従いまして、大阪市交通局・阪急電鉄・大阪高速鉄道(モノレール)・北大阪急行電鉄・京都市交通局において振替輸送を実施しております。

Keihan is the train line I take to work @ Panasonic every day. The above message says that the trains have stopped running because lightning caused a short in telephone lines of multiple trains. They’re trying to repair it now. In the meantime, I heard the loudest thuderstorm today of any thunderstorm I’ve heard ever. On any continent. >_<

Only problem. I’m REALLY HUNGRY! And there’s a McDonald’s 5 min walk from here. DON’T TEMPT ME, OSAKA! Ironically, I had the very good intention of going to the gym two hours ago.

Freshman year, you’re unpacking. You’re not quite a college student yet – your ‘immature’ high school past haunts you. Upperclassmen laugh at your stupid questions and get annoyed with your positive (which to them = naive) attitude. You meet new friends, try out new classes, maybe feel utterly confused at times. No worries, the ‘real’ college life will begin soon, you will be an upperclassman too.

Sophomore year. Ok, we’re getting into the nitty gritty of it all. Classes pick up the pace, pressure to find what ‘you’re destined to do’ comes from all directions. “Surely, I must know what I want by NOW!” Unlike what you thought in high school, you most probably still have no idea what the hell you’re supposed to do with your life. Hmm, maybe you were naive in high school after all. It’s okay though, college life, the one talked about so much in movies, has just begun, there is still time to finally grow up.

Junior Year? Ha. I don’t know, haven’t gotten there yet. But I have a feeling it will go by just as fast as Freshman/Sophomore year went. And Senior year… everyone knows Seniors are pseudo-alumns. It’s as if you can see them with one foot out of the door into the future, just as Freshman had one foot stuck in high school.

This makes for a new topic to write about. What DID happen in the last two years? What do I want to remember? What do I wish I didn’t remember? Did I spend these two years effectively? It WAS half of college. Half of this supposed college life everyone loves to talk about. College roommates, college flings, college boyfriends, college experimentation, you name it. Did I do it all? Should I do a few more things in the two years I have left so I don’t feel jipped afterwards?

“Nevermore shall this pain go on.” -Boston Common

“Wow, I can’t breathe how awesome it is.”

“My experiences have made me the person I am today – someone just a few steps away from achieving his first big goal.” -Ivan Dimitrov (1986-2007)

Personally, I believe that McCain knows very well what he is doing, and most probably doesn’t agree with any of these people. Unfortunately, standing up for what is right does not equal winning the election, so in order to win the ‘religious vote’ he needs them. For better or for worse, that is American politics today.

As someone half-Jewish (sepharatic), half-Eastern Orthodox Christian, Bulgarian, living and studying in US and Japan, I am especially committed to promoting tolerance. Thank you again.

In this paper, William Deresiewicz writes about how horrible it is to have an elite education. To name a few things:

• Can’t talk to ‘dumb’ or real people; (Gives example of his plumber)
• Academic intelligence isn’t the only kind of intelligence.
• False sense of self worth “My GPA/SAT is higher. I’m better.”
• “There are due dates and attendance requirements at places like Yale, but no one takes them very seriously. Extensions are available for the asking; threats to deduct credit for missed classes are rarely, if ever, carried out. ” Anyone doing their work thinks they DESERVE an A.
• Inflation teaches you to expect underserved good treatment/corruption in real world.
• BUSH HAD AN ELITE EDUCATION!!!
• Education forgot that it’s job is to make minds, not careers.

Finally:

The world that produced John Kerry and George Bush is indeed giving us our next generation of leaders. The kid who’s loading up on AP courses junior year or editing three campus publications while double-majoring, the kid whom everyone wants at their college or law school but no one wants in their classroom, the kid who doesn’t have a minute to breathe, let alone think, will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government. She will have many achievements but little experience, great success but no vision. The disadvantage of an elite education is that it’s given us the elite we have, and the elite we’re going to have.

I agree with a lot of what he says. And yet, I am still very proud to be going to MIT. There are many aspects of this elite education that he describes that just aren’t present at MIT. Perhaps a better title would have been, “The Disadvantages of an Ivy Education.” Are we ridiculously proud (I will admit, sometimes more than we should be) of our grades and academic prowess? Yes. Are there students who believe that the fact that they were National Merit Scholars and got 2400 on their SATs (Yes, I’m young) makes them better? Yes.

But when is the last time we expected to get an A, just by doing satisfactory work, were randomly excused from not attending ‘attendance mandatory’ classes, or given As unfairly? I can’t recall such a time. The last time I checked, I worked my ass off (pardon my language) for the A’s I got, and the average grade in classes is indeed a B or C. Heck, this semester I had to fight for an A- in one of my classes because even though the calculated grade came out to an A-, the professor had decided to give me a B+ (it matters @ MIT because on official transcripts there are no plusses or minuses, so A- is an A, B+ is B). Hell, as uncommon as my example might be, isn’t it an example of rounding DOWN?

The reason many of us are so proud all the time, is that we need to have something keeping us going. If we were killing ourselves for nothing, what’s the point? On the contrary to Deresiewicz’s point about expecting an easy life after an easy college life, many MIT alumns say that life at MIT was often so academically tumultuous and challenging, that ‘real life’ seemed like a break from MIT. Also, one of the things many of the most competitive companies say about MIT students is that we learn how to think, and how to work, and that’s why they want us.

If some of us [us = MIT students] can’t talk to real people, that’s our own problem (and often, it is because these people are so nerdy they can’t talk much to any people ). It is by no means encouraged. There are numerous programs at MIT for students to help less educated members of community, etc.

As far as getting into MIT, it is vastly different from the process of getting into Ivy Leagues. As a technical university, MIT seeks out technically-minded indivuduals. I haven’t met any atheletic scholarship students, and no legacies. A good (aka Rich) high school education will most definitely not guarantee you a place at MIT. In fact, there are many brilliant (academically) people who not only have the grades to show it, but early interest in science and research, many awards in their areas of interest, etc. who still don’t get into MIT. I will not pretend that there are no injustices here, or that the most ‘deserving’ people always get in. But the ratio of those who get in to those who get in at Ivy League universities is very different.

I’m sorry Mr. Deresiewicz, but I think you’ve made an unjust generalization by calling out ‘elite’ education, as opposed to ivy league education. I think Caltech would agree.

My name is Nora, and I am on the way to starting my sophomore year at MIT. English is my third language. I grew up in Bulgaria, but in third grade my family moved to Kyoto, Japan. I found myself going to elementary school in a world completely alien to anything I had known before. In 1999, my family moved again, this time to the US. Thus, I have been here for about 7 years now. Three years ago, a little creature called Peri was born, and my parents keep convincing me that she is my sister, and not a cute and amusing pet.

I have always been interested in science, and it took very little time to put MIT at the top of my college list in high school. Now that I have finished a whole year of college, I see that I made the right choice. The atmosphere here [MIT] cannot be found anywhere else.

So now you may wonder – (or maybe not) – why a “young traveler”? I see my (short but eventful) life thus far as a series of adventures. Bulgaria.. Japan.. USA.. Peri.. MIT. College is but the current destination. In this blog I will try to explore some of these adventures, past and future alike. Maybe some of you will be amused as well.