I've had a lot of fun spending the final weekend of spring break at CPW, and these are my reflections and comments about the whole experience.

What is CPW? 🤔

Campus Preview Weekend, or CPW, is an event where admitted students are hosted by a current undergraduate student and experience student life for π days.

Events 🎉

The biggest aspect of CPW were the events. A majority of them were run by fraternaties, residence halls, and other student groups.

Many events involved food, whether it was the Hot Ones Challenge or Ice Cream and Boba.

There were also a wide variety of activity-oriented events, such as volleyball, spikeball, and racing through a bouncy house.

Heck, there were even some... uh.... "niche" events like "Applied Knot Theory" 🤨.

In total, there were over 600 different events that you could attend, and despite my best efforts to create and follow a regimented schedule, I found myself spontaneously attending whatever caught my eye at any given time or following someone in my friend group.

Thoughts 💭

CPW was a really fun experience. I created an assortment of new memories and friends and experienced things I've never experienced before.

One of the coolest parts about CPW is the people you meet. I found myself interacting with people from all over the country and all over the world, with a widespread diversity that really gave me a sense of the people I might end up meeting on campus.

I was expecting to attend more academic events in all honesty. A lot of current students and upperclassmen actually advised me not to and to have more fun. I didn't really expect to listen to them at the beginning, as I thought I'd probably find more interest in learning about the courses and departments and whatnot. Yet, here I am after CPW having only attended a single academic event (only because I was dragged there).

The amount of fun I've had at CPW with the people and the events there cannot be understated. Since I was little, MIT was my dream school. I visited MIT before I was in high school and took a picture in front of the Alchemist, hoping to one day visit campus again as a student.

It's quite obvious based on this that MIT was my first choice university, so when I opened the decision on December 17th, 2022 at 12:17 PM, it was a no-brainer for me when it came to committing to MIT for the next four years.

Yet, I have to say that the experience I had during CPW was so enjoyable that I have no doubt in my mind if I were apprehensive about committing to MIT beforehand, I wouldn't be after having experienced CPW.

From taking pictures with our MITCPW lanyards in front of John Harvard to partyhopping in Boston between different frats to pulling an all-nighter at Next House and stressing out about flight delays home, MITCPW has been an unforgettable experience and only excites me more for my next four years at MIT 😋.

If you are a prefrosh reading this wondering if you should attend CPW or if you should commit to MIT, I highly encourage you to experience this yourself because it is truly like no other :)