where I slept. It was seldom used because it was on the fourth floor. Soft furniture, a lounge. Wonderful! Soaked it in. The loner life was begun. The one I managed to lead until this very day. Alone but not. You have to be one to understand.

I had left my family behind. The house family, the extended family, I never went back.

I did honor my father and my mother (dad more than mom) and did the obligatory. But I was on my way and no one, not anyone, from my past came along.

I was a less than mediocre academic success but I excelled at the non-curricular. Dance committees, political office, just fucking around. I ended up my last year as the head captain of the dining hall. My former summer bedroom became a lounge for the staff. Blah blah blah.

Labels: family, home, MIT

I don't much like "best of lists" unless the one I want is on the top.

I sat through the entire video, below, before finding out what I already knew.

The best college/university in the country is......wait for it.

Class of 1958, me.

Labels: college, MIT

I am the first member of my family to go to college.

And, what is more to go to a fine college that, while not in the Ivy League, is head and shoulders above most Ivy schools.

MIT! Yeah team.

It was not difficult for me. I think there were quotas for small towns although I am sure they would deny that.

Getting in was not the first problem of being first generation. Staying was a bitch.

I had to work hard to get minimum grades but I also worked hard at working in the dining halls and to get the loans I needed to stay there. Scholarships were out of my reach after the first term.

And I got through. And I did well especially with my peers at the non-academic stuff. I ran the entire student staff of the biggest dining hall and ran a large committee that put on the one white tie dance every year.

I am not bragging, I am just saying that college, for me, was a transformation more complete than just improving my social class status. I was vaulted into the meritocracy and did very well as a result.

I am still the only member of my generation to attend college. There were several who went to business school or other two year colleges.

In the next generation there are many who went on to college and university. It was a total leap for the family into a different world.

Labels: college, life, MIT

I had my only interview with an MIT prospect this year.

It went fine and I enjoyed it and I think he did too.

The weird thing is that I have only five prospectives in my region when, in other years, there have been 30-40. With 20 or so opting for the interview which is not mandatory.

I am a member of the Education Council which is a fancy word for alumni who volunteer to give a face to face interview with an applicant for the next freshman class.

I am sure that there is not another member of the Council in my area. I don't get it. No one has explained it to me.

But I do know that this year they did not do the two or three invitational get together for high school seniors in my area.

I have been thinking that this is my last year doing this anyway. But if I only get a couple of kids it is more doable. A weird outcome.

So I will wait and see what happens.

I had a good time. He was a good kid. An average applicant which means that he is above average student. That sounds like puffery but it is the truth.

MIT is very hard to get into. 17000 applicants for a class of about a thousand. Or less.

Tough odds.

Labels: MIT

Since I am still in the student applicant business for MIT, I read all the propaganda that comes out about cost and delivery.

Money Magazine has a new ranking out based on the cost and the earnings of a graduate from a host of schools.

The first and best two schools are basically business schools. Babson and Webb Institute. I know Babson. Not Webb.

The third ranking school for bang for the buck is MIT.

Money's Best Colleges.

I graduated there and still interview students who are prospects in my area. Or they interview me.

This is great grist for the mill. Money.

I am not surprised about this although I do think that MIT is one of the most expensive schools in the world. That said, it also has one of the best student aid infrastructures of any school in the world. Maybe the best.

In our interviews (optional talks really with an alumnus and a student over coffee) the issue of cost doesn't come up much. I tell them not to worry about it. I know that whatever their situation, if they have the stuff, the money angle is the last one that is looked at. And never for admission. More for aid.

All applications are blind as to financial circumstances and we are not to address or ask about that. I do not of course. But in my area of the country it is sometimes glaringly obvious that a second or even first generation Mexican boy or girl has a financial hardship. Some not, but most do.

We step aside from it.

All that is handled later after admission.

And that is a good thing.

Since I attended over fifty years ago, the emphasis is on talent and personality. And not net worth.

It is still going on that way.

Good.

Labels: MIT, money

In writing about Angell, below, I realized something.

I have been reading The New Yorker for 60 years.

When I went to MIT, the dorm sold magazines in the "office" and as I got to be friends with Freddy, a character out of the annals of queendom, he shoved this magazine in my hands and said the equivalent of "read, dear, read".

So I did. And I was tested. Freddy made sure I bought one every week and what is more, he would ask questions about the articles. How did I like this or that.

I didn't go to MIT for the courses actually. As it turns out, I barely managed to pass those. What I got was a whole way of life which was totally new for a boy from the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. A hillbilly. A smart one and an alien among his people but a hillbilly nonetheless. Incidentally the word "hillbilly" passes the spell check with flying colors.

The desk which turned out to be a little fiefdom of its own (I worked there later in the game but was a dining hall worker for most of my time there), impressed itself on every kid who ever lived on East Campus. A complex of dorm buildings all in a tight little community never to be outdone by the newer dorms on West Campus across Massachusetts Drive. We were proles. They were more upper class, non-scholarship. We were clearly sent to East Campus because we were part of a group identified as student aid kids. Loans, scholarships but not likely, and workers on campus jobs. My kind of people. They knew what they were doing, if they were doing it and I believe that they were. In those days stuff like that was done routinely. It worked! No rich kid ever appeared on East Campus except to get help on his homework from some smarter kid who was on the way up. Who might even, someday, hire the rich kid for a job. It was that way. A kind of unraveling of the social fabric that led to MIT leaders all over the world. A lot of people think it is the education. Sure. But it is the experience. The way of life. Engineering has no classes. It works to undo the system not reinforce it. Revolutionary.

MIT was the first school to have work co-op programs in three departments, deals with the likes of IBM and other big companies to take on kids as interns. Nurtured into the system. In a good way.

I digress.

The key point I am making is that it was MIT life, not MIT academics, that made me the man I was and still am today. And, thank god for that. And for Freddy and The New Yorker. One more aspect of the making of a life. What you put in is what you get out.

That's Boston in the background incidentally, after the Charles River.

Labels: culture, MIT

An MIT boy is never finished with being graded.

True to form, the interviewees that I see each year, applicants for admission, are asked to rate their interview on a scale of 1-5.

This year I got all "5's" but for two "4's".

Good for me.

Of course, my reaction is that something was wrong, I should have done better, what could I do to improve this? Why not all "5's"?

And that is just the reason that they have these things. Grade anxiety.

We had quizzes every Friday in Freshman year and I was near crapping my pants every week.

It takes a long time to get over this even if graduation came and went and it is all over. I might even dream about this tonight. Also that I am taking the final and haven't ever gone to class.

The two who gave me a 4 were women. This is often the case. I am a bit puzzled by this but, then again, as a gay man I do not respond to the normal "cues" that are out there. Or it could just be the odds.

I do not mean there is anything wrong with this. It is the way of the world.

Nor am I self pitying about it. I am the interviewer after all and I get to be whoever, however I am. It is the old thing about not tailoring my approach to fit other people's expectations. Fashionable or otherwise.

An example. Not my course. But it is the same thing. These are not trivial.

Labels: MIT

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

Not many people know you can go to MIT without paying any tuition.

But it is true. Up to a point. Look here: MIT Open Course Ware

More and more of the kids that I interview have taken one of these programs.

But anyone can do it.

I guess other schools do the same thing but MIT was an innovator in the field.

I am not sure how this will sit with the lifetime ticket to any job you want that we all had when we went there. But it has to be significant.

It is the real deal. Not some watered down version of a live class.

It is a new age in higher education where, in reality, there is no "higher" in that anyone seeking success needs at least 14 and probably 16 years of school under their belt.

Labels: education, MIT

A day off today, at the gym. That is my weekend. Otherwise it is pretty much like another day. Sunday is no mail and we have a weekly threesome walk wherever Booker wants to go. With a little coaching here and there. No mail. That is my complete weekend.

Interview with an MIT candidate today. Interesting people. Young woman who came to USA in 6th grade, no English. She caught on pretty quick. Has no accent. She is a karate teacher. Black belt. And captain of the local karate team. Teaches groups, mostly kids, but really anyone with a lower belt than she has. I am meeting a lot of kids who do not do school activities much but have outside pursuits. The other day, a big brother for two nine year old boys. That kind of thing.

No movie today. No time. Early to bed I think.

Labels: MIT

MIT interview today. I picked a new place to meet. The old spot in the village was constantly under assault by events being held there. Crowds. Last weekend it was biker's weekend. This week, the end of the gay pride parade. So I met the kid in a coffee place near where we used to live, new to me as I don't do coffee in "places", but it all worked out. Plenty of parking, nice surroundings, not crowded, not too noisy from the nearby street. Just right. I am going to use it again next week. The interview was so so. I wrote as enthusiastically as I could. That is my new policy. Pump it up reasonably. I have found in the feedback I get from MIT that they downgrade me when I am critical of the kid. I am never too tough but they like to hear the good side and draw their own conclusions. Another few years at this and I will have it down.

We are under siege from painters of the condo A major project, the first painting of the wood and stucco, all around, in over 20 years. I moved all the plants, mostly cactus, and stuff to the middle of the patio and the gardeners have trimmed back most, not all, of the bushes in preparation for the washers and painters. People who have had this done so far, on the other side, say it is not too bad in the actual painting. The results look pretty good although a bit undramatic as I do not see that much difference between then and now. But that is me. People are a bit upset when I don't ooh and aaaahhh over it. It is as though it is their personal paint job. But it is not.

Labels: cactus, condo, MIT

It is amusing to see all the hoo hah about our listening in on Merkel's phone calls. Is this a surprise? I would listen in on Angela Merkel anytime I could to figure out which way she will swerve on any given day. All this attention to spying is pure sensationalism. Believe me, if they could, they would all be listening in on Obama. Watch. The same people that howl against this are the ones who also want transparency and openness in government. How open can you get? Don't get me wrong. I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls but it is going to happen and happen big time the higher up one goes in the international game. Sorry. My reaction is that I am positively impressed with our skill at this shit. The Germans have to be pretty smart at security, they practically invented it. But this is an embarrassment to them and it is not going down well but it is not the end of the world. When Germany and Merkel want to disassociate from us and cuddle up with the new Putin, that will be something. For now, she should be grateful to have us nestled up to her ear.

I just finished the least likely book I would read all year. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin. Unlikely as it is that Mary. You know, the holy mother. Why? Did I read it? Because I read everything by Toibin. He is a bit of a professional catholic. And I am not sorry I read it. As a literary experience it is pretty good. As a spiritual experience it is weird because the "new god" is not in it. Mary likes Artemis. She tells the hyper familiar story of Jesus in the end days and her experience of the whole thing. First, she is not cowed by the people who are milking her for her take on the whole thing. The guys who wrote the gospels. They are putting the story together and they have just a bit of an idea of how it should go and they want her concurrence. But she doesn't want to go along. In turn, they will protect her as it is not too safe a time to be the chosen one's mom even though she is out of the places where they are after the newly minted christians. Her story of it all is not that much different but she is a skeptic when it comes to the miracle stuff. She sees some of it and can explain it some. Lazarus was buried prematurely and even though he was out of the grave he was comatose for a long time after and then died for real. She says she saw the water into wine thing but didn't know but what all the jugs had wine except the one the gang set up for him to wave his hand over. And so on. As for the resurrection, she does not see it but rather sees it in a dream along with the other Mary. The novel is short and a very satisfying fiction read. I don't know how you would take it all if you were a believer in the myths but I don't think you would be offended by her take on things. After all, she is his Mom and the idea of a virgin birth is kind of abstract when you have been having regular sex with your husband all along. She focuses on the fact that this is her son. The boy she raised who went away and came back a man. A man with some strange presence about him. And with followers. Not only disciples but a rabble who hung out around the phenom who was viewed to be the new king of the jews. I liked this novel and would read it again sometime. Toibin is a great writer who has done non-fiction work as well as journalism, not the same thing as non-fiction literature. Sorry, if you are a journalist you are not quite and artist of the written word. So the book is a meld of all the genrés, a neat piece of reporting from the front by an eyewitness and a poetic recitation on motherhood. No matter who your son is or was or will be.

Another interview today with a young woman who has been especially mystified by driving here and finding the meeting place. I expect to point out that going to Boston area will be a lot more complicated but perhaps not. You hop on a plane and get off and take a cab. Here she has to drive from out in the Imperial Valley and find her way through the desert, five other "cities" which are not, and then find my corner in a place she has never, apparently, been. I did warn her about the bikers being there. So far it does not seem to have deterred her from the interview. Me either.

Labels: Administration Obama, books, desert, MIT

I interviewed an MIT applicant today in the middle of Palm Springs motorcycle weekend. I forget to check the events calendar before I have an interview so, each year, I will hit an event which pours a lot of traffic and activity right where I meet up. The place of the meeting is all pre-arranged although I can call at the last minute and get things squared away. Today it was the bikes and the bikers. It all worked out. Please, excuse me, but do bikers know that they are a walking talking stereotype? The look. Men and women. It is a little embarrassing. The kid today was from La Quinta, a ritzier city down valley. Some welcome to Palm Springs. Cheesy. But we met up and had a good talk and I liked him and was able to write a good review of an unconventional kid who has a lot to offer and has had experiences that many of us are unlikely to ever be involved in. He was a troubled teen and got packed off to a boot camp style "academy" when he was in 8th grade. In the middle of the night. Two "transporters". From there it is a story of finding one's self and growing up. The system seems to have worked for him. He has stayed there four years and mentors other kids. I really liked him.

The bikers disappeared but my god they are a mess.

The interview threw my day off and my new regime of walking Booker in the afternoon went by the wayside. He doesn't seem to mind.

Labels: Booker, MIT

So maybe I can do the blog with less of a flourish and just headline the days.

It is worth a try. It seems as though am not ready to give it up yet.

Today's film was The Boys in the Band which we have seen quite a few times and which does not lose its power to move emotions and a sense of value about how far we have come since its time. 1970 seems like a century ago. On the other hand, there are certain gay life eternals and they ring true, mostly the funny parts. There are quite a few of those.

My reaction is that a lot of the self hatred people saw in it when it came around was not so much in the film as in the film watcher.

I got it out because I just saw the documentary about making it. Mart Crowley, the writer, was featured. He remarked that it was amazing to him that we were still talking about this film 40 years later. Yes.

The photo is from a cast reunion. All but a few of the guys are gone now, mostly from AIDS.

We are slowly getting back to normal after quite a wonderful visit with two of "our boys" who visited and vacated for themselves and were able to do some chores for us but mostly be available for family time right there in living color.

It is important to staying in touch that we, for awhile, be touching.

They installed a new faucet in my bathroom and if I had known what an undertaking it was I might have not asked them to do the work.

But it did not seem to be a hardship for them who, surprisingly, acted like a team even though one had more experience and took the lead.

John and I are only children and it is amazing to us to see brothers together. John came to say that they were talking to one another all the time. Which is true but also not really true. They are in cahoots with each other in a way that I envy. Very nice to watch and to be a part of.

They have a collective memory of their family life which is revealing in the conversation. Only exceeded by the wealth of collective memory when there are more than two kids around.

This annual visit involves others other years but this year the rest of the gang are either out of the continent or doing other work or otherwise occupied and could not be here. We missed them and still had a great time.

I am having a normal week ending on Saturday with an interview with an MIT kid. Which, for this time of year, is normal.

Labels: blogging, family, films, MIT

I conducted my first MIT student applicant interview of the year today.

It was a great start.

A nice, outspoken, self aware kid who has a lot of talent and is likable besides.

I was able to recommend him as a good admit all things being equal which, of course, they usually are not.

The odds are pretty stiff against kids and they know it.

But their interview is important and they know that too.

So I try to take it as seriously as I would want for myself.

Some kids make that easy. He was one of them.

I always learn something new and he was engaged in a gaming organization with a long reach into his community and in the world.

He is an "official". Someone who knows the rules, arbitrates disputes, and teaches where people are encountering one of the areas new to them.

The surprising thing is that it is computerized but mostly depends on the playing of "cards" which are physical like a 52 traditional card deck.

They have game rooms at the game stores where these people meet.

The fans of the game cut a wide swath through the social strata. A lot of military, as it turns out, because it is something that is available wherever they are stationed and a good social outlet in a place where there is little such opportunity.

There is a huge Navy/Marine base near here and they are the people he has worked with.

What a great opportunity for a smart kid.

Labels: gaming, MIT

I got my "names" of prospective applicants for the class entering MIT in the fall of 2014.

The term "prospective" means that they have shown interest and are due to submit the part one (no fee) application.

Some of them will start calling for their interview.

Last year, none until late September. Previous year I had three or four in August. So it could start anytime soon.

I will meet with them for an hour or less in the Palm Springs village over coffee chain coffee. They don't bring anything but themselves. I don't see anything else actually, ever.

They can wear what they want, I do.

I go home and write a report which takes me about an hour or more to complete. Two essay questions. Ever MIT.

I have a bigger but not the biggest list this year. 35 kids.

I notice that there are none from the one school that has supplied the last three years' acceptances. They could have two or three. Maybe some others will come in.

There will be a few who never send in their part one application and will never, therefore, interview. We will see what happens.

I will probably see 30 of them. It is not required but is highly recommended as only 5 percent of any class are accepted without an interview. I hear that soon it will be mandatory.

Nothing is standard.

Picture is of Room 10-26 (at MIT all rooms are numbered of course), vintage close to my time. Professor Kiergard, the freshman physics lecturer. The old biggest lecture hall. Blood sweat and tears.

Labels: MIT

B+ OR A-

I got my grades today for the MIT interviews I did last fall.

Yes. It is MIT. We are never, ever done with grades.

The people who read the essays that I write for each applicant get to give me a 1-5 grade on how I did.

These essays are fucking hard to do.

I go see the kid for up to an hour. I come home, I write them up in the next hour or two and that is it.

I have only rescinded a writeup one time. You go to the office and they erase the whole report and I redo it top to bottom.

It is labor intensive.

I have learned that what they want is an original piece. A plug in kind of job will not do. It is apparent when I read back over them what a plug in is. Generalities, clichés, pro forma rundowns.

They want juice. Excitement. You can get by with a dull write up but it will get a 3. I have never gotten less.

So here is how it went this year. It is the best year I have had. I average out at a 4.6 out of 5.

One 3. And I know why. I want to blame the applicant but I can't do that.

I read the report I did and I could see that it was bland and filling in the blanks. I remember the interview. The person was very smart and spoke three languages and I kind of got caught up in that and didn't explore much beyond it.

Being MIT, there is also reward mention if I get a perfect 5.0. I forget what it is. Some chart somewhere. Eternal light on the web.

I am pleased with the results and pleased that I am pleased, if you get my drift. Another sign of life.

Labels: MIT

ADMIT TWO

Good news today.

Another kid that I interviewed was admitted to MIT this week. I had one in the "early admission" process.

That makes two from my area (from the eastern state line to the Banning Pass and from the high desert down to the international border).

Many years we have none. It is the first time I have had two.

I invest considerable time and energy in the interview process each year. Anywhere from 15-25 kids, depending on how many get to stage two applications and how many decide to get an optional interview (almost all).

They are a wonderful mix of kids. Big, little, mature and not so much. A new millennium ethnic mix, the way we will all be in another generation.

Extraordinary kids. Top of their classes, movers and shakers. Many have been wishing for this since they were little kids. Really.

Every once in a while a clinker but that is rare. And when that happens, I have been able to help them decide to make other plans.

This year's class had over 18000 applications of which 1548 students were admitted. This give us an admission rate of 8.2%

It used to be 10%.

I look at their faces knowing that only one or two will make it from here. A sad reality.

At the current percentage admits, we should be sending two kids out of this area every year and I bend over backward to write a positive review for each of them that I think should be admitted. Almost all. I am told no one at MIT compares the writeups to see that I recommend almost indiscriminately.

But many factors come into play and we have to be realistic and realize that the desert does not offer some of the academic and cultural enrichment that a lot of kids from urban areas enjoy. It is more of a stretch to get kids into MIT from places like this. Because I came from an impoverished schooling, I am with them on this. Unfair but a fact nonetheless.

This year the two guys who are going into the new class are standouts. I wish I could tell you their inspiring stories but I cannot, of course. Suffice to say that I am quite proud to have made their acquaintance and to have a small part in their achievement.

Labels: MIT

OUT ON THE FIELD

Yes. MIT has a baseball team. Yes. There are a lot of gay people at MIT.

It only figures that the old Venn diagram would overlap sooner or later.

Ballplayer Gets Big Hit Coming Out

Great. Great when anyone comes out. Great when an MIT student comes out. Great for ball players when any athlete comes out anywhere.

There were a lot of gay people at MIT when I went there. I was one, right, huh?

Then there were the others that I found through some trial and error during my time there.

MIT had the first gay student group. Anywhere. Good beginning.

I interviewed at least two open gay guys who wanted to attend.

Sure, there are gay engineers. Sure there are engineers who can play good softball.

Labels: coming out, gay rights, gay sports, MIT

ACCEPTED

The big news today is that one of my "kids" who I interviewed for MIT has been accepted.

I remember him well and I gave him one of my best write-ups.

This does not happen very often.

I shot a "congratulations" email to him this morning.

He is the first "early action" kid that has gotten in.

I always figure that earlies are a slim chance. I still am not sure why people want to go in that direction. But they do. More and more.

What makes the difference for a kid to be accepted, I think, is a compelling life story. And a clear ability to make lemonade out of lemons. To work hard. If you don't find yourself on the winning side then look for a back entrance.

Just a small part of this guy's story is that when he moved to his present school, he wanted to play basketball but he was short and fat. Today he is on the varsity. A Bob Cousy of the team. I hope you know who Bob Cousy is. This young man does.

He is still short. But not fat.

Of course, his admission has little to do with me or my writeup but I am pleased nevertheless.

I think that it is no accident that he attends the same school that my last admit comes from. He is now a Junior. A success. But all admits are successful. That is how good the MIT selection and retention process is.

A happy day.

My last interview is today. Yesterday's was great. A wonderful kid who would be a good admit.

Labels: MIT