I had come to MIT to be an aerospace engineer and had no idea that I would ever be so involved with the Literature program. During my first term here…
Read More
When I came to MIT I was really excited about studying chemical engineering. I knew I was premed and wouldn’t go into industry or research, but I was still very…
I entered MIT as a biology major. However, I was so blown away by my first few literature courses that I decided instead to major in literature. The decision to…
When I came to MIT, I wanted to do computer science (Course VI). However, at the end of my first semester of freshman year, I decided to become a math…
When I was younger, I was always reading half a dozen books at a time. Book stores and libraries are still some of my favorite places and the smell and…
During my senior year, I memorized all of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” If you’ve never read “Howl,” know that it takes more than thirty minutes to read aloud, and contains such…
As a child, I used to stay up until the early hours of the morning reading novels. That hasn’t changed much, though now I don’t have to hide under the…
I am halfway through a PhD in Materials Science at Northwestern University and I consider the literature courses I took at MIT to have been integral to my education as…
My serious interest in literature began with a rather unfortunate first paper for a Shakespeare HASS-D. It was pretty bad; it said nothing poorly. Fortunately, that paper’s hapless existence made…
There is a curious superstition that one is either cognitively equipped to study the humanities or the sciences. It is a superstition to which I was not immune. I came…
