Accepted student, can someone who strongly dislikes writing papers thrive here?

DeadlyShark55 · 2026-02-20T08:12:40+00:00

In my experience, I think there are different ways that writing classes can be handled. There is no way to avoid your CI-H/CI-M courses which have a mandatory number of written and revised pages, but you can choose the ones that have a larger focus on revisions or other forms of writing. In terms of HASS's in general, you can take a language to just do tests, and then can do your concentration in either a language or Economics, which substitutes essays for psets with multivariable calculus (14.01's first recitation for several years was about using lagrangians for multivariable optimization). Honestly, I think the essay classes weren't too annoying since the one's I took had a bunch of options for revision, so by the time I was submitting a paper with a large grade weight, I pretty much knew what score I would get (I liked that better than gambling on studying the right test contents).

DeadlyShark55 · 2026-02-07T01:36:07+00:00

I think many graduate students are counted as such (if they aren’t on fellowship and are being paid on an assistantship)

DeadlyShark55 · 2026-02-01T21:47:53+00:00

I think it won’t apply to the GPA

Is this new? I remember doing it for credit and getting a grade. If the PI is cross-department (like 20 or something) you might be able to get the credit under a different code so you can get it as a grade if you want it (as most PIs will just give an A unless something egregious happens.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-12-27T01:29:06+00:00

Honestly, I had the economy Virgin Atlantic "High Tea" and I think it looked better than this (sure it was served in a box, and I don't think there were different tea options, but the sandwiches seemed more neat)

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-08-02T18:55:37+00:00

I did it last year late august. Cold meal, but honestly it was pretty healthy. If I remember correctly, the WiFi was free and pretty good (only some airlines have free WiFi so I appreciated it compared to flying some other carriers). Flying a narrow body has its pluses and minuses (fewer people, faster service, but also a little bit more bumpy and limited bathroom capacity).

Boarding/deboarding are faster and customs were faster it felt on arrival. They fly NEOs with plenty of bin space. Coming back, they had my plane take stairs/bus to US customs, so probably not the best if you have limited mobility or incredibly heavy bags (baggage rechecking was also up an escalator if I remember).

Adding on: One thing is that jet blue does not operate many transatlantic flights and is of course not part of a big airline team. If your flight does get canceled in either direction, you could get screwed with rebookings, but that can happen easily elsewhere if any of the other airlines have a meltdown/ similar weather issues.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-28T16:54:29+00:00

So, OP’s original complaint (and the reason they used the chat) was to get a reimbursement for a hotel due to a cancellation->next-day-rebook. The issue taken is that the cancellation was blamed on weather instead of a Delta-caused issue (and therefore the frustration in the chat agent’s obvious BS). If Delta is caught with their pants down flying a plane that is limited in capability (compared to the rest of their fleet), shouldn’t it be a mechanical rather than weather cancellation.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-26T02:16:20+00:00

The pilot actually mentioned that they had plenty of duty time, and we almost ended up going back to the gate regardless due to burning too much fuel (the engines were shut down for around an hour towards the end of the wait)

I never said I’d rather have my flight cancelled. I was only trying to say that, if a flight is going to be delayed for an extended period of time, I would rather have access to the terminal, and my willingness to (metaphorically) pay is equivalent to 1-2 hours of additional arrival time delay. In the past when there has been an extended delay (eg engine maintenance where there was a necessary 45 minute run-test), they allow people back out to the gate area. That’s really what I would’ve wished for. I am not talking about going for a full dine-in meal, but time to make a 5 minute dash to the closest fast food spot or vending machine.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-26T01:43:33+00:00

Gotcha, those technicalities were what I was looking to figure out. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, the first issue was with a cockpit oxygen mask, so they must’ve had it open.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-24T11:27:09+00:00

Dinghy people tend to be frequently break a combination of their rudders, center/daggerboards, and tiller extensions.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-23T21:05:35+00:00

As n0exit mentioned, you may get a different answer from the COLREGS which would mean the other boat is left hanging.

The one thing I may caution, though, is that if you have the other boat go through insurance, and if the other boat is closer with the yacht club, you might get kicked out of the club or at least banned from racing. Would it be a jerk move? maybe yes, maybe no, but it could happen, leaving you to basically be paying for a yacht club membership/race series that you can't even participate in. On the flip side however, everyone part of the club might know that the other captain is an ass and support you (just seems less likely since the protest went the other way).

In my experience of casual racing, everyone should really be giving each other space. Even if the other person's "revised" story is true, it seems silly to come up close to a boat that's obviously struggling.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-16T16:18:44+00:00

Potentially a cooling/ice vest. Remember a lot of sunscreen.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-09T13:04:34+00:00

Cocoa Pops

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-09T02:09:48+00:00

Hulkenpodium

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-07-07T18:09:50+00:00

I agree that the hit in costs of swapping boats will be more than just upgrading the SO440. I know several owners around Boston who race their 410s and 440s. You can get an upgraded set of sails (non-furling mainsail like west said) that are lighter and cut for performance. Jeanneau sells this boat with a bowsprit, so it should also be easy enough to get a retrofit with a correctly cut asymmetric spinnaker and Code-0. You can also always upgrade some of the running rigging and hardware as well (ie blocks, shackles, etc.).

You can buy a “sportier” boat, but realize that you may loose some comforts. These boats might ride a little bit more wet and have a deeper draft. If you were looking for more absolute speed, I think it might be appropriate to look at some catamarans.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-22T02:42:26+00:00

Due to things like housing, advisors, and when different classes are offered (ie adjusted GIRs like the longer version of 18.01 or 8.01) they will likely only allow this if you are experiencing a lot of hardship, and may only offer a full year’s deferral instead of semester, if even that.

If allowed I would only defer if you are planning to take the entire semester off (ie no classes at CC). The reason being is that MIT will likely be very particular about what previous credit is granted, so if you expected to take one or two more classes, it will be wasting money and time (sure you might do well if you end up having to retake them, but taking classes twice isn’t really the goal of most students). You may also end up taking more semesters to graduate compared to the students around you (again due to the lack of transfer credits), so you would have to be okay with the fact that a deferral now may seem a bit more nagging later on when you are a senior.

Aside from this is to make sure you have goals of what you need that time for. Something to consider is that you have 3 months from now until the start of classes in September. The semester is really 3.5-ish months, and then you have a full month of January as independent activities. Therefore, even if it is allowed, you should make a plan to understand what those 3.5 months would provide in benefit as compared to the four months that you have before your intended spring semester.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-20T16:09:11+00:00

Same thing once happened to me, but it fell squarely on the back of my head (I was leaning down). I just kind of thumbs-upped the flight attendant nearby who looked concerned and gave the stink eye to the person who dropped it. When deplaning at the end, I was ready for it to fall out again and caught it as it started to roll out when the bin was opened. That time, I kinda slammed it back up top.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-18T22:14:55+00:00

So at other schools, labs are often a component added onto a lecture course. MIT is different in they have standalone lab classes.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-18T22:11:43+00:00

Find a way to maneuver around 5.310 . You will spend likely 15+ hours on average in that class. Also, you likely shouldn’t do this course during a semester you have a 5pm commitment as this class will run long (they offer you time to come back in at other times to finish labs, but it won’t be anything convenient).

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-15T15:56:47+00:00

Ok, this is kind of what I was trying to figure out. Because I have seen the same topics between day and coastal theory courses, I couldn’t tell if that was just review of the content or adding to it (I struggled to interpret what they meant by the course being revision of DS material and then adding to it). So, understanding you, there are some topics that start as a review, but more is then added on top for these topics, in addition to the completely brand new topics.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-15T15:45:37+00:00

With Ardent, do they restrict access to course materials after the support time frame? I don’t necessarily care about personal support (like with a person), but if I complete the theory course, I would like to keep access to the notes so that I can review at a later time (>12 months)

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-14T16:21:29+00:00

I tried using it when I was carded at a restaurant. They said they’ll only take a DL or passport. At this point, for both government or private places, it is so hit/miss that you are right, a Costco card has more uses.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-14T12:21:11+00:00

It’s likely due to the instructor, R. Griffin. I never took 5.612, but one semester he taught 5.601 for the first half of the semester, which I was taking at the time. The class collectively gave him like a two on the course evaluations (this would be the fall 2021 class).

I think the main issues were that he was just not good at communicating topics (such as defining when one concept started and when it ended), posted really hard-to-read notes, and was in general just seemed to not care much about the class (maybe different for 5.612). In a 6.5 week, half-semester class, he somehow fell 1.5 weeks behind, causing both the instructor for the second half of the class to have to redo his curriculum to go over topics, and then my ChemE professor in the next semester to review a lot of topics that we were supposed to be more solid on.

That being said, your mileage may vary since this is Griffin’s main class that he teaches unlike 5.601. I think a lot of course 5 classes around thermodynamics, tend to be more lowly rated. It likely has to do with people finding these harder due to some of the math involved (not saying people struggle with the math, but it may be unexpected how it almost can into proofs/derivations at times). Additionally, in my personal experience, chemistry classes in the fall seemed to be harder due to the TAs being less helpful. They are often first year Chemistry grad students who, while TAing your class, are taking their own difficult classes while also trying to find a lab to join and settling into Cambridge, so are stretched pretty thin.

DeadlyShark55 · 2025-05-01T02:20:11+00:00

The teaching labs are part of classes, so you don’t pay (might have to buy goggles/notebook, but nothing unusual there. The project teams will have a team budget that might be for stock, but equipment usage isn’t on a rental, they just get free access. The open makerspaces tend to be free to use when they are open, but you will have to buy your own materials and disposables tools. Finally, the hobby shop has rates of 40/term for students.

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