The

The bezel is the top of the ring, the main identifying feature of the classic MIT Brass Rat, and a major element of the GradRat. The bezel features the MIT mascot, the beaver, like every other Brass Rat. The beaver is surounded by a myriad of symbols that represent our graduate experience at MIT.

The GradRat design team chose a left viewing beaver like the original 1930 Brass Rat does. The beaver's posture was chosen to show a strong nature, while maintaining a friendly attitude.

Bezel Elements

	Diploma The beaver is holding a diploma, the tangible result of all our hard work.
	Graph A graph on the stump represents not only all the graphs we make over our years at MIT, it also represent the ups and downs of our graduate careers.
	Pizza The diploma, arguably the most valuable tangible result at the end of our study, extends into the most valuable tangible element of our daily lives as graduate students: free food.
	Handless Clock A clock without hands represents our lack of fixed time to graduation and the fact that there never is enough time to do all the things we need to while at MIT.
	Tents A tent city reflects the state of affordable graduate housing at MIT.
	Pillow In the clouds hides a pillow to represent all the sleep we miss at night, and the naps that may overtake us during the day.
	Moon A moon in the sky sets the scene at night, where much of our time is spent awake at MIT.
	Crane Few things define these years at MIT more characteristically than the endless, constant construction on campus. From the Stata Center, to the new dorms, the Z-Center, and the streets around campus.
	A Building A pile of refuse next to the beaver represents one of these prominent new buildings.
	Road Block In the road towards graduate is a roablock that represents all our obstacles to get there, not the least of which is quals. The roadblock is made out of logs, representing that those obstacles are put there also by ourselves.
	Light at the End of the Tunnel While we may have obstacles, construction, lack of sleep, etc, ultimately there is a light at the end of the tunnel.