FPOPs conducted on campus after virtual events last fall
First-Year Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOP) were held on campus Aug. 23–28 or 29. All FPOP events were virtual last fall.
In total, 549 students participated in 23 FPOPs.
First Year Advising Associate Dean and Director Elizabeth Young wrote in an email to The Tech that some FPOPs were “not held” due to “various COVID reasons.” Discover Aerospace, Freshman Leadership Program, First-Year Outdoors Program, Discover Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (Yellowstone), Discover UROP, and Discover Finance were not conducted.
Young wrote that “helping departments adjust for eating and finding outdoor locations” was challenging when planning in-person FPOPs. The programs had to make commitments in May “knowing that different policies and procedures may be in place in August.”
Kevin Yang ’22, Discover Physics (DP)’s counselor, said in an interview with The Tech that COVID cut down on the budget for planning FPOPs. The team had to “get rid of a few events” and saw a decrease in the food budget. Yang said they still kept the “iconic events” such as visiting MIT’s Wallace Astrophysical Observatory and the Museum of Science.
He said his main goal was to “help students become acclimated to MIT” and “see if the physics major is right for them” by “listening to undergraduates and professors talk about the interesting work they do” and “participate in lab tours.”