While that’s a great opportunity for you, it does make things much quieter on the old homestead. It’s not a complete “Night of the Comet” (or “28 Days Later” for those sadly uneducated in the ways of cheesy ‘80s movies) because there are research opportunities year-round, and we get to meet several thousand prospective students in our Info Sessions. Still, the campus doesn’t vibrate with the same lightning-in-a-bottle energy.

All that is starting to change. Shhhh, listen! Put your ear to your favorite graphing calculator or Petri dish* and you can hear the distant sounds of life returning to the Infinite. The new pre-frosh, sans pre, are arriving on campus!

* On second thought, that second one is probably a bad idea.

It’s been months since I could wander through Lobby 13, enjoying an echoing rhythm as two students practiced ballroom dancing, deftly winding their way around a hurrying, lab-coated young woman cradling a graduated cylinder of purple liquid.

A year ago a sight like that would have stopped me in my tracks. Now having been without the zany, ‘you wouldn’t believe me if I told you’ serendipitous moments that make up a normal day on campus, I can’t wait for summer to end.

I missed you guys!

Well apparently that's exactly what President Obama had in mind, too. The President has directed Energy Secretary Steven Chu to provide assistance. Chu, in turn, has assembled a team of five “extraordinarily intelligent” scientists to provide solutions to the oil leak, and Alexander Slocum, MIT Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and 2.007 Design and Manufacturing guru), is among those selected for the job.

You can read more at Business Week.

I think Viggo Mortensen should play him in the inevitable Jon Farvreau summer movie blockbuster.

When our waitlist decisions are finalized, we will notify the admitted students, informing them that they have been admitted from the waitlist. Financial aid will follow up shortly thereafter with aid packages. Admitted students can then choose to accept our offer (it is an understood part of admissions that some people will shuffle around during the waitlist period; you will lose your deposit at the other school, but it is a standard practice to consider accepting a waitlist offer) or decline it.

We will be maintaining the waitlist for another few weeks, while the enrolling class takes its shape. Last year we admitted 78 students from the waitlist in a 3-round process, and previous years were very similar. We'll know more about how this year looks in a few weeks.

The waitlist committee has been working hard since May 1 to determine how many students, if any, could be admitted from the waitlist, while in parallel working to make admissions decisions. The waitlist admissions process will continue until we fully determine who will and will not be admitted, at which point we will notify students. I don't yet know what day we will notify students. We'll keep you up-to-date.

Working with local activist groups and residents, he hopes to empower people to monitor the coast with balloon cameras for months -- or as long as it takes for the impacts of the oil spill to dissipate, he said.

"If we do it now, it's a relatively low cost, and it's a time commitment, but if we get out and begin mapping, we'll have that data at a later date -- when we wish we had it, perhaps," he said.

He got this idea by working with a fellow MIT student who has been flying untethered balloons nearly to the edge of space, sending back photos over a cell phone -- partly just for the fun of it.

"It's the first time we're working together as kind of a concerted effort. We're applying these tools not just as hobbyists or enthusiasts but applying them to a specific social and environmental goal," he said.

"This is one area where we're able to make an impact."

You can read the full story on CNN.

The weather was actually gorgeous yesterday, except for the 10 minutes at the proposed takeoff time. Well worth the spring shower, although I could have done without the coating of dirt (note to future Coure 16ers: that downwash is no joke).

MV-22 Osprey on display on Briggs Field

Simmons Hall patio: the best seat in the house

the weather started getting rough...

fortuitous signage

come back soon!

One of my colleagues had a much better (and less "interactive") viewpoint:

In other news, Happy Star Wars day! May the Fourth be with you!*

* I know it's a tragic, horrible pun, but I just can't help myself.

On the plus side, we have great CPW clips on the Class of 2014 site. If you didn't see Dr. Sadoway speak at the Parent Welcome I highly recommend it. It convinced me to start 3.091 (Introduction to Solid State Chemistry) over on OpenCourseWare just because it seems like so much fun (though granted its applications to Web design are limited).

Also added to the site is a Webcast Archive section. Right now you can watch the Mollie/Christina and Dr. Essigmann/Sarah webcasts, but one or two more will follow before decision day.

Speaking of Monday, I hope we've given you every opportunity to ask questions and discover what MIT is really like. The videos are one way to discover if MIT is where you want to be, but please feel free to send me an email this weekend if you just don't feel comfortable choosing before you get that one last answer.

Good luck!

BTW, if you're not part of the Class of 2014 please don't feel left out. We have some great webcasts planned for later in the year!

Hmmm, I think I'm going to need a bigger budget... well that or go make friends with a few Course 6ers.

* There just aren't enough excuses to say "Beowulf." It's such a fun word to say.

You can watch the presentation online: Giving Back: Finding the Best Way to Make a Difference.

Sadly I was unable to get him to sign my DOS 2.0 binder. Maybe next time.

The video will come down soon after the CPW registration page comes offline. Which reminds me…

Have you registered for CPW?

I swear that’s the last time I’ll ask, mostly because very soon CPW will transition from “the whirlwind adventure with my new classmates into the wonders of MIT I planned to register for” to “that potentially life-changing event I wished I’d registered for but missed the deadline because I inexplicably decided to watch all 5 seasons of ‘Quantum Leap’ back-to-back, which was very entertaining but in retrospect really could have waited.” *

[* Actual regret may vary]

I’m really posting to remind you that we’ll be having another admitted student webcast event on Wednesday (March 31st). This week’s theme is CPW! No I’m just kidding, it’s student life, and we have Uber-blogger Hamsika ’13 and Campus Information Session presenter (and all-around great guy) Paul ’12 to answer your questions.

We’ll be doing two different webcasts this time, one at 8:00pm EDT and one at 10:00pm EDT, in order to accommodate both coasts (and all the lovely time zones in-between). The page will go live ~30 minutes prior to each webcast so you can add your questions to the MIT Media Lab’s Backchannl feed, which will continue through the show.

I hope you can join us!

Paul and Hamsika student life webcast
Admitted students of the Class of 2014!
Wednesday, March 31st
8:00pm & 10:00pm EDT

I feel there should be a dramatic chord (or small mammal) to drive that point home. If the W3C weren't meeting down the hall I'd even be tempted to break out the blink tag.

CPW is an enormous event. It's natural that you or your parents might still have some questions. This is my first CPW, too, and I can tell you that the sheer quantity of options is daunting (in a good way). Luckily the level of enthusiasm all over campus is equally impressive, and you have an entire Admissions office here to help with any last minute items.

I'm sure you've been to the CPW website. Did you notice the new schedule search feature? Between that and the iPhone app we hope to launch soon, you should have ample tools to start planning your weekend.

And parents, I hope you've gotten the message that there's no shortage of activities and information for you at CPW, too. Heck, we have a whole page just for you, plus at last count there were 171 parent-friendly events in the schedule.

If a visit to the site or a call/email to us can't unravel the mystery of CPW, the only thing left to do is go to the source: MIT's CPW gurus Lauren and Jennifer. They'll be webcasting live tomorrow night beginning at 10pm EDT; check your email for details (or email cpw@mit.edu / comment below with your email and we'll get in touch after we verify your admission status). We'll be using backchan.nl, a creation of MIT's Media Lab, to let you ask questions, or vote up/down other's questions, beginning at 9:30 and continuing live during the webcast. Even if you think you have all the answers, why not stop by and get to know your fellow classmates?

So please consider your memory jogged:

• Registration deadline THIS THURSDAY
• CPW Website goodies
• CPW webcast TOMORROW (Tuesday) at 10pm EDT

I can't wait to see you at CPW!