Colton Provias | October 19, 2009

"Hello 2014!"

Hello and welcome to the MIT 2014 applicants! You presently find yourself either on some land mass on the third planet from a completely ordinary sun in a completely ordinary system within the confines of the Milky Way or on some uncharted world within the Andromeda galaxy. Either way, you have stumbled on to MyMIT.info, or what is left of it.

A year ago, eight students found themselves in your position. Heavily stressed from college applications, obscene amounts of school work, and just worry about what will become of their lives and why the latest xkcd comic has been released 2.37 minutes late, we decided that for once we will throw caution to the wind. Over the duration of several weeks, we worked in near secrecy, developing the hack you see before you. We contacted Randall Monroe to create a comic and got in contact with a blogger to post about this hack on the official MIT Admissions Blogs. It was great fun for all eight of us.

However, none of us made it in. We were broken hearted and had to actually look into other colleges. I know, and it was quite horrifying. The website has been slowly dismantled as different members of the team requested their accounts to be deleted, deactivated, or just moved to guest blogger status. The website you see before you is merely a remnant of its former self, and as sad as it may seem that we decided to leave it in this state, we decided as a group that it may be best.

Now as the admissions process starts again for many MIT hopefuls and their minds fill with the same problems we were concerned with, I think it's about time to offer you some advice.

• Don't Panic


• Focus on what you love to do. A student who is passionate about what they do will turn out to be a better person in life.


• Always be prepared for the unexpected. I personally thought that MIT would be perfect for me, but now I find myself working operations at a radio station and am an active member of numerous clubs here at Penn State University Park. I found a niche here at Penn State and if given the chance to attend MIT, I would probably pass it up. I'm not saying to give up on MIT, but to keep in mind that things do not always go to plan. Go for MIT. And if things don't work in the end, give yourself some time to get over the loss but get back on your feet. You might find yourself quite satisfied with where you end up. I know I did.


• Keep MIT as the ultimate goal. It isn't over until you get a rejection, so just keep fighting that battle to get in!


• Don't procrastinate. Use the Pomodoro Technique instead.


• Get involved. This is true anywhere. The more you get involved, the more people you meet. The more people you meet, the more entertaining life is.


• Start learning time management now. I have 4 calendars synced together to help me constantly keep track of my schedule.


• Don't ever be afraid to ask questions.


• Know your limits. I know you should push yourself, but sometimes it is better to take a breather. Right now I run on a schedule that keeps me out of my dorm from about 7:30 AM until sometime between 11 PM and 3 AM almost every day. Yet, I try to keep my Sundays open so I have a chance to sit back and relax for a day, just to clear my mind for the coming week.


• And remember that you are the best and brightest in the world. Take a look at yourself. You have the guts to apply to MIT. Anybody who has the mind to apply to MIT has set them apart from the world and are likely to succeed in life. Wherever you end up, you will do astonishingly well.

I would now like to let you, the MIT'14 applicants, to use what had started this entire hack, the Unofficial MIT Chat. I opened the channel last year and within the confines of the channel I met Ahana and the others, thus getting the ball rolling on this hack. You can find the link to it on the left side of this page or you can access it at chat.mymit.info. Seeing as you guys have a deadline on November 1st for Early Action, I'll stop by around 2 PM Eastern Time to say hello to everybody. Some other hackers may even check in.

Good luck with your applications, your final year of secondary education, saving the universe, finding the question to the answer to life, the universe, and everything of which is 42 but the question is not known, and just life in general!

Responses To This Entry:

Posted by: Ruhban on October 23, 2009 07:10 AM

Posted by: VAL ('14?) on October 27, 2009 11:10 AM

Posted by: Colton on October 28, 2009 12:10 AM

Posted by: Ihope on February 15, 2010 08:02 AM

Posted by: Armin on February 17, 2010 02:02 PM

Posted by: hahaha on March 02, 2010 04:03 PM

Posted by: zzz on March 03, 2010 05:03 PM

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