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MIT First Year Wrapped

July 2025 (5387 Words, 30 Minutes)

OMG HI EVERYONE! With my first year at MIT done, I decided to take some inspiration from another “Wrapped” post on MIT’s blogs and write one of my own. It was a rocky semester in multiple senses of the word, so without any more hesitation, I’ll get started.

3 ASEs Taken

Technically not at the start of the school year, but I think they are worth mentioning. I took three Advanced Standing Exams (ASEs), which are exams that students can take at different times of the year to automatically gain credit for certain classes. I took the ones for 6.100A, 7.01x, and 18.01. The only one I ended up passing was 6.100A, and with a C. 7.01x and 18.01 I failed, though I did at least get the ability to take an accelerated course sequence for math (classes 18.01A and 18.02A). I’m not exactly interested at taking any future ASEs, since I don’t like to stress myself more than I need to, but interesting experiences to come into MIT with nonetheless.

12 Classes Taken

I took a rocky path with this one. I’ll start with my first semester.

First Semester

The classes I ended up sticking with through to the end were:

I’m quite happy making it through the classes I did, though I could’ve included another 12 unit class instead of 2.00. I enjoyed it though, since we had to make a product while interviewing a user on a regular basis about it. CC.110 was unexpectedly difficult because I couldn’t get myself to do the readings or the discussion posts a good amount of the time, though I did enjoy discussing these ancient Greek texts in recitation. Clutched up near the end with my last paper, primarily motivated by a class I want to take in the future (24.223) since a philosophy class was a prerequisite for it. CC.801 and 18.01 were my primary STEM classes, and I had lots of (brutal) fun in the former due to office hours and how much me and my friends struggled together. I barely made it out of the former though, was down to the final for me. As for the latter, I didn’t study much or go to lecture at all, was still able to squeak out a pass though. The Concourse seminar was a unifying part of Concourse, and I loved how it got us into conversation about so many topics throughout the semester. Chill but intensely reflective.

The classes I didn’t see through to the end (or failed) were:

18.01A was the accelerated math sequence I mentioned earlier, and got absolutely wrecked by it. There were only 4 psets, but each one was more painful than the last, requiring so much more than I already knew or what I managed to understand from lecture. One of these psets had my most painful submission experience to date (though there may be more painful in the future), where I woke up an hour after it was due (it was due at 1 PM) despite having it done at the time I dozed off. As per class policy, I got 50% credit taken off, which hurt but was deserved. Now, the final exam for 18.01A is something I never want to experience ever again. I didn’t even get past the third page before my knowledge was exhausted, and I’ll even admit that I was close to crying by the end. As expected, I failed the class, but I was still allowed to take the second half of 18.01. As for 3.091 and CC.5111, I dropped them mostly because I didn’t feel like first semester was the best time for me to handle chemistry. And honestly, I kept missing the quizzes for 3.091 because I didn’t wake up on time for them (at 11 AM mind you). Even the easiest classes at MIT are still hard, or I was just hosed. I don’t know how CC.5111 compares to the mainstream version of the class content-wise, I just know that a class at 9 AM will be harder for me personally because I have to work through chemistry problems and lecture with crust still in my eyes.

Second Semester

Ended up sticking with all my classes this semester to the end, didn’t mean I passed every one though. I’ll go into more depth here since we actually had grades this semester. Here are the ones I passed:

21H.343 is a class that honestly deserves its own blog post, but a paragraph will do for now. Its premise is to produce both content for a book and to bind it ourselves, but this class is so much more than that. It’s a survey of the history of print, starting off with some vocabulary to describe the founding era such as “standardization” and “fixity,” which would come to mean a lot with the readings we had and our research texts. Each person in the class (which was only 10 or 11 people) got a text of their choice to study over the semester, culminating in a final paper by the end of the semester and intermediate assignments throughout. The disorganized nature of the information made it so that we had to pay close attention to fully enjoy the class, which made for an immersive experience combined with the physical components of the class. These included discussions, printing press sessions, and a bookbinding lab near the end of the year. The physical connection to the content in a subject that is often purely mental made it memorable, and the sheer dedication that we had to put into our craft (5 hours outside of class per week was required). However, the best part of the class was Dr. Zimmer, potentially the most passionate person that has taught any class I’ve taken in my entire life. Not only did she answer endless questions we had about the content, but entertained any conversation about niche topics. She wanted to get me in touch with others that had very niche foci based on our conversations, notably Lupe Fiasco (who teaches at MIT and is one of my favorite lyricists). I’m excited to take his class next year, and I can’t wait for Zimmer to give me an introduction!

18.05 is a fun class that isn’t too hard content-wise, but has a huge quantity of things to know and formulas to use. Like other classes at MIT that I’ll get to, students are allowed “cheat sheets,” or handwritten notes of whatever we want, such as formulas or rules from the class content. This came in handy during the exams, as I could focus on the actual skills rather than drilling facts into my brain. I had been introduced to this last semester with CC.801, but the benefits were significantly more noticeable here. I only needed to pay attention to those subtleties in the subject that I might not pay attention to, such as whether certain concepts were frequentist or Bayesian. The latter was a major reason why I was excited for the class, as I had gotten into AI alignment through my UROPs and one of my friends who was the catalyst for me exploring it further. Bayesian prediction is a large part of AI alignment and part of the language of many LessWrong posts I am sent; after the class, I feel that I love AI alignment even more. The professors were also very passionate about statistics, with the main one (Dr. Bloom) had research and code written to do very specific tasks in bioinformatics. I don’t understand it very well, but if you do, I’ll link it here if you want to give it a read. There were also coding studios, which were the most fun part of the class in my opinion. Every Friday, we had to come into class and finish a coding exercise in R (a programming language similar to Python for statistical analysis). The scenarios presented to us were engaging, with genuine datasets and thought-provoking implications. One of the best was a climate change visualization task, where we were given data collected about global temperature averages over time, and got to prove to ourselves that there had taken place a statistically significant change in these quantities. I find that so curiosity-feeding, that we can prove what we are told to ourselves; observe the data and see if what we believe is correct. TEAL classes don’t have the best reputation at MIT, but I enjoyed 18.05 a lot, since it constantly kept me looking forward to what’s coming next. I can’t wait to experience the drips or rain of stats that will fall on me in the future, encapsulates my feelings about the class.

CC.1802 is a standard multivariable calculus class that has the benefit of being very small, with only 3 other students in the class. It made lecture more focused, which can be said for a lot of classes with small student to faculty ratios, but the passion that Dr. Keliher had was firing on all cylinders. The only force that dragged down my enjoyment of the class was honestly myself, because my attendance at lecture and recitation dropped off near the end of the semester because I thought I could just read the textbook and learn the content on my own. Not that there aren’t valid ways to take shortcuts, but the individualized help already in the nature of the class was even more of a shortcut than what I was doing. The problem sets were conceptually doable by the book alone but required some execution that was discussed during lecture, which made the last few difficult for me (and left a lot blank too). Recitation was the other most well-executed part of the class, boosted massively by the TA we had. In addition to always including the “why” of the answer when we asked questions, her attitude as a person was one of my favorite qualities of the class as a whole. She has the attitude of Nas; shakes you at first, but then you get used to refueling via what you need to hear. Nothing wrong with this class, and everything you need to perform at your best is there if you want it. As for the content, it’s mostly a continuation of 18.01 in three dimensions, in addition to additional concepts such as flux or Green’s theorem. Very difficult conceptually to understand, but once it clicks, it clicks forever.

I failed one class this semester:

Was it difficult? Yes. Would I call it torture? Not quite. I felt that it was a fair class with plenty of help available for the problem sets, and lots of resources for exam preparation that I didn’t take full advantage of. It was hard for me to deal with considering all the stuff I had going on during the semester, which I’ll expand on later. But I don’t deny that my time management wasn’t perfect and that I could’ve had a different set of priorities that would’ve made for a better semester academically. Also, Ryan Lang has some of the best instruction I’ve ever been witness to as well, it was just up to me whether to take full advantage of it. About the content, it was quite interesting to learn about how electricity and magnetism are intertwined, the enjoyment slightly dampened by the difficulty (I don’t hold this against the class though). The problem sets had some cool examples of how the principles we learned are employed practically, such as in a cyclotron or band filtering in alternating current. Even if the content near the beginning clicked, you do have to constantly think about it and review it to “get it.” We were also allowed cheat sheets in this class, which I could’ve put more effort in, especially for the last exam, where the content at the tail end of the class was doable just by writing down the formulas. Overall, incredible class that ended up defeating me, but I’m not down. I’m taking 8.021 next semester, which seems to be a remedial class for those that failed E&M, and I will do much better in this one. I have to, after all.

8 Musical Rejections

No hate to any of the groups listed here, but I did get turned down by 7 acapella groups this year and 1 band. I understand that there are people more talented vocally than me who deserved it, and I’m not at all mad. But it was a bit of a letdown though, and I will be trying again next semester (and taking it more seriously, as you’ll see). I performed the third verse and hook from Till I Collapse by Eminem and Nate Dogg for all 7 acapella auditions, and Can’t Feel My Face by the Weeknd for the Next Sing audition (which was the only group I got into). For the band, I performed High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco and Can’t Feel My Face. I think what I did wrong is picking songs that showed more of my flow and rapping ability than my vocal performance, which an R&B song does much better at exhibiting. Therefore, my strategy for fall auditions is to pick songs that are great at revealing my vocal abilities, and I’m thinking a Stevie or Marvin Gaye classic for this. Here are the groups in question:

My dream groups are the Logs and the MIT-Wellesley Toons, I’ve got my fingers crossed.

4 Acapella Rehearsals Attended (+ a performance anyway)

I’m not even sure if this number is right, but it seems the most accurate estimate I could make. My act in Next Sing was practicing the song Viva La Vida by Coldplay, and I was far from consistent when it came to showing up to performances. I was a tenor in the group, but I was missing most of the time. I either had other things to do during the times rehearsal was (completing problem sets mostly) or was out of energy by the end of the day. Either way, I chose not to go. Despite this, I came back for the penultimate rehearsal before the big Nextception show and was pulled to the side. I knew what was about to happen, but I might as well show some dignity before getting kicked off. And that’s exactly what went down. I wasn’t allowed to perform, and I wasn’t sad at all because I deserved it. I believe that it was possible to structure my day in such a way that I could’ve gotten everything I wanted done and still went to rehearsals with high energy. I swallowed my pride and walked away, but I still wasn’t done with the idea of performing. Maybe not in front of a large crowd of 100+ people anymore, but I could still make something of it. The Concourse end-of-year party was my target, and I played with the idea of performing with Dr, Zimmer, but went after it full-force when I was dropped from Nextception. I spent 3 days writing and practicing the song I would sing, which used the beat of Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick, Push.” It did cut into my finals studying, and I don’t regret it at all. During the party, I spent an hour finding a pocket where everyone was calmed down enough for me to come in. During a game of Secret Hitler, I decided it was time. I got up and just rapped my verses, a dedication to all the people that made my year so philosophically rich, the ones in Concourse. My lyrics are below if you would like to read them!

[Prelude]
Uh,
What’s good, y’all
Woo!
If y’all ain’t already at the source
This community goes by the name of Concourse
(MIT’s premier learning community!)
Representing those humanities minded
And this one right here
I dedicate this one right here
To all the goats in Concourse
You know what I’m saying? Regardless of how their year went
You know what I’m talking about?
So, let’s start off, uh
[Verse 1]
First got into the humanities spirit through CC.110
Reading the works of all these men, analyzing again and again
Discussing all these ideas we were seein’, lovin’ to be disagreein’ like Ian
Always the spirit of hilarity, even amidst the severity of physics
Him and Kimberly, like Don Toliver and Travis Scott, a great collaboration and friendship brought
Passion for robotics anything but robotic, MIT patriotic
Among the yappers, the seminars wouldn’t be dapper without em
James, of philosophical aims, Ian, the Grace that’s Ace, and Marlo the CEO of an argumentative social case
Concourse so full of soul like Nicole, at the center console from the sun to down
Wholesome like Jackson down the tree, always direct but understanding like Angie
Concourse avoids the one hit wonder like Lil Tecca
Rebecca known by everybody, and conversations random as if I talked about Rayden, to the style of Aiden
Always improving, experimental unlike ESG, legacy pristine, but can never be Christine
But there wouldn’t be a Concourse without professors, so let me start my discourse with them
[Verse 2]
Starting off with a bang, Ryan Lang
Physics forever difficult and torture
But he lets the light in it with full aperture
Always so passionate even when we’re on our phone
The successor to Mohamed, calculating the electric field of a cone
I can feel the induced magnetic field to draw me to the awe of the Gauss’ and Biot-Savart Law
Next in STEM is Keliher, lecture so tailored to the pset
That missing it caused me a stir
But doesn’t change how in debt I am to his open door
It’s always office hours, even when it’s not
His teaching is to be fought for, never poor or a bore
Next is Taylor, who is swift and raises chem from the floor
Even through I had to run and drop in my course shop, I wish I didn’t have to put a stop
A lift to my hope for next sem, I’d take it over 3.09FUN
Then Professor Zimmer, making the most tedious tasks feel like trimmers
So passionate that it made every subject dimmer temporarily
Every printing and reading, labored me wearily
But the magic of books popped out, the UROP about
And finally Rabieh, making every seminar possible
Always so dedicated to an idea and discussion
Painting an ornate ideascape with the pleasure of percussion
Not all heroes wear capes, but they’re always worth the wait
CC.110 forced, but you made it feel like it had no weight
We couldn’t do it without the TAs either, so they’ll get their love too
[Verse 3]
A web of things that make them great, few can stand up to Seb
Injecting sarcasm and gas into P&P, lighting up the dark in physics
Arturo less so, but he’s that side of analytic we all need, making it out of a C
But sometimes we try to clutch a bunch, doing so much with Nick
Handling pressure so slick, a true hero, always appears when we need him
The opposite of a zero, always thoughtful under pressure
With Johnnie being the one to think of no lesser
A philosophical principle always afloat
Concourse personified, on the most personal note
And on an interval, his back with the game all up in it
Same goes for Bridget, the reason we understand flux to a deluxe
I can’t afford to not give her the flowers she deserves, but if I could
at least we have Alexis
All on lock, but none so named as Isaac
The Concourse rock, makes it go tick tock
When I learned that he was a senior, was a shock
Take into stock and walk the talk
He’s leaving, his graduation, but you were never just a flick
We’ll miss you, and no one could replace you on our rotation
[Outro]
That’s the end of my appreciation today, and I’m sorry if I didn’t get to some
I don’t know everyone, and if you want a tribute in the song, just tell me
Because y’all are goats to someone out there, and even if Concourse isn’t around
We’re still here for one reason or another, so thank you so much for being goated
I’m proud of each and every one of you, and even those that don’t hear this right now
As James would say, peace out (put up peace sign)

4 (Strong) Friendships Made

I’m incredibly grateful to have made such great friends, and a very deliberate selection of them too. I don’t want to share full details for their own anonymity, but will speak about them generally.

The first one I met is someone that is more humanities-focused than me but has influenced how I think about my own academics. I met her on a QuestBridge support group online, and she stuck out to me as someone who was so endlessly curious that she wasn’t easily comparable to anyone else I knew. It sometimes makes me cry how curious she is, how passionate she is about languages and international affairs. Her evolution also directly influenced mine, slowly growing to be more confident and risk-taking over time. But we have never lost our down-to-earth nature, always self-aware and wearing our morals on our sleeves. She also appreciates STEM as a field, which has prompted me to be more exploratory about cybersecurity and AI safety in terms of my direction. The next friend has done much of the same, but in terms of making me rethink my career.

I met this second friend from the same support group I met the previous friend in. They always intrigued me with the rationality rambles and resources they shared, and it was intriguing enough for me to talk about it with them. I discovered LessWrong through our chats, and realized the ways in which it crossed paths with the goals of cybersecurity. The goal of AI alignment is to make sure that we can keep it under control of humans, and the goal of cybersecurity is to keep hackers under control to defend critical systems. I started to tag along with them to different LessWrong meetups in Boston, and got a better glimpse of the type of thinking that goes on in AI safety. I started integrating these ideas into the research opportunities I got, to where it became a major consideration in my latest UROP about agentic AI in information security. Not only in the career front, but they’ve also played a role in my growing confidence, placing me into new social situations and keeping me on my feet. I try to be that friend for others, and it’s amazing to have that friend in my life.

The third friend is one I met a few minutes after getting into MIT. She contacted me on Discord soon after joining the Beaver Lodge 2028 server, and said that she loved my username (0xdeadbeef). That’s where it all spawned from. We talked for hours about computers and other silly things, what we were excited for in college, lots of things like that. She is one of the sweetest people that could ever exist in my eyes, not having any social expectations for the people around her and being so accepting that it makes me cry. Every time I see her, I jump up and down with joy and hug her so tightly. I cry myself to sleep because I miss her sometimes, and she’s one of the only people that can make me feel that way. Part of that was because she is a gap year student and is entering MIT this year, and I’m so excited to see her more often. If I was to describe her like a Kanye song, she’s my angel in a maid dress.

The fourth friend was one I also met on the Beaver Lodge 2028 server, but a lot later. He is an international student and one that is run by the desire to always be doing good at every second in his life. He’s a hustler too, but for the sake of the game and the good that comes out of it. His NPC persona is legitimately one that has challenged my view on what an NPC is, and that it’s not just someone that does what they’re told. To him, it’s someone who takes life by the programming and doesn’t feel regrets, Whatever happens is measured by the good it brought into the world, and the goal is to optimize it. We can talk about anything and everything, with the knowledge that we have great intentions in our hearts. He doesn’t listen to music or play any games, the latter motivating me to do the same, because it doesn’t increase the amount of good he brings into the world. Our friendship demonstrates to me that I bring good into the world by my own personhood, and that always gives me a reason to wake up every day.

3 Dorms Lived In (+ a “dorm”)

I don’t have much to say housing wise, since I didn’t go to my room much for purposes other than sleeping. I tend to be out and about, though my roommate in Random Hall was incredible, albeit quite brainrotted. I decided to move into Simmons for my second semester through the Spring Building Switch, which is a decision I somewhat regret (and still get called out for at times), since I miss my roommate a lot. But there are benefits to Simmons, such as the fact that lots of people I know from the Beaver Lodge are in it, and it being close to New Vassar (which has my favorite dining hall for breakfast). I don’t think too much about my dorm though, since it is just a place to sleep in for me, though that may just be remaining salt from my Random decision. I do think about other dorms, but I decided to stick with Simmons in order to avoid future regret.

About the Concourse lounge, I honestly slept here most of the second semester just so I could blog about it. Would not recommend it, since I felt washed out every day after sleeping on the couch every day. I was sometimes there during long study sessions and just slept there because I was too tired to go back to my dorm, and it would’ve been acceptable if that was it. 16-128 was functionally my dorm for sleeping purposes, since I went back to my actual room just to shower and change clothes. People eventually started to get annoyed by it, even threatening to revoke my tap access to the lounge. That’s when I had to stop and start sleeping in the Banana Lounge. This is just to say, I was dedicated to that goal, but I prefer to feel fresher in the morning and actually wake up on time, thank you very much,

2 UROPs Obtained

One is over a longer term than the other, but they are both worth talking about. I’ll start with the first one.

A Student Assembly

MIT is a fantastic place, but there’s wack things about it for sure. One of those things is its sustainability policies, and the goal with this UROP is to make those policies slightly less wack. The student assembly, which included me, was tasked with discussing and deliberating on several proposals that the MIT Sustainability Office would put into effect. It was our job to write the proposals, decide which ones we should take seriously, debate their implications, and place a final vote on which ones get sent to the MITSO. It was a cool opportunity because it gave me the opportunity to take part in deciding an aspect of the Institute’s future, and I wholeheartedly enjoyed it. Numerous people passionate about the Institute and who were also involved in other organizations such as Dormcon were part of the group, and it was enlightening to see what rants people had about the Institute. One of my proposals was to get rid of the dreaded meal plan requirement in certain dorms, forcing some students to pay extra for the dining hall food when cooking might be a better choice for them. Even the infamous “Chipotle meal plan” is rumored to be cheaper than the Any 21 meal plan, which turns out to be true if you buy cheap enough meals from Chipotle. I was disappointed to see my proposal not pass, but there were other aspects at play that likely made it unfeasible to do in 2025 (kitchens would have to be better stocked, there would have to be more of them…) I’m okay with that, because at least I tried to make change happen, which not everyone gets the opportunity to do. We also considered the impacts of AI in the sustainability of the Institute, of which my angle was to minimize its use to reduce unnecessary spending and lower energy consumption. AI alignment did inform this opinion in a statistically significant way.

Pentest Automation

I’ve touched on my passion for cybersecurity and AI a few times in this post, but this opportunity was my big break in terms of what I could do with my skills. I met my supervisor Ranjan Pal at a UROP mixer, since I saw the word “cybersecurity” on his table and walked over because I was interested. We had a great conversation about what my vision in cybersecurity was and was impressed by my background, and I gave him my MIT email for him to contact me if he wanted me on board. He did, and two weeks later, I had an IAP UROP that consisted of me spending my IAP writing a proposal to eventually be included in a paper publication and for me to get backing from MIT Sloan. During the spring, I prepared a presentation that I would show to researchers at Sloan to display the vision I had for the product that I would spend this summer developing. I even inserted hints of my awareness of AI alignment dangers in the slides, and the researchers applauded its consideration in my research. I did do a bit of app development during the spring, but the summer is the period in which I’ll do most of it. I have a small Python script right now which can do very basic exploitation with tmux and GPT 4.1, but the plan is to carve out a full-fledged Copilot for information security right now, since full automation seems extremely rough with the AI models I have access to right now, though agentic AI has more promise (need to experiment with it though). I don’t know what the plans for the project could turn out to be, but whether it is a paper publication, or even patent, it’s an enormous evolution of what I can do with a red team skillset.

1 Year Done

A quarter through my undergrad experience, and I’m blown away by a lot of things I saw. From the nerdy but confident social scene at MIT (will never join a frat after spring rush though) to the scope of things I could do at the Institute to the accessibility of other colleges near it (I’m planning on taking a Wellesley class at some point), it was all above any expectation I had of this place. I don’t regret going here or have any complaints about it. In my opinion, I signed away my right to complain about difficulty when I went here in the first place, I’m excited for another 3 years at this place, and have truly found paradise upon stacks and stacks of work and priorities.

Though it hasn’t transpired yet, I do have some plans for how I’ll evolve next semester. If every year is an album, my second year will be my Late Registration. The new Doug will be more personal, take himself more seriously academically, and commit fully to the scraps of the previous chapter. If I become an MIT blogger, that will be backed by the full faith and credit of my confidence. So will my acapella hobby if I make it, and internship if I get it. I can always take myself even more seriously, but also experiment with MAIA to further the AI alignment angle of my career or even host a LessWrong meetup myself. The new Doug is the old Doug fundamentally, just with extra extensions on top. But they will become the old Doug just the same.

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