Nov 30, 2010
If you were planning to interview on campus . . .
. . . and you're applying to HMC this year, then it's time to hop to it. December 22 is the very last day we'll be offering interviews to prospective freshmen for the class of 2015. Sign up online.
Nov 29, 2010
Visiting Winter
Unless you hail from Southern California, it's unlikely that you've heard of the San Gabriel Mountains. They're not a household name like the Rockies or the Appalachians, and the tallest point, Mt. Baldy, isn't even in the top 180 peaks in the United States. But 10,000 feet is still mighty tall -- tall enough for a ski resort, plenty of hiking trails, and a photogenic snow-capped peak. And the view -- wow. I never get tired of it.
What's even better is that these mountains are close. Allow me to demonstrate using Googlemaps:
Twenty minutes from campus and you're halfway up a mountain. Love it. While I've never been brave enough to make it all the way to the top (unlike Johnson, who spent the night at the summit), the lower-elevation hikes are plenty entertaining (and plenty cold, too).
There's some debate about which is the best trail in this section of the Angeles National Forest. There's one trail that leads to a waterfall, another that's basically vertical but provides amazing views. I've always liked Ice House Canyon. It's not too steep, it's fairly well traveled (important if you're hiking alone) and the stream is pretty.
For anyone who's feeling a bit homesick for winter (not that flip-flops year-round aren't fantastic, but occasionally I do miss having actual seasons), the mountains are the perfect fix. One short drive and I can stomp around in snow and wear all that winter gear I thought I'd never need in Southern California.
This picture was taken right from campus. Gorgeous, huh?
What's even better is that these mountains are close. Allow me to demonstrate using Googlemaps:
Twenty minutes from campus and you're halfway up a mountain. Love it. While I've never been brave enough to make it all the way to the top (unlike Johnson, who spent the night at the summit), the lower-elevation hikes are plenty entertaining (and plenty cold, too).
There's some debate about which is the best trail in this section of the Angeles National Forest. There's one trail that leads to a waterfall, another that's basically vertical but provides amazing views. I've always liked Ice House Canyon. It's not too steep, it's fairly well traveled (important if you're hiking alone) and the stream is pretty.
For anyone who's feeling a bit homesick for winter (not that flip-flops year-round aren't fantastic, but occasionally I do miss having actual seasons), the mountains are the perfect fix. One short drive and I can stomp around in snow and wear all that winter gear I thought I'd never need in Southern California.
There are several small cabins on the Ice House Canyon Trail. I'm not sure if they're privately owned (grandfathered in, maybe?) or if they're National Forest property. They are certainly charming.
Joining me on this Thanksgiving weekend excursion was my loyal canine sidekick, Louie. He was way too excited about all the good sniffs to hold still for a photo, so forgive the blurriness. He's a California dog, but he likes snow. Enjoys it more than Allie Brosh's dog, at the very least.
So for any non-So-Cal residents who are wondering how they'll survive without at least a touch of winter, I offer this reassurance: you can visit it.
Nov 23, 2010
A glimpse of what's to come
This will be the first in a scintillating series of photographs chronicling the rapid descent into snacking and paper stacking that will take place over the next few months. The conference room doesn't look too chaotic now, but just you wait. It will! This little lilac 8 x 12 room is where we make all of our admission decisions.
We spent eight hours yesterday in this very space, hammering out just what we're looking for in the class of 2015. The Dean of Students, the Dean of Academic Affairs, and the college president all stopped by to weigh in and give us feedback on the successes and struggles of previous classes. I found one of Jon Jacobsen's comments particularly helpful: thriving at Mudd isn't just about raw intelligence. Sure, being smart is important, but what's more critical is the ability to get things done. You know those classes in high school where you can just coast along without paying much attention to the homework or studying all that often? Mmm. Yes. You won't have those here. So if Mudd is your first experience having to accomplish many things quickly, well, your first semester will be a challenge. Prof. Jakes and Maggie also rated the capacity to ask for help as one of the most key college survival skills. Turns out your professors actually want to teach you, even if it means spending two hours reviewing your most recent writing assignment, and those Academic Excellence sessions are so well-attended because other students find Special Relativity confusing too.
As for that Battle of the Bots event I mentioned in my previous post -- it was awesomeness incarnated, and I can't wait to share the experience with you here on the blog. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good environment for taking pictures (dim lighting + big auditorium + TV screen like a rock concert) so I'm going to wait until the professional photos are available. Until then I will share the potentially useful tidbit that while attaching an air gun to your autonomous vehicle may seem like a good idea, and certainly intimidates your competitors, it does not actually perform all that well in the arena. Still, the ability to scatter pellets across the first few rows of the auditorium might be worth it, even if the robot tanks the competition.
As for that Battle of the Bots event I mentioned in my previous post -- it was awesomeness incarnated, and I can't wait to share the experience with you here on the blog. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good environment for taking pictures (dim lighting + big auditorium + TV screen like a rock concert) so I'm going to wait until the professional photos are available. Until then I will share the potentially useful tidbit that while attaching an air gun to your autonomous vehicle may seem like a good idea, and certainly intimidates your competitors, it does not actually perform all that well in the arena. Still, the ability to scatter pellets across the first few rows of the auditorium might be worth it, even if the robot tanks the competition.
Nov 18, 2010
Reading Retreats & Glowing Pickles
Monday is going to be a hectic day here in the admission office. The counseling staff is scheduled to have a reading retreat -- basically, a full day of talking about the mechanics of reading files. We all remember, in theory, what qualities we're looking for in prospective students, but some of the technical aspects of reading can get a bit fuzzy after six months of disuse. Last year I forgot to keep a record of how many applications I read for, oh, the first two weeks of the season. Oops. So a refresher is always a good idea.
The reading retreat will be more than unusually thrilling this year for three reasons:
1) Thyra will have just completed a red-eye flight from Hawaii, where she's currently visiting high schools. This is a shame, because she's usually a reliable source of banana bread on retreat days. Plus she'll be tired.
2) Thanksgiving week is packed with interviews. Even with the help of our super awesome senior interviewers, we'll still need to adjourn frequently to interview prospective students. And if we're interviewing, then we can't wear jeans. And that is very sad.
3) At 5:30 pm that same day, the Autonomous Vehicles class is hosting Battle of the Bots! With free pizza! Want to know what's even better? This is the class final!
So that's my Monday in a nutshell. In other news, if you have not seen the glowing pickle video yet then you really must -- if only for Professor Sahakian's commentary. Hysterical.
PS The HMC 42 team is going to the ACM world finals again. Hooray! I would also like it stated on the record that I personally first-read the admission applications of four of the eleven ACM participants. Go me.
The reading retreat will be more than unusually thrilling this year for three reasons:
1) Thyra will have just completed a red-eye flight from Hawaii, where she's currently visiting high schools. This is a shame, because she's usually a reliable source of banana bread on retreat days. Plus she'll be tired.
2) Thanksgiving week is packed with interviews. Even with the help of our super awesome senior interviewers, we'll still need to adjourn frequently to interview prospective students. And if we're interviewing, then we can't wear jeans. And that is very sad.
3) At 5:30 pm that same day, the Autonomous Vehicles class is hosting Battle of the Bots! With free pizza! Want to know what's even better? This is the class final!
So that's my Monday in a nutshell. In other news, if you have not seen the glowing pickle video yet then you really must -- if only for Professor Sahakian's commentary. Hysterical.
PS The HMC 42 team is going to the ACM world finals again. Hooray! I would also like it stated on the record that I personally first-read the admission applications of four of the eleven ACM participants. Go me.
In which my life proves sadly predictable
Starbucks receipts from four consecutive days in Minneapolis. Please note that each receipt is for exactly the same amount -- tall vanilla latte, blueberry streusel muffin. Bold? Creative? Variable? Not so much.
Nov 16, 2010
Trip #5 Complete
My last trip of the season to the lovely city of Portland, Oregon was a quick whirlwind of college fairs, interviews, and Mama Mia's lasagna del giorno. I got to meet up with some of my closest friends, and it didn't even rain much. So all in all, an excellent trip indeed.
Here's my artistically arranged table at the fair. If you were at the Portland NACAC fair, you'll know that my table didn't look this good any time after the first two minutes; I had constant traffic for the first three and a half hours of a four hour session, which didn't give me much time to neatly collate the publications or fluff the HMC banner. But I felt like a rock star and I appreciated the patience of all the families who waited in line to speak with me, and hopefully they didn't mind that the stacks of publications were embarrassingly askew.
There was one little thing that really made this fair special:
That pretty gadget would be a bar code scanner. Normally at a college fair, students (or, okay, parents) are obligated to fill out "please send me more information" cards by hand at each individual table. Savvier families bring along sticky labels with pre-printed data, but it's still time-consuming. Thanks to this scanner, students could enter all their personal information online and print out a bar code. When they walked up to the table, I just zapped the bar code and that was it -- done. Finis. No hand cramps, no pen smudges, no stack of cards for me to enter into the computer. It was very, very cool. I liked.
But even better is that travel season is over and I get to stay home. Happiness and joy!
Here's my artistically arranged table at the fair. If you were at the Portland NACAC fair, you'll know that my table didn't look this good any time after the first two minutes; I had constant traffic for the first three and a half hours of a four hour session, which didn't give me much time to neatly collate the publications or fluff the HMC banner. But I felt like a rock star and I appreciated the patience of all the families who waited in line to speak with me, and hopefully they didn't mind that the stacks of publications were embarrassingly askew.
There was one little thing that really made this fair special:
That pretty gadget would be a bar code scanner. Normally at a college fair, students (or, okay, parents) are obligated to fill out "please send me more information" cards by hand at each individual table. Savvier families bring along sticky labels with pre-printed data, but it's still time-consuming. Thanks to this scanner, students could enter all their personal information online and print out a bar code. When they walked up to the table, I just zapped the bar code and that was it -- done. Finis. No hand cramps, no pen smudges, no stack of cards for me to enter into the computer. It was very, very cool. I liked.
But even better is that travel season is over and I get to stay home. Happiness and joy!
Nov 12, 2010
In which we obtain tech support and there is much rejoicing
As for what is actually happening in this photo -- well, you'll have to ask the students. I can safely say that tricycles, foam, and an official DOS Muchacho are all represented, but as to the specific pedagogical purpose of this academic exercise, I'm not sure.
Nov 10, 2010
College Fairs: A Primer
I'm heading up to Portland later this week for my last trip of the season -- the big NACAC College Fair. We're talking huge. Two hundred and seventy-three exhibitors, to be precise. And it's pretty common to see parents and students walking around with glazed, deer-in-headlights expressions, trying to collect college brochures as if they're Monopoly properties. So I thought I'd take a moment to share a few tips for a successful college fair experience.
1. Come with a plan of attack. Do not plan on stopping at every table. Review the list of attendees ahead of time. You don't want to be that student walking from one table to the next asking, "Hi, do you have an engineering major?" And be realistic about how many schools you can visit during a fair without getting burnt out -- my estimate is twenty, tops. If there's a school you know well and really like already, maybe that's one to skip for the time being; focus instead on the schools that are on your maybe list.
2. Talk to the college representatives. If this point weren't important, we'd just send a box of publications to a designated location and stay home watching Glee. Talk to us! Please! If you're on the quieter end of the spectrum, it can be helpful to bring along a parent or relative, or even a chattier friend. If you followed rule #1, then you'll have a small enough list of schools to investigate at the college fair that you can actually spend five or ten minutes at each table. Take advantage of this. Just remember, if there's a line forming behind you, to be gracious and take turns asking questions. As much as I'd like to have long, leisurely conversations with each family individually, it isn't always possible, and if I can engage several people in conversation at once, that makes my life much easier.
3. Try not to ask yes/no questions or questions with an obvious answer. One common inquiry at a college fair: "Is X department strong?" Seriously, what representative is going to say no? If you tweak this to ask "What makes department X strong?" you'll get a much better answer -- maybe you'll learn about research, diversity of coursework, abroad opportunities, etc. Same goes for "are your professors accessible?" or "do you give financial aid?" Try to substitute "how" or "why" questions whenever you can.
4. Keep an open mind. You might find a liberal arts college that's a fantastic fit for your techy interests or a women's college that offers abundant coeducational opportunities. So if your parents, counselors, friends have all been telling you that college Y is a perfect match, go spend five minutes checking it out. What do you have to lose?
5. Remember, we can hear you. Oh, the comments I've overheard at college fairs. Students will stop all of three feet from my table and screech, "Harvey MUDD? What kind of a name is THAT?" "CALIFORNIA? Who'd want to go to college THERE?" "Oh, let's stop at this table, I need a safety school." (FYI: Mudd is not a safety school.) Even if you don't have any interest in a college, be polite!
Finally, what to say if you really want to irk a college representative: "Why should I attend your college?" What I will say in response: "Well, why should you?" Don't ask that. Please.
1. Come with a plan of attack. Do not plan on stopping at every table. Review the list of attendees ahead of time. You don't want to be that student walking from one table to the next asking, "Hi, do you have an engineering major?" And be realistic about how many schools you can visit during a fair without getting burnt out -- my estimate is twenty, tops. If there's a school you know well and really like already, maybe that's one to skip for the time being; focus instead on the schools that are on your maybe list.
2. Talk to the college representatives. If this point weren't important, we'd just send a box of publications to a designated location and stay home watching Glee. Talk to us! Please! If you're on the quieter end of the spectrum, it can be helpful to bring along a parent or relative, or even a chattier friend. If you followed rule #1, then you'll have a small enough list of schools to investigate at the college fair that you can actually spend five or ten minutes at each table. Take advantage of this. Just remember, if there's a line forming behind you, to be gracious and take turns asking questions. As much as I'd like to have long, leisurely conversations with each family individually, it isn't always possible, and if I can engage several people in conversation at once, that makes my life much easier.
3. Try not to ask yes/no questions or questions with an obvious answer. One common inquiry at a college fair: "Is X department strong?" Seriously, what representative is going to say no? If you tweak this to ask "What makes department X strong?" you'll get a much better answer -- maybe you'll learn about research, diversity of coursework, abroad opportunities, etc. Same goes for "are your professors accessible?" or "do you give financial aid?" Try to substitute "how" or "why" questions whenever you can.
4. Keep an open mind. You might find a liberal arts college that's a fantastic fit for your techy interests or a women's college that offers abundant coeducational opportunities. So if your parents, counselors, friends have all been telling you that college Y is a perfect match, go spend five minutes checking it out. What do you have to lose?
5. Remember, we can hear you. Oh, the comments I've overheard at college fairs. Students will stop all of three feet from my table and screech, "Harvey MUDD? What kind of a name is THAT?" "CALIFORNIA? Who'd want to go to college THERE?" "Oh, let's stop at this table, I need a safety school." (FYI: Mudd is not a safety school.) Even if you don't have any interest in a college, be polite!
Finally, what to say if you really want to irk a college representative: "Why should I attend your college?" What I will say in response: "Well, why should you?" Don't ask that. Please.
Nov 9, 2010
We're so hip, we tweet
. . . or at least, Lowell tweets for us, and that's close enough. You can follow his after hours adventures at hmcafter5. In case you needed any additional incentive, here is the type of investigative reporting Lowell will be carrying out for the admission office:
Yup, that's Lowell with a huge donut. He has also posted on liquid nitrogen ice cream, the Nelson Series speakers, and the Miss SWE pageant. It's pretty great. And if you want more HMC fun, you can follow the tweets of the HMC Chem Department and physics professor Vatche Sahakian, string theorist and owner of two pomeranians. The Chem Department has student research photos posted too, which, if you know something about chemical compounds, could be fun to browse through. It's neat for me to see what all those darling "babies" I admitted a couple of years ago are up to now, even if I can't pronounce the names of the plant pathogens they're growing. There are also instructions to make a solar cell from donuts and tea (and I thought white paint and raspberries were cool).
Yup, that's Lowell with a huge donut. He has also posted on liquid nitrogen ice cream, the Nelson Series speakers, and the Miss SWE pageant. It's pretty great. And if you want more HMC fun, you can follow the tweets of the HMC Chem Department and physics professor Vatche Sahakian, string theorist and owner of two pomeranians. The Chem Department has student research photos posted too, which, if you know something about chemical compounds, could be fun to browse through. It's neat for me to see what all those darling "babies" I admitted a couple of years ago are up to now, even if I can't pronounce the names of the plant pathogens they're growing. There are also instructions to make a solar cell from donuts and tea (and I thought white paint and raspberries were cool).
Nov 5, 2010
Science Question: Keyless Ignitions?
So now that I have a science question, who better to ask than Mudders and potential Mudders? Last week in Portland I drove a Nissan without a key (and yes, I bewilderedly asked the rental counter if there was perhaps something missing from my keychain). While I got a kick out of the new technology, I could envision one big potential problem: what happens if the battery in the car dies? Or for that matter, what about the battery in the keychain? I tried to investigate this dilemma on the internet, and a couple of the sites claimed this wasn't a problem -- but how? How can you open the car if the battery dies? How can the car tell if the key is inside the car versus sitting on the roof or dropped on the pavement? If you drove off and left the key behind, would the car stop?
Okay, scientists, I need some help here. Are keyless ignitions actually a good long-term idea?
Image from www.familytram.com
Nov 4, 2010
Application Countdown
What will actually happen is probably something between the two extremes, but November is not a time when admission counselors are particularly rational.
Every year we put together an office betting pool for the total number of completed applications on January 2 (that would be the deadline, seniors, just in case you had other plans for winter break). Last year we had 2,718 applications; my guess for this year is 2,999. What do you think?
Nov 2, 2010
Trip #4 Complete
Well, my dears, travel season is drawing to a close. One more trip to go! Hurree hurrah! I got back from Portland last Thursday, and I'll be heading up to Oregon again in a couple of weeks for the big college fair (we're talking convention center big. HUGE, in fact). Portland is always one of my favorite territories -- yummy food, pretty fall leaves, Powell's Books, and best of all, students have actually heard of Mudd. This is a very nice bonus. Here's what went down on this first excursion:
Miles driven: 368
High schools visited: 15
Students met at school visits: 48
Students interviewed: 15
Caffeinated beverages: 7
# of times lost: 2 (a personal best!)
Well, Portland, I will be seeing you again very soon. Portland locals, any suggestions for where to grab dinner in the downtown area? I always go to Mother's and Mama Mia, and I feel I need to expand my horizons.
Miles driven: 368
High schools visited: 15
Students met at school visits: 48
Students interviewed: 15
Caffeinated beverages: 7
# of times lost: 2 (a personal best!)
Well, Portland, I will be seeing you again very soon. Portland locals, any suggestions for where to grab dinner in the downtown area? I always go to Mother's and Mama Mia, and I feel I need to expand my horizons.
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