Christopher Wang is a senior graduating from MIT this month. The Course 6-3 (Laptop Science and Engineering) main has found a love for theater throughout his time at MIT, creating his playwriting, performing, directing, and even lighting design abilities via involvement in scholar teams. However he almost didn’t come to MIT in any respect; an opportunity dialog together with his brother introduced him to Cambridge. Right here, as he prepares for his subsequent journey, Wang shares a few of his experiences on the Institute.
Q: Describe one dialog that modified the trajectory of your life.
A: I spent the primary 5 semesters of undergrad at Washington College in St. Louis, throughout most of which I used to be a biology main pursuing drugs. After I switched to pc science at first of my fifth semester, my brother steered in passing that I apply for switch admission to MIT. I did, however truthfully, it was principally to appease him.
By the point the choice got here out, I had utterly forgotten about it, so I used to be shocked to see that I would gotten in! I wasn’t even positive I wished to go — I had already settled in at WashU, academically and socially, so it was powerful to offer all that up — however considered one of my professors advised me to go and by no means suppose twice about it.
It is fairly loopy to consider how totally different my life would have been if I hadn’t utilized or gone. I feel I’d have been pleased both method, however trying again, I really feel extremely fortunate to have met all of the considerate, visionary folks I do know now at MIT.
Q: What’s your favourite place on MIT’s campus to check, and why?
A: One, the lounge on the sixth ground of the Division of City Research and Planning constructing. It is a small-ish, cozy room with a number of tables and a pleasant view of Mass Ave. Particularly, I like that it is often fairly empty, which makes it a fantastic place to pset collectively or work with teammates on a gaggle mission! One caveat is that you must be a Course 11 main/minor/concentrator to realize entry, however fortunately, I’ve two buddies who can let me in.
Two, the third-floor atrium in Constructing 46, the Division of Mind and Cognitive Sciences constructing. I typically run into buddies going to or from their Course 9 courses, and generally pastries or snacks are additionally served. Most of all, it empties out within the evenings, and I simply actually like finding out in wide-open empty areas!
Q: What’s your favourite meals discovered on, or close to, campus?
A: I am a little bit of a well being nut, so I will say Life Alive! They’ve a number of salads, grain bowls, and wraps which can be each wholesome and scrumptious, and the diet data can be on the web site. My private favourite gadgets are the teriyaki shiitake wrap or the greens, egg, and cheese breakfast wrap. After I’m not being a well being nut, I additionally actually like Toscanini’s B3 (brown sugar, brown butter, and brownies) ice cream.
Q: Inform me about one curiosity or pastime you’ve found because you got here to MIT.
A: Theater! I didn’t have any theater expertise earlier than coming to MIT, however MIT has a vibrant theater scene, together with each lecturers and scholar teams. I obtained concerned in scholar teams like Subsequent Act (a musical theater group primarily based in Subsequent Home that performs for Campus Preview Weekend yearly) and Life On Stage Theater (a gaggle centered on performing modern performs) and I accomplished my HASS [Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences] focus in Theater Arts as nicely. I’ve dabbled in many alternative points — starting from writing performs to enjoying a Spanish womanizer onstage, from designing lights for dance exhibits to directing a musical written from scratch. The theater group at MIT may be very beginner-friendly, so I’d extremely counsel checking it out for anybody who’s !
As of late, I additionally continuously search out performs to look at within the Boston space, and even journey to [New York City] for explicit productions occasionally. Of those I’ve seen, my favourite musicals are “Beetlejuice” and “Come From Away,” and my favourite performs are “Wolf Play,” “Manahatta,” and “Prayer for the French Republic.”
Q: Inform us about your favourite sport — it might be a pc sport, a board sport, a online game, a sport you made as much as make lengthy automotive rides extra attention-grabbing — something!
A: Ooh, that is powerful. I am an enormous fan of video video games and do not have one clear favourite, so I will cheat and provides a number of:
“Celeste:” A precision 2D platformer with maybe my favourite game-play mechanics and degree design! The physics simply really feel so clean and fluid, and the sport continually introduces new mechanisms that permit for some terribly satisfying motion. The issue ramps as much as insane ranges all through the sport, however it’s at all times paced such that every degree is simply doable sufficient so that you can maintain pushing via. It additionally has some very nice pixel artwork and music, and a easy but highly effective story about combating nervousness and self-acceptance. (It is also surprisingly well-liked amongst my buddies at MIT!)
“A Dance of Hearth and Ice:” A exact rhythm sport the place geometry meets music! Two rotating orbs traverse a monitor, and it’s important to faucet in rhythm primarily based on the form of the monitor. A collection of tiles in a straight line (180-degree angles) represents a quarter-note beat, whereas eighth notes are represented by 90 levels, triplets by 60 or 120, and so forth. It makes extra sense if you see it, so if this sounds attention-grabbing, have a look right here!
“13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim:” Of all of the sci-fi tales I’ve consumed, this sport has probably the most intricate, staggering, mind-blowing one by far. The essential premise is that 13 highschool college students are tasked with utilizing the Sentinels — large mechanized robots — to combat off the kaiju (monsters) invading their world — however that description barely scratches the floor. It takes each science fiction component ever identified and combines all of them right into a single narrative in distinctive and subversive methods. The sport contains the intersecting story arcs of 13 totally different protagonists which you can play in (principally) any order, leading to a dizzying quantity of complexity, however by no means a lot that you simply lose curiosity. Together with the narrative segments, the sport additionally contains a number of dozen real-time technique tower protection game-play levels. Did I point out that the music and artwork are additionally beautiful?
Q: What’s your favourite TikTok, Instagram or YouTube video?
A: “me and the boys after watching mary poppins”
Q: What are you trying ahead to about life after commencement? What do you suppose you’ll miss about MIT?
A: I am trying ahead to having free time that is utterly mine, with out having to fret about whether or not I needs to be getting forward on work, investing extra time into my analysis, and so on. Usually I am good at establishing a sustainable steadiness even at MIT, however generally it is all too simple for me to do an excessive amount of with out realizing how a lot pressure I am placing on myself. This semester, I did not notice how exhausted I used to be till spring break lastly hit.
However that flexibility goes each methods, too: I am going to miss psetting with buddies within the evenings on an issue that is enraptured our brains. I am going to miss the liberty to sip tea and browse a e book on weekday afternoons with out worrying about being someplace. I am going to miss the alternatives to prepare last-minute meals outings and climbing journeys, the convenience of strolling down the corridor and knocking on folks’s doorways, the spontaneity of “Smash Bros.” classes within the dorm lounges.
Most of all, I am going to miss the buddies I’ve made right here — the buddies I play occasion video games with, the buddies I’m going working with, the buddies I discuss with in regards to the future and our beliefs and the sorts of individuals we wish to grow to be. For all of you, I want nothing however the most effective, and I hope we nonetheless discover methods to recollect and see one another as soon as we graduate.
