http://kaco1.tumblr.com/post/4027001124/cheme
A common question from prospective LGO candidates is “How is your relationship with the different engineering departments?” The MIT Chemical Engineering department really stands out in the interactions with LGO students. Here, I’ll describe my interactions with the Chemical Engineering department at MIT.
The Chemical Engineering staff and faculty do a great job of integrating us with the other graduate students. LGO ChemEs are provided dedicated desks (with our names on it!) in Building 66 for our first year with the other first-year grad students, (e.g. PhD, Master of Chemical Engineering Practice). We are invited to the annual banquet, included on the mailing lists and in the resume book, and invited to regular “TG” events (free food and beer social gatherings in the ChemE building). One of the nicest parts about the TGs (I forget what TG stands for) are that they are typically 4-7 pm, which is great to bring and feed our son Nolan. In comparison, the Sloan C-Functions don’t start until 8 pm, with the event/show starting at 9.
Personally, we have several differences from the typical engineering masters students. Most are starting graduate school directly from undergraduate, meaning they are ~5 years younger than us and don’t have professional work experience. This can be more difficult to relate on a personal level, but also makes for advantages from having different experiences. For me, I’ve found that working with people who more recently had undergrad classes helpful, and I have provided coaching to friends looking for their first full-time job and given valuable industry experiences and applications to our coursework.
I mentioned earlier that we’re included on the ChemE distribution lists - this is often a humorous and strange experience! The mailing list includes emails from students working in labs looking for obscure chemicals and equipment. To those of us who aren’t working in labs at all (like LGOs or CEP), these seem pretty funny.
True requests for chemicals from the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student mailing list:
sodium N-tridecylbenzene sulfonate
ozone
neutral red, bromothymol blue or phenol red
hexadecane
ammonium hexafluorophosphate
diammonium phosphate
ethyl, propyl, or butyl acrylates
n-butanol
avidin-HRP
Cystine disulfide
poly-L-aspartic acid
tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine
Kacey Fetcho-Phillips
