MIT Admissions

by Angela Z. ‘24

This summer I’m living in Boston with my wonderful friends Penny ′24, Margaret ′23, and Gloria ′21 (you may or may not recognize us as the admin behind @big_dijkstra_energy, a webcomic of math/cs pickup lines)! This is the first time I’ve had to be completely responsible for my sustenance — last semester I lived in East Campus, normally a cook-for-yourself dorm, but being on a meal plan was mandatory due to the pandemic. Let’s just say dining hall food… isn’t exactly what MIT is known for (although I appreciate the dining hall staff dearly, and their warmth/enthusiasm always brightens my day). 

I really missed food from back home, especially stir fry noodles. My grandma and my mom had made them for me throughout my childhood, and during quarantine I finally picked up the recipe myself. Now when it’s my turn to cook (my housemates and I usually rotate between who cooks for the household), stir fry noodles have become my to-go.

Living with my friends revealed that certain cooking habits I thought were completely normal were perhaps less than normal. For example, Penny and Gloria found it absolutely sacrilegious that I’d plop a block of frozen udon directly on the pan without boiling it first. Um it works so why use an extra pot that’ll have to be washed later? On the other hand, Margaret would run cup noodles under the sink to “wash off the seasoning.” Apparently her hometown (Qingdao, China) cuisine is characteristically free of salt  — notable dishes include boiled seafood without any seasoning (she claims the freshness of the seafood is all the flavor you need) and… water. Qingdao is known for its Laoshan Spring water, which holds great cultural and historical significance. If you’re curious about what else we’ve been up to, we’ve been documenting our sometimes cursed, sometimes questionably Masterchef-worthy culinary endeavors on @bd_eats_.

My housemates have had to deal with my stir fry udon, so now the Internet does too. Here’s how I usually make it. A total tangent on the incoming impreciseness/utter lack of measurements — Chinese cuisine generally eyeballs everything. I actually wrote about this in one of my MIT application essays: “We don’t measure out ‘a tablespoon’ of salt or ‘a cup’ of water — we add ‘a splash’ of vinegar or for my egg tart recipe, ‘enough’ milk. As I revise this recipe almost weekly, how much is ‘enough’ is always changing. The world is not clear cut, so neither are our recipes.” A more practical and less pseudo-philosophical explanation offered by my mom is that people just add however much seasoning/ingredients suited for their or their guests’ palates. Since that varies from person to person, you just don’t bother to keep a precise measurement.

Ingredients (serves 2 people if this is the only thing you’ll eat, serves 4 if your housemates also decide to boil two entire heads of broccoli for dinner):

2 packs of frozen udon (I also like to stir fry yakisoba and flat egg noodles)

2 handfuls of frozen shrimp

2 handfuls of mushrooms

2 handfuls of baby bok choy

Pinch of salt

Dash of soy sauce

Dash of oyster sauce

Instructions

Thaw and devein the shrimp. Personally I like keeping the tail on and occasionally also the head (adds flavor and crunch!) but they can be taken off.

Wash the baby bok choy & mushroom. Chop the mushroom.

Add oil + pinch of salt + scallions to your favorite cooking pan. Stir fry shrimp until they turn pink. Take the shrimp out and put them in a separate plate so that they don’t overcook. Cooking the shrimp/general protein first is something my mom taught me: the savory shrimp fat leaches into the oil, which will coat and give everything else a subtle shrimpy flavor.

Add frozen udon directly to the pan. Pour a splash of (preferably) hot water to the udon to help it cook. Ok Penny I swear this is completely totally definitely fine, and the udon will cook all the way through. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to boil the noodles first if you reaaally insist.

McCormick (my dorm) used to always have monthly barbecues in our courtyard, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see that they were continuing even under COVID dorm regulations now! Their watermelon really hits different, and they have hot dogs and hamburgers and salads aplenty. ☀️🍉💦

Here is my roommate and I stopping by Anna’s, our favorite burrito place on campus. Sadly this place and everything else in the student center is closed for COVID atm. Also, if u look closely in this pic u can see our beautiful Lobby 7 building and the alchemist statue 😋 

- emily h. ‘22

--

I’m finally reunited with my love, Clover. Admittedly it is pricey but their sandwiches are SOLID and their drinks are always A1!! Also the owner is an MIT alum which is really cool and the one of the locations near campus, at Central Square, is open 24 hours. This is sounding like an ad loll but 10/10 would recommend especially if you’re vegetarian/vegan. 🥙🍀

Ignore how messy my room already is ~ I live in Simmons, also known as the Sponge because it has 5,538 windows! Here’s a picture of my room and all of 9 of it’s glorious windows. I love when the light peaks through in the morning and it’s always a conversation starter when you’re on zoom. 🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟 

- felix l. ‘23

--

the view from my room!! isn’t she beautiful 🥺🥺? i get to see the sky change colors over the boston skyline every day, and the charles river is actually frozen in this pic so the reflections are really cool!

hayden library has these amazing floor to ceiling windows (MORE pretty river view!!) and it is my absolute favorite study space ever. here’s a pic of a squirrel (if you’ve been here long enough you’ll know that i absolutely love squirrels) watching me study!!

hello am glad you like it!! :)

junior year is stressy but i believe in you <3

Happy New Year!! It’s finally 2021 after the 80 months of 2020. We figured that it would be nice to take some time to reflect on the past year and set some goals for the coming year. Of course don’t feel pressured to do this, but enjoy a list of our definitely reasonable new year’s resolutions!!

Felix ’23

Eat beans! My mom keeps telling me to eat beans so I guess this has to be one of my new year’s resolutions. In all seriousness, I went vegan (kinda hate this word but…) this semester! I’d consider myself a moderately healthy vegan but I plan on eating more whole foods like veggies, fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes vs processed faux meats.

Travel (if allowed + safe). I really miss taking solo trips into Cambridge and Boston to explore hidden gems. Even though I grew up near Boston, I feel like I don’t know Boston/Cambridge that well tbh. I’ve been watching too many travel videos over quarantine and now I’m considering studying abroad!

I started journaling a bit over the summer but I stopped because I didn’t make it a priority of mine. I really undervalued the *power* of journaling and ~manifesting~ so I want to pick up writing again.

Stop being a hoarder ~physically and mentally~ and marie kondo my life. For example, my email inbox is at a total of 22309 emails...

Be consistent! I was all over the place this past semester :((

Learn spanish + french (this is such a stretch goal aiya)

Alison ’23

the obligatory ✨ health ✨ things: sleep earlier bc i definitely feel more refreshed and motivated when i wake up early, exercise more/take more walks bc nature good, DRINK WATER AND YOU SHOULD ALL STAY HYDRATED IT IS VERY IMPORTANT

have more confidence! for some reason i always tend to downplay my abilities and i have a ridiculously high threshold for being able to say that i “know”/”understand” something, and i’m working on that :)

the biggest goal on this list is probably to slow down a little. especially since this past semester has been virtual and being home /feels/ like i have more time, i’ve maybe possibly committed myself to too many things. mit has so many super cool opportunities and it’s tempting to try to sign up for as many as possible, but you may run the risk of spreading yourself too thin and not being able to spend as much time as you would like to on each individual cool thing. which doesn’t sit super well with the Perfectionist™ part of me, so next year we will Calm Down and stop cramming my schedule so hard

which leads me to my last point, which is sort of just a dump of all the things i want to do since i will presumably stick to resolution #3 and have more free time

read more!! after telling myself this every year, i finally sat down and read a lot of books last summer and it was an 11/10 experience would recommend

stop watching youtube videos about food and actually make the food

revive my lettering instagram

get better at digital art

learn how to Animate also drop out and work at pixar

grow an entire plant army

learn how to talk to squirrels, not sure where this one will go yet but it’ll be good

are these new year's resolutions or my bucket list scientists can’t tell

Emily ’22

Six pack abs

6.0/5.0 GPA

Make a boba buying schedule so I don’t fall into bankruptcy

Continue learning Chinese and bring honor to my family and cow

Develop some semblance of a career plan

Read the Tokyo Ghoul manga because the anime changed my life

Finally learn how to draw anime proportions so I can bring my visions to life

Figure out how to consume tiktok at a not hours-at-a-time rate

Cure brain cancer

hi! so those are the special subjects that change from semester to semester, and they’re super cool bc they range in difficulty/prereqs and are kind of whatever professors want to teach outside of the normal catalog that semester.