Athena
The name for the local computing environment used by Engineering but not Sloan, Unix-based workstations. Link Here
Bidding
The joy-filled process of getting into Sloan courses. Not something to worry about much until you need to take electives at Sloan.
Certificate
In spirit, a way to authenticate (identify) yourself to a service without having a logon. Around here, you need one to get into WebSIS. See the glossary entry for WebSIS for the web site. To get a Certificate go to https://ist.mit.edu/certificates.
Course
MIT’s name for a department, just to find out who is listening during orientation. To make things more interesting, the usual convention is that “Course” means department and “course” means class. The Courses are numbered, eventually you learn the ones that matter: Course 15 is Sloan, Course 6 is EECS, etc. The full list is in the MIT Bulletin.
“DO NOT ERASE”
What you write on a white/blackboard if you do not want the contents to magically disappear overnight.
Kerberos
MIT-invented system for administering passwords that is relatively secure. “Authentication” is the formal term, i.e. are you who you say you are. Kerberos handles that part of logons.
Listmaint
Menu-based way to manage distributions lists; its main use unless you become an Athena weenie is to see if your entry on the SDM mailing lists is correct. The menus are straightforward once you have the name of the mailing list you are interested in: search for SDMyy elsewhere in this document.
MIT Bulletin
Publication that comes out once per year or so, and lists “every” course in every department that will be given over the next two academic years, along with an abstract of each course. Useful if you do not know what you are looking for, and has degree requirements by department. Once you get the lingo, WebSIS has an online version that is more up-to-date and has an electronic search which works really well. Does not contain times or rooms, see Schedule of Classes.
Reg Day
See Registration Day.
Registration Day
The day before the first day of spring and fall classes. On-campus people must visit the SDM Office and get their class registration sheets signed by the curriculum coordinator.
Schedule of classes
Comes out at the same time as pre-registration begins (end of previous fall/spring term). Tells what courses are offered, with times and rooms. See also MIT Bulletin.
Subject
MIT’s name for a class, see also Course.
The “T”
The local http://www.mbta.com mass transit system, Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority. Get a map of the subways and buses, both work really well and you will almost certainly end up using one or both while on campus. You can get discounted monthly rates for the T and now your MIT ID can also be your Tpass. Checkout more info here: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/tpass.html.
WebSIS
Web-based Student Information System. Gives you on-line access to your Bursar’s account, grades, course registration, etc. You need to get an electronic certificate from Kerberos that lives on your PC so that you can get into WebSIS using session-level encryption. Do this before you arrive on campus. Info on the process of getting certificates is at https://ist.mit.edu/certificates.