Money @ MIT (The Archives) : 6. Fun Stuff

The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Blog.

barkowitz — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:22:00 GMT

This blog is officially closed and will now only exist as an archive of past posts.

Please visit the new blog at http://daniel.mitblogs.com.

There really are blue skies here... (and fine art too! -- edited June 7, 10:30 Central)

barkowitz — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 04:48:00 GMT

Some pics of my first day in Aspen. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a (much) larger image of the same photo.

The following photos were taken by the John Denver Sanctuary, a beautful public park in downtown Aspen dedicated to the memory of John Denver:

Another feature about Aspen that I have really enjoyed is the “window shopping.” Clearly, affording the items is a whole other question, but there is a store in downtown Aspen called “Pismo” that has beautiful fine art glass. Some pics (from outside and in) follow.

Departing for "Bluer Skies"

barkowitz — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 02:12:00 GMT

Tomorrow morning, I will be jet setting across the continent as I make my way to Aspen, Colorado for the bi-annual (in this case, every other year) COFHE Financial Aid Director's Retreat. For those of you who do not know, COFHE is the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a group of thirty-one private colleges who share common interests and concerns.

This year's conference theme is “Blue Skies: Envisioning the Future” and promises to be a great opportunity to network with colleagues and talk about the greater themes in the work we do.

One presentation to which I am especially looking forward is a sort of “Technology Show and Tell” during which I will be making a presentation on blogging as a new outreach tool for financial aid offices to consider. Since Matt and Ben have already done this for NEACAC this may seem “old hat” to you, but this will be the first time I am presenting on the subject to my financial aid colleagues.

As part of the presentation, we will be logging in to the blog to see its organization and purpose, so if you want to leave a message for the attendees, feel free to do so below by commenting on this post.

Besides the log in during the presentation, I will try to log in from under the “blue skies” of Aspen daily (I am taking my laptop with me), but just in case of technical issues, don't expect many updates until after I return (on Thursday).

Looking for some advice, you too (U2).

barkowitz — Tue, 24 May 2005 18:14:00 GMT

Hi there.

In wandering the Infinite today, I picked up the most recent issue of Counterpoint, a great independent student publication published jointly by Wellesley and MIT students. The latest copy is entitled “Crunch Time” and has some interesting reads.

One of the articles is a relationship advice column (with some pretty frank questions and answers) entitled “Ask the Beaver.” Well, interestingly enough, it appears that the authors also have a blog of their own where advice can be sought and advice can be left. So far they are up to 20 questions. Maybe you'll find something of interest there.

On to my other topic above (and sorry for shouting, but I am very excited), I AM SEEING U2 IN CONCERT TONIGHT. They are performing at the (used-to-be) Fleet Center. I have been a U2 fan for a LONG time, but this will be my first time seeing them perform live.

Obviously, one of the benefits of living in Boston is the number of concerts that pass through the area. I've seen James Taylor, Duran Duran, Madonna, Jimmy Buffet, the KISS 108 Concert (a full day affairs with over 25 bands), Elton John/Billy Joel, and more. Growing up (like I did) in a much smaller metro area, I never had the chance to see acts like these live -- they just didn't travel to my part of the world.

If your taste runs to more folk and folk/rock artists, we are right down the street from Club Passim, a great local venue that has a national reputation for promoting new folk artists. New bands also appear regularly at The Middle East, another local concert venue.

I'll let you know how the concert was later...

While we are on the subject, what band is on the top of your “must see” list?

Want some Advising? Traveling to the Galapagos over lunch.

barkowitz — Fri, 20 May 2005 21:56:00 GMT

The Galapagos Islands are an amazing place. If you haven't read about them, or seen a “Nova” episode on them, you may not understand what I mean, but the ability to see wildlife “up close and personal” as well as to walk in Darwin's footsteps is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

In this, I am like an MIT Freshmen.

When I was a 7th grader, my school district (I was attending Curundu Junior High School in the Panama Canal Zone) had a competition in which the winner of each grade (7th grade through Senior in high school) would get an all-expense paid trip to the Galapagos Islands for a 2 week trip, as well as the opportunity to study about evolution, Darwin's theories, and work together on a group documentation project of the experience. I was lucky enough to be selected, to live on the Pato Feo (“ugly duckling” -- the name of our boat) for two weeks, to visit the islands, to swim in the open ocean with sea lions, to see penguins living next to flamingos. It was an amazing experience. And one I thought I could never relive.

Well, I did this week (at least vicariously). Imagine my surprise to see very large bird tracks lining the infinite corridor walkway:

Next to the feet was a large sign announcing a Galapagos exhibit:

Evidently, students in the Terrascope program had created a Galapagos museum designed to allow visitors to get a glimpse of what life is like in the Galapagos Islands.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Terrascope is a program for First Year students at MIT which allows participants to study Earth and Life Sciences through hands-on participatory projects. As one of the advising choices, Terrascope represents a great opportunity for students during their freshman year.

Erika Erickson and Scott Chilton were two of this year's participants who happened to be minding the exhibit when I walked through (sorry for the bad photo):

There were many exhibits to visit, including a “population slide” demonstrating the effects of human population on wildlife in the islands:

A super-size Sea Cucumber with light up display of its body parts (you're looking at the intestine here):

A Galapagos Marine Iguana replica who shot saline excrement out at you if you pushed a red button (for the love of science, I did!):

An Origami station to make your own Galapagos Penguin to take with you:

A display inviting you to participate as a field scientist by counting the number of fish swimming by:

An interactive relief map of the islands (the equator is lit on the first map, and Little Seymour island on the second):

And a house representing how humans who live on the islands need to balance the islands' need with their own:

There were many other exhibits as well, some asking you to match eggs with the birds which laid them, some showing the geological history of the islands, some showing the fragile balance that exists between political actors and how the increasing complexity of “untying this knot” threatens the future of the Galapagos itself.

All in all, an amazing exhibit. And also amazing that the students in the program spent their spring break this year in the Galapagos, visiting the islands, making notes for their exhibits, and in short getting to experience one of nature's most fascinating sites up close and personal.

I asked the two Freshmen where next year's class is going. The answer: Hawaii -- I've never been there, so maybe it's not too late for me to become an MIT Freshman.

In the meantime, if you are an incoming MIT student, it is not too late to apply to the Terrascope program for next year. The application deadline is June 17th.

As a final memento, here are some shots of me in the Galapagos as a 7th grader... Funny how much changes in so short a time (and how little).

Looking for a full scholarship? Want to be on TV?

barkowitz — Wed, 18 May 2005 15:10:00 GMT

http://abc.go.com/primetime/scholar/

I'm going to watch it. Are you?

Maybe next year they'll make me a judge!

(A preview on the show is at http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/16/tv)

TOOOOOOOOOO much information...

barkowitz — Thu, 05 May 2005 23:11:00 GMT

Today, I set up my facebook profile. I hope to have many friends (and eventually to upload a picture). There were some questions on the set up of my profile I simply didn't feel like sharing the answers to, though. Hmmm... wonder if there ever comes a point where you wind up sharing too much information about yourself.

On that topic, I spent my day today at the IDOC User's Group meeting. As I am sure you remember, IDOC is the process a number of schools use to collect your tax returns (so that you only have to send them in once). The College Board provides the service, and they were the host of the meeting. About 30 of us sat around a table and offered our feedback; there were folks there from Bowdoin, Colgate, Columbia, Yale, Northeastern, Boston University, Stanford, etc. It was an interesting day.

No big changes coming other than the continued interest in moving more and more information online; under development is a plan which MIT piloted this year where student applicants will be notified that they can complete their IDOC with an email message which will point them directly to the IDOC web page, rather than having to wait for a physical form to be sent.

We shared our experience with IDOC this year, how we felt (despite some occasional rough situations for some families) that the process was fairly intuitive. We also shared that for the Freshmen process this year, so many more of our award letters went out as finalized awards (compared to years past) and how moving our deadline to March 1 and using the IDOC service have really assisted in making sure that we could get our newly admitted students accurate awards in time for them to make their admissions decisions.

Tomorrow, I get to see and participate in two more feedback and focus group sessions, the first on the new “Smart Profile” which I believe is under development for 2007-2008, and the second introducing the new “PowerFAIDS”. Again, these are both College Board products, but the meetings are being held in two different parts of town, one in Cambridge and one in Waltham, so if you see me in a blue minivan rushing like mad to get from one meeting to the other, you'll understand why.

As you know, the CSS/Financial Aid Profile is the College Board's financial aid application; in 2005/06 it went completely online (they eliminated paper versions of the form). With the flexibility of being online, there is much more utility that can be added to a “smarter” financial aid application. Tomorrow, a number of colleges will meet to hear how the College Board is looking to take advantage of being online to make the application easier and more robust for you. We'll also offer our suggestions.

As for my second meeting tomorrow, we will be looking at a redesigned version of the software which we use to process your financial aid information -- PowerFAIDS. PowerFAIDS is an excellent product which allows a lot of customization for financial aid administrators (just look at my previous post about PowerFAIDS as an example), but the program was built in 1995/96 on a then state-of-the-art Client/Server model. Well, time moves on, and for the 2006-07 release, the architecture of the system is changing to a .NET framework. Tomorrow, we get a sneak peek at the “new” PowerFAIDS. I can't wait to get my hands on it! I've been working on the PowerFAIDS system since it debuted in 1996, and I know the system pretty well, but there is a lot that can be done within the new framework that couldn't be done before.

An exciting couple of days... for me at least. For you, this post may represent “tooooooo much information.”

Be well -- and add me to your facebook friends list!

Calling all time travelers! Come to the first and only time traveler convention!

barkowitz — Tue, 03 May 2005 02:49:00 GMT

This is message from the future. Or the past. It all depends on your perspective:

This weekend at MIT a graduate student will be hosting the first and only time traveler convention for any of you who want to travel back (or forward, I guess) to join in; given that it is a time traveler convention, only one is ever needed so this is your only chance (unless you build or are in possession of a time machine). The event will feature professors speaking about the known physics and hard science about time travel and performances by several local bands; it looks like a fun time.

The NPR interview about it (not to be aired until this weekend, but you can hear it now -- another time travel experience) is here. The invitation is here. Let me say now that having already traveled to the future and gone to this event, it was a rockin' good time!

Call for CPW Pics

barkowitz — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 02:40:00 GMT

So, CPW is over, and today I went back to the real world -- following up on appeals, returning phone calls, reading files, etc. etc.

I had an AWESOME Campus Preview Weekend, but much (all) of my time was spent visiting with students and families on a rotating 30 minute basis, so I did not get to wander out and see all of the cool activities you all got to participate in (other than the amazing “Meet the Bloggers” event).

So here is my offer --

Since I have no cool pics to show on my blog frm CPW, I am inviting any of who you attended and took pics to submit them to me (.jpg or .gif) and I will host your pics here. Submit your pic to my email address (barkowit-at-mit-dot-edu) and write a blurb identifying what the pic shows. Also tell me if you want me to post the pic with your real name, your AIM name, your made up name, or no name whatsoever. Make sure to use “CPW Pics” as your subject so your message doesn't get lost in my inbox.

Looking forward to some great pics!

More News IS Good News... And a Logic Problem to boot... (updated 03/30/05 - 5:00 PM)

barkowitz — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:09:00 GMT

First the news:

Autumn was down over the weekend. It appears to be back up now!
We mailed 100 awards today, bringing us to files that completed as of last Friday. We still have many of you we would like to award. GET YOUR FORMS IN!!!
We will mail again on Thursday. I'll post an update when I can.
Upperclass students have begun to get letters from us indicating that they are complete (once we have all of their documents in).
We will begin reading graduate student applications next week.
Ben announced the CPW “Meet the Bloggers“ event. See here for details.

Now for a puzzle! Apropos of Kevin's recent post, I am posting my first logic puzzle here (Mine comes from a deck of cards with logic puzzles entitled “Mind Bending Puzzles: Positively Perplexing Math & Word Problems” by Terry Stickels. When you come to visit, feel free to come into my office to browse some others!).

Which is larger: one-half times one-half of a dozen dozen OR one-half dozen halved and cubed?

Update: Jane already solved it, so don't look at the comments until you have worked it out youself. Once you have, take a look at the comments as I have added another puzzle there.

Updated again: If you haven't looked at the comments to this post, you should. There is a great series of puzzles going back and forth. Join the fun!

Day (and Latkes and Hamentashen)

barkowitz — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 15:01:00 GMT

Happy Day to all! (And take a look at today's home page for a visual description of ).

I haven't seen anyone wandering down the hall dressed as a this morning (or any other reasonable facsimile), but that is not to say that won't be served at lunch, or that I might not be hit later in the face with a . OK, OK, enough humor; I need to stop before I have to eat humble .

Another annual event that I look forward to with great delight occurs this evening: the third annual Great Debate, sponsored by Hillel. At the Great Debate, professors defend either the Latke or the Hamentashen and present their defense of each. After the debate concludes, free Hamentashen and Latkes are distributed. Debating this year in favor of the Latke is a stellar team including President Susan Hockfield, Professor Walter Lewin (Physics) and Professor Stuart Licht (Chemistry). Defending the Hamentashen is another impressive team: Professors Marc Kastner (Physics), Jeremy Wolfe (Brain and Cognitive Science) and Donald Sadoway (Material Science and Engineering). I'll let you know the outcome of the debate tomorrow!

As for the questions to the blog, many of you are interested to know whether you can get some information now about your award, or when we are going to release financial aid awards. We are still working on them now and will have them in the mail to you no later than April 1st. If you were missing information and want to make sure your file is now complete, remember you can always log in to Autumn to take a look. As soon as we receive an update as to mail date, I will post the information here.

Keep smiling, and enjoy a slice of today (or maybe a Latke, or a Hamentashen)!

Verification Rap

barkowitz — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:23:00 GMT

All of you who apply for aid will go through a process called verification. In this process, we confirm the information you provided to us against all of the other information we have from you (your tax returns, your W-2 forms, your 1099 forms, etc., etc.). This process is timely, but it ensures that we are operating with the most accurate information available to us when we make your financial aid award.

Well, those of us in the financial aid world do so much verifying that one FAO (financial aid officer) got creative and wrote his own verification rap.

I have included the text of it below and posted the wav file here (credit for the verification rap goes to Erik Mells of George Mason University -- I only wish I was as creative as he is):

You applied for aid

By completin the FAFSA

Now ya gonna find out

There's more we ask-fa

By CPS selected

Or by QA school-es

Were gonna try to find out

If ya tryin to fool us.

Checkout ya taxes

And ya AGI

In a process

We call verify.

Gonna ask for tax forms

And other stuff

You can never never never

Give us enough

But if ya don't give it up

Then we gonna come afta

You, cause Dept of Ed says

We hafta

Gotta make sure

You don’t got the nerve

To try to get money

That you don't deserve

And we gonna check out

You ain't getting no money

By givin' us data or numbers

That are funny

We gonna look real close

At ya household size

And make real sure

You aint telling no lies

And we're gonna scope out

That number in college

To verify

There are people gettin knowledge

We'll checkout

Untaxed income too

So, hey you, get ready

Give up the w-2

Now if you make you

An honest mistake

Then just a little money

From you we'll take

But if you seekin funds

To live a life a glamma

Then we’ll send you right down

To the federal slamma

So don’t you lie

'Cause we verify

Now don't you lie

'Cause we verify.

Oh yeah...

In honor of those of you waiting to hear...

barkowitz — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 04:40:00 GMT

A poem from my muse, Emily Dickinson, to lift your spirits in these last few weeks:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chilliest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet, never, in Extremity -
It asked a crumb - of Me.

Whose words give you comfort? Share something that eases your stress level...

Solutions

barkowitz — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:54:00 GMT

For those of you who want to know the answer to the Griddler below, here it is!!! You can link to the Excel file here or the Word file here. I'll also post a picture, but later in case anyone is still working on it.

Now on to the solution to the most pressing problem of the day! It is after March 1, and we at MIT still do not have all of your paperwork. What do you do?

First of all, don't panic.

March 1 is a priority deadline, not an absolute deadline. That is not to say that you should delay completing your application record, but if we do not have it now, you will not be penalized financially.

So what does a priority deadline really mean?

If you complete by March 1, we will commit to having an answer to you in time to make a decision about your admission with an MIT award letter in hand. If you complete later than March 1, we will still award you, but files will be reviewed in order of receipt, so it is possible that you may not have your answer until later.

Do we have an absolute deadline?

Well, don't push it! If you complete much after May 1, you will have to give us a pretty compelling reason as to why your application was so late. So, if you are still missing information, get cracking on it!

Answers to some questions from the blog.

Xiao Wei Chen asked “Do we need to fill out the IDOC and send it back to the College Board? College Board makes it seem like completing the IDOC is part of the Profile, but Autumn doesn't seem to mention the IDOC.“

IDOC is a sub-process which the College Board administers for us in which they collect the tax information for us, so that we receive your information as an image (no paper). You have to do the Profile to get an IDOC sheet (so international applicants will not complete the IDOC), and we do not track the IDOC separately from the 2004 tax return (although once you complete it, you will see a document on Autumn entitled “IDOC Cover Sheet“). So, you do fill out the IDOC and send it back to the College Board, they scan the information and send it to us.

-_-;; also had some IDOC questions. S/he posted that “I have not actually received an IDOC cover sheet from College Board even though i filed my profile awhile ago.“

You are correct, -_-;; (I feel like I am addressing the artist formally known as...), you should have already received an IDOC cover sheet by email. The College Board is sending IDOC cover sheet instructions by email to the email address you listed on the Profile. If for whatever reason, that email address does not work, or you did not provide one, they will mail you the sheet at your home address. Remember you can always reprint a cover sheet by logging in to the IDOC web page (you will need your SSN and Date of Birth -- or IDOC ID if you know it).

SHABIN had login problems on Autumn. Just to let you know, the Autumn database refreshes every night. It is possible that if you log in during refresh times (which I believe is midnight Eastern), you will get an error. Also, if the Autumn job fails to run, you may get an error. Best advice, give it 24 hours and try again. If that doesn't work, call us at 617-253-4971 to check the status of your application.

Arvind writes, “Hi Moneyman. I am an international student from India. I already sent my parents Tax information for year 2004. Do I also need to send the tax information for year 2003 as autumn provides a list of three things, The main form, taxform 2004, taxforms 2003.” And Suhail also asked, in part “In India the financial year is from 1st April to 31st March of the next year. It is because of this reason that income tax based on the income for the financial year won't be available at least till after 1st April 2005.” Saad Zaheer also writes “just one question, the application tracking system says that the only missing document is the parents 2004 income tax return, and 2003 tax return statement is shown submitted. now, 2004 statement is not available now and shall be received, i guess, in may or june this year, since my country follows a different system. what can i do now in place of this, and can i submit any other document as a proof of this?“

Arvind, the answer to your question is no. We only want the most recent return, so no need to send both. The problem here is that of what is considered the most recent return. In an earlier post, I stated that “The document should be based on the income and assets for the last completed tax year in your country that ends before April 1, 2005 (if your country operates its tax system on a January through December calendar, the last completed tax year will be 2004; if it operates April through March, the last tax year will end March 31, 2005; if it operates July 1 through June 30, the last tax year will be the one ending June 30, 2004).“ So for India, the tax return which reports the income from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004 is the 2003 return, and the tax return which reports income from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005 is considered the 2004 return. For this reason, Suhail, we will eventually need the return your parents will complete coming in the next several months. This is no different that a US applicant who has not completed his tax return yet for calendar year 2004. We will provide an estimated award based on earlier data, but cannot finalize the award until the current tax return is received. By the way, Saad welcome to the blog! Nice to have you on board!

Alex asked, “I am a freshman applicant and I recently went online to check my financial aid requirements. The only file missing right now is "Documentation of U.S. Citizenship" and I was wondering is there a deadline to turn that piece of information in or could I wait on it? Also where should I mail it to?“

Alex, the reason we asked for this is that you failed a database match with either the Department of Homeland Security or the Social Security Administration. Information should have been provided to you about this on the Student Aid Report (SAR) you received after completing your FAFSA. In order to resolve this, you need to provide a copy of your documentation proving you are a US Citizen or Eligible Non Citizen to our office. This could include: copy of your birth certificate (if born in the US), copy of your US passport, copy of your Naturalization Certificate, copy of your “Green Card“ (which isn't Green and really isn't a card --- discuss), etc. One of these documents should be sent to Student Financial Aid at MIT at 11-320.

mit_hopefulgirl asked “Just a question - will MIT move towards the step Harvard is taking and not require a parental contribution if a student's family income is below $40,000 a year? How generous is MIT's aid at present? Thanks!” This question was also asked by her at College Confidential.

My answer (which I posted there as well) is:

Unlike Harvard, we do not have a stated "cut-off" point where students receive 100% financial aid, but rather we look at each case individually. I will tell you, though, that the majority of families earning less than $40,000 will receive full packages at MIT and Harvard and probably almost any place they would want to go. The contribution level expected from a family with less than $40,000 in earnings and no sizable assets would, by definition, be small. But I would be careful about using standard "cut-offs" since there are very many factors that go into our consideration. You may want to review the posts on the blog that specifically relate to how your EFC is determined, to get a sense of how we work it through.

It's all fun and games to me...

barkowitz — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 02:48:00 GMT

So, given that it is almost March 1st and tensions are running high, I thought I would do my part to diffuse them.

I find when I am stressed, logic puzzles help me take my mind off my concerns. One of my favorite kinds of logic puzzles is the “Paint by Numbers” puzzle (also known as the Griddler, the Nonogram, etc. etc.). In this puzzle, you are given a blank grid and a series of numbers horizontally and vertically, and asked to fill in the grid by coloring in individual boxes following the pattern with the result being a beautiful image.

If you have done this before, you know how addicting they can be. If you have not, welcome to my first “Paint by Numbers” puzzle. I have designed the puzzle in MS Excel and linked it here. Additionally, you can open a file in Word (designed to be printed on legal paper) here.

More detailed instructions on how to complete a Griddler can be found here.

Here is what the puzzle I created looks like:

I'll post the solutions here later, but for now, let me know how you are doing on the puzzle! Have fun!