Back in the day, your Ocean meant something. It wasn't just the 70 or so folks who muscled through your first semester of Core (which, just like high school, came with the full complement of Ferris Buellers and "Statues of Liberty" (ooh, ooh! call on me!)). Back in the day, your Ocean was your proto-network, the first friendships you made at Sloan.
And then Gore created the internets. Use them to make connections with fellow AdMITs before you get to Cambridge. How else are you going to recruit partners in crime for summer travel and group apartments?
- Google groups. Admit committee and student senate set a google group up for you. No admissions committee members are on it, so feel free to speak freely. The activity on these usually runs at fever pitch over the summer on everything from editorial rants about current events, travel plans and informal gatherings, housing decisions, financial concerns, etc. Learn from our class and hold off on creating a yahoo group, life is too short for a VHS Betamax reprise.
- Facebook. Congratulations, Slava for kicking off the 2011 facebook group! You will probably also find yourself starting/joining Ocean groups, preterm trek groups, and the like.
- LinkedIn. A twin group usually springs up on LinkedIn to complete the set, but unless Facebook's platform completely collapses, don't expect this forum to be nearly as active.
- FogieNet. Don't hesitate to contact 2nd years and alums. I first found my apartment by joining the 2008 listhosts and asking if anyone had sweet digs they were moving out of with landlords interested in disintermediating brokers. Here are our connections: 2010 google group, 2010 facebook group, 2010 LinkedIn. And of course, feel free to ping me, my door is always open!
- "Sloan Sprawl." Argh! Bookmark any websites the admissions folks send you and note your passwords. MIT should stand for Must Integrate Tech. You may not be able to get into all of these sites until you setup your certificates, but here's a preview of what you're in for (in roughly the chronological order you'll encounter them).
- Sloanpoint: a "portal," it doesn't quite port you everywhere. There are good pre-arrival tips, checklists, preterm quizzes, etc. you should make sure you pull down and work through. You will never get comfortable navigating this interface.
- WebSIS: first it comes at you collecting tuition deposits. By the end of the quarter, you're coming at it, pecking at the refresh button incessantly like a disappointed pigeon to see if in fact "F is for finance." You might encounter it a third time if you're a research assistant or teaching assistant on payroll.
- Stellar: a coursework clearing house. Each class and section posts their syllabus, homework sets, announcements, message boards, etc. More advanced classes may layer on an additional website (i.e. the ideastartup in New Enterprise and the Power and Negotiations' sloanware), but your first semester classes are all contained here.
- Career central: manages professional development resources and has a bidding platform for internship/job postings. You can actually get to this through Sloanpoint. I'd suggest supplementing your research with the guides provided at the library and your alumni network search with the MIT-wide infinite connection.
- Sloanbid: where you bid for classes (both semester classes and classes you take over the mid-semester 1 week Sloan Innovation Period).
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