Hamilton College Admission Journals: Deborah Barany

Congrats Women's Lacrosse!

Mon, 17 May 2010 02:59:36 GMT

Hamilton may not have been an NCAA contender in most sports this year, but our women's lacrosse team has picked up the slack. They're good. Really really good. #1 in the country. And final-four bound for the third straight year.

Since the team had the #1 seed in the tournament this year, they played host for a regional semifinal and final this weekend. School was over, so most of the non-seniors had headed home, but everyone else got to witness the magic that is our women's lax team. Our president covered the cost for admission for everyone in the Hamilton community, and students and staff alike showed up in full force to show support.

I don't know that much about lacrosse, but it was pretty apparent that Hamilton was schooling the competition. They made it look so easy, flying past the other team whenever they pleased. In the regional final against Colby, the number nine team in the country, they scored two goals in the first 40 seconds. Ridiculous.

The team travels to the final four next week. I would wish them good luck, but honestly, it doesn't look like they need it.

Finals Freak Out

Mon, 17 May 2010 02:14:16 GMT

On our last day of classes (Class & Charter Day), the sun was out and everyone was in good spirits. My day consisted of going to my morning classes (Real Analysis & Philosophy of Science), attending to the Class & Charter day ceremony, eating at the all-campus picnic, dancing incessantly at the Passion Pit concert, and just kind-of hanging out for the rest of the night. Finals seemed so far away.

The next day, it started snowing. In May. Mother nature must have known finals were coming up, and gave the entire campus a rude awakening. Just a day ago, time was not an issue, but now, every minute was precious. With four finals and a paper to finish, I was in freak-out mode.

The good news was I thrive under freak-out mode. I kind-of just get in the zone and don't think about anything else. My finals were spread out over four consecutive days, and I came up with a plan about how to best spend my time each day. At times I think finals week is not about how well you've learned the material, but how well you can manage your time and cope under pressure.

Neural Plasticity was first. There was sooo much stuff to know about...I had 40 pages of typed-up notes for just the last section of material alone. LTP/LTD, MAPK, DARRP-32, APV-5, NMDAR, CPP, CA1, PSD-95, PP1, ISO...it was all getting jumbled in my head. Yet, somehow I managed to make enough Hebbian connections in my brain to understand to broad concepts of plasticity, and I think I did alright on the final.

Studying for Plasticity was draining, and I was pretty much running on empty for the rest of the week. Real Analysis was next. Math final exams are always nice because you've been using the same concepts throughout the semester, so the early stuff comes back to you quickly. The exam was tough, but I enjoyed some of the less taxing questions (True of False: We Heart Real Analysis).

My next final was for Memory & Cognition. It was kind-of ironic cramming for a test in which the study material was all about how it was bad to cram for tests. Oh well, at least I had some mnemonic devices and transfer-appropriate processing going for me.

By Friday, most people were finished with exams, but I still had an exam and a paper to go. They were both for Philosophy of Science, and I was really nervous because I had never written a Philosophy paper or taken a Philosophy exam before. I had been working on my paper (about the merits of collaboration in the sciences) throughout the week, and just needed to make some changes after my Writing Center conference. So that left the exam...

The Philosophy exam was in the last time slot for finals, so the few seniors in our class were ending their college career with this exam. Needless to say, a few of them finished in under an hour. Super smart or ready to be done? I'd say a little of both. I spent a little more time on the final, but being as drained as I was, I tried to make the final a little more fun by having some conversations with my Professor (What essay question should I write about? Who said the passage to #7? Wanna go to the Pub next week?)

After turning in my last final, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I couldn't believe I was done. Done with junior year. A little surreal.

Rat Lab

Tue, 04 May 2010 03:37:03 GMT

Of all the requirements for a neuro major at Hamilton (there are a lot), I think the stuff we do in Neural Plasticity best represents what people think of when they hear the word "neuroscience" (other than thinking, what's neuroscience?) I finally got to take Plasticity this semester, and even though I'm more interested in the cognitive aspects of neuroscience, the class has been an absolute blast. I'm usually terrible at labwork, but the lab portion of the course has actually been the most exciting and fulfilling part for me. Throughout the semester we've examined anatomy of a sheep's brain, measured membrane potentials in a crayfish, and recorded action potentials in a cockroach. But the heart of the lab component was the rat lab, in which we conducted a simple experiment on the mechanisms of reward in rats.

To start the lab, groups of two did surgery on a rat in order to implant an electrode into its brain. It was a little nerve racking to perform surgery on an animal, but Professor Weldon was always there to monitor our every move and make sure things were going okay. The great thing about a lab course like this is that, not only do we get the opportunity to work with fancy equipment and high-tech methods, but everyone gets a lot of individual attention so that we can really learn how to do the procedures correctly. We also spent time learning about the ethical dilemmas surrounding animal research like this, and learned how to properly treat the rats during all parts of the process.

A week after the surgery, we ran an experiment with the rats. For those familiar with psychology, it was a type of operant conditioning task, a la famed psychologist and Hamilton grad B.F Skinner (if you're a neuro major, you hear about either Skinner or Hamilton grad and Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard every day). Basically, the rats were trained to press a bar that triggered stimulation of a part of the brain that codes for reward (ie, rats learn to press the bar because it makes them feel good inside). I was ecstatic when Little Buddy (my rat...we're not supposed to name them, but oh well) started pressing the bar like it was his job--that meant that I probably put the electrode in a good spot in the brain.

The rest of the lab, done over the course of a few weeks, consisted of taking out the brain (RIP Little Buddy), slicing brain sections, staining sections to see the different parts of the brain, and looking at where the electrode from the surgery ended up. It was such a great experience--and whether I end up doing research like this down the road or never see another rat in my life, I'm glad to have gotten this unique opportunity in an undergraduate lab course.

The Housing Lottery

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:44:05 GMT

Not all Hamilton dorm rooms are created equal. Some people get to live in the lap of luxury, while others settle for something a lot less than luxury. So, with that in mind and the fact that all but about 50 people live in dorms on campus, the housing lottery process is a pretty big deal. From well before everyone gets their lottery number to well after the final room is selected, it seems like the only thing on people's minds is where you're gonna live, who you're gonna live with, and how many ways things could go wrong.

The housing lottery is a systemic way that the rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors choose their rooms for the following year (first-years are assigned to rooms, and not too shabby ones at that). Seniors choose first, then juniors, and finally sophomores. Within each class year, everyone gets randomly assigned a lottery number, indicating what order you can choose your room. If you're #1 in the senior class, you thank the housing lottery gods and take your pick of anything you want; if you're #500 in the sophomore class, you pray you get pulled somewhere. Getting "pulled" means that someone with a higher lottery number can "pull" someone (or multiple people) with a lower number to live with them. The number and type of pulls people get depends on all sorts of different rules, and honestly, beyond this point the housing lottery gets too complicated for me to understand (for those interested in the specifics, visit the reslife page: http://www.hamilton.edu/college/residential_life/lotteryhome.html)

In the past I've received pretty average lottery numbers, and have been very fortunate with my living situation (see entry "Home Suite Home"). This year, I got another average number, 214. Fortunately, one of my friends got 45 and approached me with the idea of getting a Dark Side faculty apartment. Obviously this was exciting news...the fac apps are former (you guessed it) faculty apartments with two doubles, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a big ole' common room. They're also close to the Glen, McEwen dining hall, Wellin Hall, and KJ—all places I enjoy visiting frequently. Over the past two years I've just grown so accustomed to living on the Dark Side, and the fac app presented a perfect place to be close to friends.

So, after weeks of intense anticipation and worrying, the general housing lottery finally came. Thankfully, one of the fac apps we wanted was still open by our time to select, so our group of four selected our rooms and sealed the deal. McIntosh Fac App, '10-'11—it's gonna be awesome. Come visit.

Matt & Kim

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:17:54 GMT

There are some days that seem destined to be awesome. My 21st birthday was looking like one of those days. I realized about three years ago that this celebratory occasion would occur on a Saturday night, but I didn't fully realize what exactly was in store. Since I had a tennis match the next day, I can't say I had what you would call a "normal" 21st birthday experience, but I would almost go as far as to say my birthday was far better than normal.

It started with rain and a tennis match. Those two things don't really mix, but the match went on nevertheless. I picked up a win at 1st singles (interested readers can see the Athletic page for the more disappointing results). After the match, I rested until it was time for the birthday dinner in my suite. The food, prepared by a few friends and my roomies parents (conveniently at Hammy for the weekend), was delicious. As with the two previous years, I celebrated my birthday jointly with one of my friends who shares the super birthdate.

But these events were simply a warm-up to the main event of the night--the highly anticipated and touted Matt & Kim concert over in the Annex. For those who don't know who Matt & Kim are (like me, 6 months ago), they are a keyboardist and drummer duo who can only play ridiculously infectious dance music. After finishing up the dinner, our group headed over to the concert just in time to see a...shall we say...energetic opening act (unfortunately we missed the first act, Hamilton's own DownBeat Keys, whom I would have much preferred to hear). The crowd started to fill up fast, and by the time Matt & Kim were about to come on stage, there was literally no room to move. It got even crazier when Matt & Kim began their set--and I, the unexperienced concert goer, was trying to survive the mosh pit at the front. But whenever I felt a little claustrophobic in the crowd, I looked up at Kim playing the drums...and she was ALWAYS playing with a smile on her face. Seriously, I don't understand how she could just look so happy for the entire set. I guess, in a small sense, seeing Kim's simultaneous smiling/rocking out reminded me of the Hamilton mindset--we may always be stressed with schoolwork or what have you, but we always seem to manage to have fun along the way.

Corny last line? Maybe, but I'm 21 now...I can do whatever I want.