When Muskaan Aggarwal \u201920 was considering colleges<\/b>, she was looking for undergraduate research opportunities and a strong humanities program. \u201cChoosing MIT was a convergence of factors,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew that there\u2019s no better place for biological research than Cambridge, but I did not know that MIT students are required to take eight humanities classes over their four years. It was so surprising to learn that it\u2019s built into the degree!\u201d<\/p>\n
And there was another important draw to the Institute: \u201cScholarship support was a big factor in me coming to MIT because I probably would not have been able to afford it otherwise,\u201d says Aggarwal, who is a recipient of the Malcolm E. and Donna M. Wheeler Scholarship. As one of five universities in the country with need-blind admissions for both US and international students, MIT is committed to meeting the full financial need of every accepted undergraduate through scholarships. \u201cMy scholarship has made it possible for me to pursue extracurriculars based on my passions,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt would be much more difficult to participate in those experiences if I had to support myself by working multiple jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to majoring in biology, Aggarwal minors in ancient and medieval studies and participates in the Burchard Scholars Program, which facilitates monthly faculty-led humanities seminars. \u201cTo be a good scientist, you need to be able to communicate your work very effectively, and you cannot do that without a humanities background,\u201d she says, noting that her minor and major intersect in interesting ways. \u201cWith ancient and medieval studies, we have very little evidence with which to reconstruct the past, so imagination is key. It\u2019s similar with biology\u2014we\u2019ve learned so much but there\u2019s still so much we don\u2019t know; we have to combine existing knowledge with imagination to construct the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since her first year at MIT, Aggarwal has been working in the lab of Angelika Amon, who is the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research, through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. \u201cIn Professor Amon\u2019s lab, I\u2019ve been fortunate to be able to work with Marianna Trakala [postdoc researcher], an incredible mentor, since the infancy of the project. Our project explores how deviation from the normal chromosome number can lead to tumorigenesis,\u201d Aggarwal says.<\/p>\n
Aggarwal is planning to become a physician-scientist to pursue both patient care and research\u2014her \u201ctrue love\u201d\u2014but she is also looking for ways to integrate her other passions into her future profession. She sees MIT as the ideal place to explore a wide range of interests\u2014and the scholarship support she receives is a vital component of her education. \u201cMIT is an extraordinary place. In high school, I never imagined that I would be minoring in ancient and medieval studies, or dancing with middle school girls on Monday afternoons as a SHINE mentor, or writing a review of a Dutch film about a famous Swedish author for\u00a0The Tech<\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cI could have done research at other schools, but would I be working in the lab of someone like Professor Amon, who won nearly every single big prize in science in the past year? I\u2019m immensely grateful that the scholarship has given me the opportunity to explore all of my interests during college.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Muskaan Aggarwal \u201920 was considering colleges, she was looking for undergraduate research opportunities and a strong humanities program. \u201cChoosing MIT was a convergence of factors,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew that there\u2019s no better place for biological research than Cambridge, but I did not know that MIT students are required to take eight humanities classes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":13424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","placement-placement-homepage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n