I’m not sure what you mean by praise-free zone, so I’m not sure if I’m answering the right question here.
When I made top 12 on the Putnam, the professors who were aware of it congratulated me; I don’t think they congratulated people in general who made honorable mention, although possibly because that consisted of several people. In my lab, if someone wins an award we generally send out an e-mail to the lab mailing list congratulating them. A particularly clever insight will elicit someone saying “that’s a nice way of thinking about the problem”. (I should also note that I’m probably one of the more capable undergrads so I might receive more positive feedback than the average person.)
Of course these sorts of things are difficult and probably only happen a few times a week (on the level of insights) and much rarer on the level of meaningful awards, so if you want someone to be praising you every time you do well on a problem set then MIT is probably not the place for you.
I’m not sure what you mean by praise-free zone, so I’m not sure if I’m answering the right question here.
When I made top 12 on the Putnam, the professors who were aware of it congratulated me; I don’t think they congratulated people in general who made honorable mention, although possibly because that consisted of several people. In my lab, if someone wins an award we generally send out an e-mail to the lab mailing list congratulating them. A particularly clever insight will elicit someone saying “that’s a nice way of thinking about the problem”. (I should also note that I’m probably one of the more capable undergrads so I might receive more positive feedback than the average person.)
Of course these sorts of things are difficult and probably only happen a few times a week (on the level of insights) and much rarer on the level of meaningful awards, so if you want someone to be praising you every time you do well on a problem set then MIT is probably not the place for you.
I only know MIT by reputation...I’m sureTheOtherDave knows the real deal on whatever the origin of the “praise-free zone” story may have been.
Congratulations on your achievement on the Putnam. I have no reservations about praising you for that.