<p>whichever school you end up at, don't count on a lot of cross registering at the other school. I asked about that on a previous thread, and it sounded like it was pretty darn inconvenient and not something people would bother with on a routine basis. The 2 schools are on totally different schedules, plus traveling btwn them is non-trivial. (people who go to these schools, please chime in here if I'm wrong)</p>
<p>Cross-registration is indeed a pain in the ass. Travelling between the schools isn't that bad, depending on which classes you are talking about. You can simply ride the T (the subway system) from Harvard Square next to Harvard Yard to Kendall Square/MIT which puts you on the East side of MIT. </p>
<p>From what I've seen, cross-registration tends to be more popular with graduate students. Lots of Harvard engineering graduate students (yes, Harvard has engineering graduate programs) sometimes wind up doing some coursework at MIT. MIT graduate students in softer subjects like political science (yes, MIT offers a PhD in poli-sci) sometimes do some coursework at Harvard. Graduate students, after all, don't take that many classes anyway (usually only 1-2), for they spend most of their time in research, hence their schedules tend to be very flexible and they can tailor it as they see fit. I knew one Harvard PhD student in engineering who for one whole semester, was effectively an MIT student. The 2 classes he was taking were both at MIT. His RA-ish was at a lab at MIT under a special arrangement that the Harvard and MIT engineering departments had together. He even took an apartment lease right at MIT. So during that semester, he was for all effective purposes an MIT student - he only went to Harvard basically once every few weeks just to check his mail at his office and to meet his advisor. </p>
<p>So some of you might be asking, if this guy was going to spend an entire semester at MIT anyway, then why didn't he just go become a regular MIT student? The answer is simple - he didn't get in. As you might have guessed, it's far easier to get into the Harvard graduate engineering program than it is to get into the MIT graduate engineering program.</p>
<p>I think the aspect of going to MIT that frightens me is, what if you change your mind? engineering majors have an especially high likability to change majors, and you won't get the same academic resources there for liberal arts. Also, socially, not being an engineer or architect or something science-y has to hold you back at least somewhat</p>
<p>I think the real problem is not just that you might end up at MIT and find out you don't like to study technical coursework, thereby compelling you towards the decnet, but for the most part unspectacular MIT liberal arts departments. That's nothing different from a guy who goes to Harvard only to find out he really wants to do engineering, so ends up in the decent but not great Harvard engineering-department. That's only part of the problem.</p>
<p>The real problem is that technical coursework is for some reason far more demanding than non-technical coursework. I still haven't found a good reason to why that is true, but it is true - technical classes tend to require far more work and hand out significantly lower grades than do non-technical classes. And it doesn't seem to matter what school you're talking about - technical coursework always tends to be more difficult than non-tech at any given school. So if you go to Harvard with the intention of majoring in something non-technical, and then find out that it's not really your thing, well, you can basically muddle through. Yeah, you won't really like it, but on the bright side you won't really have to work very hard at it just to pass your classes. If you half-ass your way through, sure, you're not going to get straight A's, but you're pretty much guaranteed of getting passing grades and you're going to get your degree. It's practically impossible to flunk out of a liberal arts major at Harvard. </p>
<p>Nothing could be further from the truth when we're talking about technical classes, particularly at MIT. If you come to MIT intending to major in something technical, and then find out you don't like it, you're up the creek without a paddle. If you try to half-ass your way through technical coursework at MIT, you're going to flunk out in a Sunday minute. MIT will not hesitate to put you on academic probation or expel you. Hence, MIT students who find out that they really don't like the tech stuff are left with the rather unsavory choice of studying some of the OK, but certainly not spectatular, liberal-arts majors that are available at MIT, or just sucking it up and putting up with the pain of studying hard in a technical major that they really don't like. </p>
<p>Bottom line - the real problem is that for some reason, technical majors are more difficult than non-technical majors. I have heard all of the supposed reasons for why this is, and none of it holds water to me. I have yet to hear of a good underlying reason for why technical majors have to be more difficult than non-technical reasons - I believe it's that way just because the technical community arbitrarily decided that it should be that way.</p>
<p>When we went to the MIT info session, an undergraduate told of two government classes he took at Harvard. I'm told that some of the students in Harvard's Math 55 are from MIT. The trick to going to classes at one or the other is to schedule your classes so they're not back to back. That leaves time to take the T. </p>
<p>The calendars are different (and the various Harvard schools also have different calendars), but as long as you keep an eye on deadlines, it's not bad.</p>
<p>In defense of MIT humanities and social sciences departments, they have some stellar faculty; the issue is one of breadth and depth of offerings as each department is small. One young man I once knew started out at MIT as a biology major. He took one history class and got hooked on history. He went to Harvard to take more classes, and soon, he was spending all his time at Harvard. The reverse can be true, too. Last spring, I looked up some statistics on graduation on the MIT website. Some students who were counted as majors in some departments were actually Harvard students.</p>
<p>There's no doubt that cross-reg can be done. But it is a pain in the ass, especially for undergraduates. Clearly in your example, the guy who wanted to study history would have been better served if he were a fully-fledged Harvard student from the beginning. If you're an MIT student, you can only take up to 2 classes at Harvard per term, and only up to half of your total units in a particular semester can come from Harvard. So as an undergraduate, you can't really spend "all" your time at Harvard at all. If you're a PhD student, they always manage to figure out a way to get around these limitations (usually by granting you enough credits from your home school for 'research' to satisfy whatever home-credit requirements you have), and besides, if you're a PhD student, then your focus isn't really on classes anyway, but on your research. But if you're an undergraduate, then coordination of cross-reg credits and classes is a major sticking point. </p>
<p>Hey ,what about MIT economics and management science courses?
They are suposedly among the best at the undergrad level according to US News and World Report</p>
<p>My S's interviewer had been an economics major and was very enthusiastic about his experience. His major had few students in it and so his classes were small. This is in contrast to places like Yale, or Harvard or Princeton where economics is one of the most popular majors. </p>
<p>Sakky:
The young man I met ended up specializing in Renaissance history. He may have continued to take classes at MIT but his spiritual home had become Harvard, where he was spending far more of his time. Of course, he would have been better off had he applied to Harvard in the first place. But when he did, he thought he'd major in biology and MIT seemed a good choice then.</p>
<p>Yep, but that only goes to prove the point I was making earlier - Harvard may be the safer choice because it's easier for you to change your mind about what you want to major in than it is at MIT. If you come to MIT and end up changing your mind, you may end up going through the rigamarole of cross-reg. Hence, the point is, if you are admitted to both schools, then unless you are absolutely sure that you want to major in tech, you may be better of at Harvard. </p>
<p>I don't think there is anything inherently good or bad about being in large departments with large classes or small departments with small classes. I think that depends on one's personality. Some people like large. Some people like small. Course 6 (EECS) is the largest department at MIT, yet I don't think anybody would say that it's a bad department just because it's so large. Heck, the EECS department is arguably the most prominent and highest regarded department at the whole school. The point is that whether big or small is good is really up to the individual.</p>
<p>I agree with sakky. To further strengthen his point I would also like to add that more people have heard of Harvard than MIT. Now, I know people will jump all over me and say that everyone has heard of MIT too and yes I agree with that but even more people have heard of Harvard. If you want to impress everyone, versus almost everyone, then the choice would have to be Harvard. I personally would be equally impressed with either school (depending on the major of course) but then again I fall into the set of almost everyone which is a subset of everyone.</p>
<p>sure, MIT has good liberal arts, but they can't compare to harvard's. MIT is for a very special type of student, the kind of student who is 100% sure he's going to go into something technical with no doubt that that is exactly what he wants to do. sure, MIT is a great place for some students, but it is a technical school. And even in the liberal/social academics, the departments are very small, and you don't get the oppurtunity to expand and develop in that area the same as at Harvard. Basically what I'm saying is Harvard is the "safe bet".</p>
<p>MIT courses are a lot harder than harvard ones... most ppl say that harvard students cant handle mit courses. MIT is really the place if you are sure you want to dedicate your life to science...</p>
<p>Which is harder to get into?</p>
<p>I know that this is probably obvious to you guys, but I'd like to know.</p>
<p>First of all, the work at MIT is defiinitely difficult (and the work at harvard can be also, if you're doing math/pure science classes like a few of my friends are). I'm swamped in work most of the time here at MIT, but I like the busy and vibrant atmosphere. I'm also doing a research project on the side, which is extremely facinating. When it came down to my choosing between harvard and MIT last year, knowing that I wanted to major in computer science made things much easier (MIT is ranked 1st, Harvard is 17th ... not much of a comparison--I hope that answers your question geniezclone). The thing that really convinced me to go to MIT, though, was the Harvard engineering department open house during prefrosh weekend. There were about 12 kids there, and 4 or 5 adults in a small room the size of my living room. Very disappointing and unimpressive :( Basically you should go to MIT if you want to do science/engineering and Harvard otherwise. Regardless, it was a heartwrenching decisions, esp. since I'm asian...</p>
<p>Contrary to popular belief, MIT's biology department is just as strong as, if not stronger, than Harvard's, mainly due to the Whitehead institute and people like Eric Lander. MIT's humanities can't really match up to Harvard's though, so if you're a humanities person, head over to the red bricked buildings. Oh btw, economics @ MIT also kicks major arse. We got quite a few nobels in the department. Another nice thing I like about MIT is the choice of double majors--I'm planning on a double between computer science and management, which can be accomplished with ~5 classes per semester.</p>
<p>I know both MIT kids taking math 55 @ Harvard (2 MIT kids, 10 Harvard kids), and commuting generally isn't a big deal. However, don't choose one school over the other because you say "I like school A better than B, but I'm not sure so I'll just pick A and plan on cross-registering" ... it's really a hassle for the most part. Only a few classes like Math 55 @ harvard are really worth it.</p>
<p>Sakky mentioned a point about which school is "safer". If you're relatively ambivalent about what you want to do Harvard is probably the way to go, but if you really like science, then either place is fine. When I say like science, I don't meant you want to be a tool researcher in a lab when you grow up. Many people @ MIT major in sciences (big surprise) but many of them then go off into business/wall street. Even though my primary focus is computer science, I'm planning on entering the financial district after graduation--a place like Goldman Sachs or Credit Suisse First Boston. Majoring in EECS is just for fun :)</p>
<p>In the end, I think it's comparing apples and oranges. Harvard excels in pure sciences and humanities (I should also mention that they're expanding their engineering department) while MIT excels in engineering and pure sciences. Great things can be said for both schools, and as cliche as this may seem, the only way to find out what atmosphere you like better is to spend a week at both schools and see for yourself. As for me, I'm very happy where I am now :)</p>
<p>But when it comes to partying, ask where the harvard kids go</p>
<p>to MIT ;)</p>