Newsletter

As a member of the MIT community, I would venture to say at some point in your career, you have had a Mentor. The importance of that individual, or those individuals, has surely been invaluable. My question to you is, “Are you currently mentoring someone else?” Whether you are or not, formally or informally, the Mentor Advocate Partnership (MAP) program in the Office of Minority Education is an excellent opportunity to guide an undergraduate student.

MAP is a volunteer mentoring program seeking to foster the holistic development of students along academic and non-academic dimensions. Studies show that students who are integrated and involved in both the academic and social mainstreams of campus life are more likely to graduate and have greater satisfaction with their collegiate experience. Our Mentors have the opportunity to guide MIT freshmen and sophomores, known as Protégés, in building relationships, academic endeavors, and personal well-being, while offering encouragement and providing a proactive support network. You will know your impact on a Protégé when you hear them say “I had an outlet – someone to talk to about things that were going on in my life – both the good and the bad.”

Based upon the number of fall 2010 applicants, we anticipate serving approximately 80 protégés (a 10% increase) in the 2011-2012 academic year.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Please consider becoming a MAP Mentor.
You can fill out an mentor application online; the application deadline is May 1, 2011.

You may ask yourself, “What do I have to offer such bright and talented students?” Your knowledge of MIT and the Cambridge area, as well as personal experiences and triumphs are more than valuable to our students. There are a number of benefits your protégé will receive from you to include:

1. Improved self-confidence;
2. Eased discussions around academic and social difficulties; and
3. Personal and professional development.

As a mentor, you will ultimately have the opportunity to become a supporter, connector, champion, and friend.

MAP partnerships are designed to extend for two years, but our aim is for the connection between Mentor and Protégé to continue beyond the “formal” period. The estimated minimum time commitment for a mentor with one (1) protégé is 6-8 hours per semester. This includes three (3) hour-long meetings throughout the academic semester, attending MAP events, the end-of-year celebration, and time for emails and/or phone conversations. MAP strives to provide a sincere community of support between the network of mentors and protégés at MIT and is designed to complement the current undergraduate advisor system.

By now, you may be thinking, “MAP seems to have a bit of structure,” and we certainly do, but we also make time for fun – plenty of it! To build a strong community where protégés and mentors can find resources in a close-knit group, MAP also holds social events such as our “Night on the Town” and a competition where MAP participants are encouraged to deliberate the finer points of local ice cream shops.

All in all, you are the most valuable resource to our students! If interested, please contact me at acperry@mit.edu with any questions or fill out an online mentor application. The Application Deadline is May 1, 2011.

The Admissions Office announced the admitted class of 2015 at 9:26 pm on Pi Day – March 14th. The record number of applicants of 17,909 resulted in MIT’s lowest admit rate ever at 9.6% despite the increase in next year’s class size to 1,120.

“Academically the class is very strong,” said Matt McGann, Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Recruitment. “The students are innovative and creative. And looking at the numbers, the SAT scores are as high as ever, as are the number of students with academic distinction, valedictorians, and those graduating in the top 5% of the class.”

Outside the classroom, the students are equally impressive.

“We also have a nice increase of the number of students identified as having special talent in athletics, music, or art,” said Stu Schmill, Dean of Admissions.

This year, Admissions added about 1,000 students to the waitlist. There is no rank to the waitlist. In some years the office is able to add back as many as 160 students; some years none; last year the office took 65. Decisions about the waitlist will take place in May. Transfer student applications are currently being reviewed and decisions will be available on April 2nd.

“Our goal is to use the transfer pool to bring in kids who have interesting perspectives and can add to our community,” said McGreggor Crowley, Associate Director of Admissions, who oversees the admissions process.

Now that the students have been admitted, the office’s work has shifted toward encouraging them to join the MIT community. Two telethons took place immediately after Pi Day with close to 100 undergraduate students making calls to over 700 newly admitted students to congratulate them. MIT Alumni Clubs and alumni/ae in the Educational Council who serve as Regional Chairs and Vice Chairs have been working hard over the past couple of months to plan Admitted Student Meetings during the week of MIT’s Spring Break (March 20-27). And this year the office is flying in nearly 400 low income students to take part in Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) on April 7-10, 2011.

“We expect there to be over 1100 students on campus for CPW,” said Lauren Avalos, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions and CPW Coordinator, during a special CPW webcast for admitted students. Several new features related to CPW this year were discussed during the webcast that took place on March 19th. A new online searchable tool on the CPW website (and also accessible to smart phones) was designed by Chase Lambert '14 and Sashko Stubailo '14 to aid in pre-planning for the over 750 events that will take place ‘round the clock during the four-day event.

Also a new host-matching algorithm is being tested this year. The algorithm was written by two students, Rafael Oliveira ’11 and Yiwen Zhan ’11 for their UROP under the supervision of Professor David Karger and developed with Karen Johnson in the Admissions Office.

“It’s very exciting to see when our current students can contribute to our efforts with creative ideas,” said Crowley.

Previously, the work of matching admitted students with their student host was done by hand in a very time consuming process. Now through the efforts of students and staff, the algorithm is making it possible for an expert match of interests and personality fit between students and hosts in a matter of minutes.

Other highlights of the Campus Preview Weekend this year include featured MIT faculty speakers: Dr. Neri Oxman, architect, designer and Assistant Professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab; and Dr. Tyler Jacks, David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Registered admitted students and their families will also attend sessions on dorm life and UROPs, tours of the campus, classroom visits, and lots of hosted meals and fun from all members of the MIT community.

“But I always like the first day of CPW at the registration table the most,” said Avalos. “The prefrosh are SO excited.”

The DUE Working Group on Increased Enrollment was charged by Dean Hastings in late September 2010 as a step toward assessing how an increased enrollment might impact DUE Offices in the short and long terms. The group included representation from each of the offices in DUE that would be impacted by a larger student body. The Group issued their final report in mid-February 2011.

As a foundation, the working group identified a set of fundamental principles of educational delivery against which possible impacts would be considered:

• Access to the same quality education/experience, faculty mentorship, is key
• Maintain quality of academic experience (seminars/FASs, UROP, GIRs, etc.)
• Maintain caliber of entering students
• Maintain quality of transitional programming (Interphase, FPOPs, Orientation, Majors Expo, Sophomore Standing, Graduation…)
• Maintain access to and quality of supportive services (SFS, GECD, Registrar, etc.)
• Maintain need‐blind admissions and meeting full need

The group met with Office Heads from across DUE, to expose impacts — both positive and negative as well as short‐ and long‐term — of the increased class size. While the DUE Office Heads had been asked to analyze the impact of the increased enrollment during the summer of 2010, the Working Group analysis took this process further with the goal of flagging gaps in the earlier analysis or new developments that had emerged.

As the Group synthesized the feedback from the Office Heads, five major points of consensus were identified:

• Increased enrollment brings more “talent” to MIT, and consequently more interest in MIT undergraduates from public and private sectors.
• Student access to a quality MIT educational experience should — to the best of our abilities —not be compromised by limited resources, such as funding.
• Integration and streamlining of information systems and data management — along with automation of administrative processes where possible — could potentially improve efficiencies in advising and service delivery to undergraduate constituents.
• Availability and conditions of classrooms and other spaces should be such that students have satisfactory access to learning and related services.
• Adequate numbers of staff (existing or new) should, based on skills sets and competencies, be committed to those areas where delivery of instruction, services, and support to students is most critical.

Through an analysis of these points, the Group concluded that the challenges raised by the increased enrollment were not new to DUE and are well understood by the leadership team. At the core, the increase exacerbates existing challenges related to the availability of adequate technology, facilities and staffing to support the principles of educational delivery described above. As such, the Group recommended that DUE remain vigilant in the ongoing analysis of DUE programs and services and in determining how resources can be maximized to properly support our infrastructure. DUE must remain positioned to deliver to our undergraduates the top quality educational experience promised upon admission.

In light of these conclusions, the Working Group asked DUE Leadership to consider the following:

• Ensure that DUE budgets, to the greatest extent possible, are constructed so that student access to curricular and co‐curricular learning opportunities is not compromised by an increased undergraduate population. Particular attention should be paid to the areas where capacity for students is already strained.
• Support and advocate for the development, enhancement, and integration of technologies that not only improve delivery of services and information to students, but allow staff effort to be refocused more appropriately on other activities. Consider a division‐wide re‐examination of DUE IT needs and determine if increased enrollment warrants reprioritizing existing needs.
• Keep continued focus on the capacity, functionality, and appearance of DUE‐managed classrooms and other student‐centric spaces. Review DUE office space and layouts to ensure that reception and advising areas properly accommodate constituents.
• Remain committed to deploying DUE staff where need is most critical, based on skill sets and competencies. Periodically review possibilities for staff redeployment within DUE offices, as well as opportunities for sharing staff between offices. Ensure access to staff training, retraining, and cross‐training keeps DUE Offices nimble and responsive to Institute changes. When possible, consider requests for additional headcounts where warranted.

On March 10th Student Disability Services teamed up with the MIT Program in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) to present Body & Soul: Diana and Kathy. Featured as part of the WGS Women Take the Reel Film Festival, the film was created by Academy Award Nominee, Alice Elliott (The Collector of Bedford Street). As described by the filmmakers: “the film portrays the symbiotic relationship between two people some would call profoundly disabled…. two of the country’s most remarkable advocates for people with disabilities, Diana Braun, who has Down Syndrome, and Kathy Concour, who has cerebral palsy, met over three decades ago and vowed to fight to live independent lives… the film is a story of a compelling, creative friendship, as Diana and Kathy model a grand experiment in activism and independent living.”

Following the screening was a lively, lengthy, and at times, exigent discussion that focused primarily on the likelihood of recreating the model for living an independent life exhibited by the women in the film. The most dynamic exchanges occurred while considering the option of whether institutionalization of people who are disabled should indeed be discontinued, identifying ways to make the role of Personal Care Assistant a practical and a desirable career, and in identifying the resources currently available in the community. Also discussed were what types of assistance are most desired by people with disabilities and their care-takers alike with regard to inclusion and independence.

Leading the discussion were the film’s Outreach Director, Rachel Gordon, and Max Rasbold-Gabbard, Policy Associate for The Arc of Massachusetts. Questions or comments regarding the film, as well as, viewing opportunities may be directed to Rachel Gordon at Welcome Change Productions outreach@welcomechange.org. Our hope is that this event represents the first of many future outreach partnerships with WGS.

Global Education and Career Development (GECD) collaborated with Harvard University, Wellesley College, and CareerEco, a virtual recruiting platform and online event company specializing in college fairs, to coordinate two Virtual Fairs this past fall and spring. GECD staff Amanda Peters and Erin Scott managed the Harvard-MIT Virtual Grad School Fair and the Virtual Health Fair respectively. These first annual Virtual Fairs allowed attendees to learn about graduate school programs through online materials, and participating schools saved time and money connecting with potential applicants through online chat sessions with admissions representatives.

28 graduate schools participated in the Virtual Grad School Fair, ranging from MIT’s System Design and Management program to Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute to Harvard Business School, and 26 health profession schools, including schools of medicine, dentistry, public health, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and nursing participated in the Virtual Health Fair. 480 students and alumni from both MIT and Harvard registered for the Virtual Grad School Fair, and there were over 2400 unique visits to the website, www.gradschools.careereco.net, during and leading up to the event. 314 students and alumni from Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley registered for the Virtual Health Fair, generating 1456 unique pageviews to the www.prehealth.careereco.net web site between January and March. The total number of online chats logged during the Virtual Grad School Fair was 596, and for the Virtual Health Fair the number of online chats was 731.

Overall, the feedback from participating schools, students, and alumni was positive. One student stated that “some of the participating schools would have been difficult or impossible to visit before applying, so I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak with admissions representatives directly,” and another commented “I gained useful insight that will help me pinpoint which schools to apply to.” A school representative pointed out that “Options such as loading pictures and videos makes [the Virtual Fair] more powerful than in person fairs,” and another remarked “It gives us the chance to reach students that we probably would not have a chance to reach otherwise.” GECD was very pleased with the events’ turnout and CareerEco’s service. We plan to host these events annually toward our mission of exposing students to wide range of opportunities.
 

Many of the DUE staff may know of or may have seen Air Force ROTC cadets walking around campus in their uniforms on Tuesdays. What you do not see is how hard they have been training mentally and physically. In addition to the countless hours they spend studying, our cadets also put in at least another 5-10 hours a week doing Air Force ROTC classes, labs, and physical training. Recently, our cadets were ranked third in the country based on their physical fitness scores!! But I digress; I would like to take a moment to talk more specifically about MITs five sophomores in our program; Cadet Ben Deardorff, Cadet Chris Gerber, Cadet Tim Joubert, Cadet Jackson Prestwood, and Cadet Scott Skirlo.

At the end of this school year they will have completed two years of Air Force ROTC training. This training is developed to prepare the cadets for Field Training. Field Training is four weeks long and is held at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. It is like boot camp except that instead of being told what to do they are given a schedule for the day and they lead each other through the day’s events. A typical day has them waking up at 4:00AM for physical training, inspections, teambuilding exercises, more physical training and lights out at 9:00PM. This is a stressful time for them as they are required to keep their military bearing at all times and have to march everywhere in the summer Alabama heat.

For two of the four weeks, they will all fly to Mississippi in a military aircraft. While in Mississippi they will receive training in land navigation, first aid, and weapons training just to name a few. This training is used to teach them valuable skills needed once they enter active duty as well as give them hands on experience on how to lead a group of people in a stressful situation.

Once they get back to MIT in the fall and start their junior year they will enter the Professional Officer Course. Additionally, if they are not already on scholarship they will start earning a monthly stipend of $450 a month. At this point they transition and become the leaders of the cadet wing. As leaders, it is now their responsibility to teach the underclassmen everything that they know so that the new sophomores are just as prepared for field training as they were.

Needless to say our sophomores have a lot on their minds. So, if you know Cadet Deardorff, Gerber, Joubert, Prestwood or Skirlo please wish them good luck this summer!