the M-bomb??? does it exist? - Page 3

rsala004 · 07-02-2009, 10:14 AM

have you seen 10 pounds with will smith, and the reaction once he reveals he attended MIT?

good stuff

silverturtle · 07-02-2009, 11:03 AM

Seven Pounds

HiPeople · 07-02-2009, 01:15 PM

^^I don't know if that is what you meant, but I read somewhere that Will Smith was offered (not officially) an invite to MIT, but he declined it. Is this true?

quanta · 07-02-2009, 01:31 PM

Ha, then Robert Downey Jr. should have also for playing Tony Stark.

HiPeople · 07-02-2009, 01:48 PM

I meant academically when he was in high school.

rsala004 · 07-02-2009, 02:31 PM

yes he was admitted to something at mit, pretty interesting...and yea its 7 pounds sorry ;] i have dishonored smith

heres wiki claim

While it is widely reported that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he never applied to MIT,[9] although he was admitted to a "pre-engineering program" there.[10] According to Smith, "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."[11]

his mother attended Carnegie Mellon so you can imagine...what his parents thought

astrophysicsdude · 07-02-2009, 02:46 PM

Maybe Smith was admitted to MITES? (I don't know if MITES was in existence in the early 1980's)

HiPeople · 07-02-2009, 02:46 PM

^Hey I wonder if this program was MITES or something.
(whoa ditto^)

As much as I want to go to MIT, I would say that Will Smith made the right career choice in the end by not considering MIT or any other college.

astrophysicsdude · 07-02-2009, 03:10 PM

Hipeople, we must think alike. MITES was started in 1975 so that probably was it.

Also just finished reading the novel, "Replay" by Ken Grimwood which references MIT.

The main character keeps waking up after he dies to a time 20 years earlier when he is a student at Emory. After reliving the next 20 years over again (but with all his previous knowledge of what happened before- kind of like the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day"), it happens again and again with differing outcomes each "replay" as he tries to change things he knows are predestined. During one replay of his life he decides to go public and seek the advice of MIT and Princeton physicists, whom he believes are the most knowledgeable physicists in the world about the time-space continuum.

silverturtle · 07-02-2009, 03:46 PM

Hey astrophysicsdude: does MIT actually offer that as a major, or are you just interested in it and taking classes?

astrophysicsdude · 07-02-2009, 05:35 PM

MIT has no astrophysics department per se, but both physics (8) and planetary science (12)departments offer some astro courses so I'm planning a course 8 major (focused option) with a minor in astronomy(courses from 8 and 12) and a possible concentration in a humanities subject (if I can fit it in) when I start next fall. I would double major but I don't think astronomy is available as a major, only as a minor. If you read any of Lulu's blogs (she graduated this year), I think this is what she did as well.

sakky · 07-03-2009, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Yeah, for the record, I usually avoid mentioning MIT because it usually gets awkward fast: "Oh, so are you like, a genius?" How exactly are you supposed to respond to that? I was never terribly worried about people judging me negatively because of it, but it has happened a couple of times (the most ridiculous of which I related above).

The problem is when people start asking you for help in fixing their computer or configuring their HDTV...especially when you don't know how!. That gets awfully uncomfortable real fast, as people start chortling: "Wait, you went to MIT?"

Sometimes I (jokingly) think that MIT should run a required class of "Fixing Every-Day Technology" in order to avoid those embarrassing scrapes.

LauraN · 07-03-2009, 11:34 PM

sakky: I would love the "Fixing Every-Day Technology to Prove That You Actually Went to MIT" class.

I've rarely encountered the person who had no idea what MIT was, but it did happen just a few hours ago.

Me: "I just graduated from MIT."
Her: "Oh, interesting! So are you going into fashion?" (Apparently she was thinking of FIT- the Fashion Institute of Technology.)
Me: "Um, no, mechanical engineering..."

That was an interesting twist on the conversation, and an even more interesting look on her face when she realized just how far off she had been...it's a long way from designing clothes to designing cars. =)

eisensteinprime · 07-04-2009, 12:00 AM

Heh, I was getting a haircut the day after I finally decided on MIT. My barber knew that I would be going to college in the fall, so she asked me if I had decided yet. I was so excited from the day before that I blurted out "Yes, I'm going to MIT!", and then realized that it sounded like I was bragging about it and braced myself for an awkward moment. Her response? "Oh, where's that?". :-)

(She then said that I shouldn't go to school so far from home, because I wouldn't have any friends as a freshman and I would want to come home all the time).

silverturtle · 07-04-2009, 12:14 AM

I thought MIT was among a handful of schools with the best national recognition. I'm surprised!