First Post

First Post Hi there, I’m Jenny Rifken and I am the new Director of Recruitment and Associate Director of Admissions at MIT. I’m so glad you’re joining us on this blog. Marilee, Stu, I, and the other guests hope to each write once a month or so to tell you what we’re thinking about, working on, and hear your thoughts on this whole admissions process. I look forward to getting to know you. To tell you a little about myself, I’ve had the privilege to be an admissions officer for nearly ten years at three terrific universities (including MIT). I never aspired to have a career in admissions. To tell the truth, I didn’t know one could have a career in admissions. Until there is a really popular TV show depicting a college admissions office (what an idea, by the way), high school students probably won’t think about admissions as a job opportunity. Just think, it could be the ER or Ally McBeal of admissions. But I digress… I fell into admissions by being a tour guide at my alma mater. I loved college and all of the opportunities it offered and loved being able to talk to students and their families about going to college. When I graduated, I knew I’d go to graduate school, but wanted some real world experiences first. Being an admissions officer gave me wonderful professional opportunities and I could continue to talk to families about college. Plus, I really like living near a college or university. The lectures, concerts, interesting conversations, and amazing discoveries that take place on campuses are inspiring. I couldn’t imagine a more exciting place to call home. I liked my job and the environment so much, in fact, that I decided to earn my master’s degree in higher education administration. What I have liked the best, though, is meeting the students. It’s easy to feel optimistic about the world when you meet (either in person or through their applications) the bright, engaged, motivated, and exciting young people who are applying to places like MIT. Because I’m new to this place, I’ll be learning about MIT just as you are. I’m excited to share with you all that I’m finding out and I hope you’ll tell me of the things you discover as you go through your college exploration process. Universities are never-ending places to learn â€" in and out of the classroom â€" and there will always be something new to talk about. One thing that I hope you’ll do (and I’ll be doing as well as I learn MIT) is to challenge the stereotypes of every school to which you’re thinking about applying. While its good to listen to the advice of others, you have to find out for yourself if a school is the right fit for you. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I came to MIT. I knew the students would be smart and I knew how much I liked the people in the admissions office, but I had heard all sorts of rumors about how intense the place was, how competitive and unsocial it is. I’ve only been here a few weeks and I have found all of those negative claims to be false. Everyone I have met so far, in human resources, freshman advising, athletics, academic summer programs, the coffee houses, and, of course, the students, have been wonderful. And they all tell me how much they like MIT. Actually, they tell me that they love it. When I ask them what they like, they say they like that it is collaborative and that they constantly get to explore new aspects of their work or their jobs. They say they like the people and how friendly they are. They like the playful spirit and sense of humor of the campus. I have found the people here to be incredibly giving and helpful and I’m really enjoying my new home at MIT. I know I have only scratched the surface of this place, but thankfully, I have a lot of time to explore. I hope you’ll join me on this journey and tell me what you find interesting and exciting. It’s nice to meet you and I look forward to our travels together! Jenny First Post Hi, I am Stu Schmill, and I am responsible for organizing MITs alumni interviews. I am looking forward to discussing them on this blog, but first allow me to introduce myself. After growing up in Queens, NY, I went to MIT for college. I graduated about 20 years ago as a mechanical engineer. I went to work for General Motors in Detroit designing cars. Mine were the Chevy Lumina, Olds Cutlass, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Buick Regal â€" not the whole car but about 200 parts (which is about 1% of the car). While there, I also volunteered my time coaching the high school crew program at the Detroit Boat Club (I was on the varsity crew when I was a student at MIT). I found that I enjoyed my coaching more than I enjoyed my day job, so I did what any good MIT grad would do: I followed my passion. I quit my job at GM and became a full time crew coach. I wound up back at MIT and coached the crew here from 1987-2000. I had a great time and had some good crews (was voted EARC coach of the year one year â€" the EARC is our league with the Ivies and a few others). I loved coaching MIT students; they know how to focus as well or better than athletes Ive coached from other colleges. About five years ago I stopped coaching, largely because I had been coaching for a while and I thought it would be fun to do something else. I spent a few years in the MIT Alumni Association, and three years ago I came to work in the admissions office in my current role. Although my path has been somewhat untraditional, I wouldnt change any of it. I happen to love what I do every day. I am still active in rowing. I cox a few times every year, always racing in the Head of the Charles. Ive won the race quite a few times now, including one win with the United States National Team. This year I will be coxing a boat from Croatia in the Masters eight event. I also just spent this summer coaching crew. I just got back from a three-week trip to Israel where I coached the US rowing entries at the World Maccabiah Games (the Jewish Olympics). We entered every event offered. We won most of them, but I think it is more cool that we entered everything. I love racing, because it gets you into a heightened state of awareness (read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which was recommended to me by my former professor Woodie Flowers years ago). John Everett, MIT class of 1976 â€" who learned to row at MIT in 1973, won the world championship in the US eight-oared shell in 1974, and was on the 1976 and 1980 Olympic teams â€" once told me hed rather be 10-10 than 10-0: he preferred to get 20 chances to race, to test yourself, to get into that state of awareness when growth occurs, regardless of whether he won or not (believe me, he preferred to win). The key is to look upon performances â€" a race, game, music or dance recital, speech for debate team or at a science fair, a test in school, or, yes, a college interview â€" as an opportunity to experience a heightened state of awareness, to experience, flow, or to be in the zone. It is in these times when life is fun and you learn about yourself. People sometimes get nervous about these performances because rather than looking at them as opportunities to experience life fully, they look at them as a test of their self-worth. If I fail, Im not so good. If you fail (which only means not doing as well as you can, it does not mean, not winning) it is only because something inhibited you from performing (lack of preparation, fear of failure, fear of success, etc.), not because you are a bad person. Think about this as you go through the college process. In particular, think about how this relates to the interview. View the interview as an opportunity. It is not something you can fail at â€" there are no tests, no admissions decisions being made â€" it is just a conversation between you and an alum. It is an opportunity for you to talk about your involvement in the things that interest you (which should be fun for you to do), and for you to learn about MIT and have your questions answered by someone who went here (which should also be fun for you to do). In my next blog entry in a few weeks, Ill offer some specific advice on how to approach the interview. For now, just relax and enjoy the rest of your summer. And get into that flow state as often as you can.