<p>My D has been accepted into MIT and Stanford and wants to major in electrical engineering (with a possible double major, or minor, or at least several courses, in physics). Ignoring the issues of climate, location, financial package, campus clubs, campus fun, etc., which of these two great undergrad electrical engineering programs involves more/less work-load or is generally perceived to be harder/easier or more/less stressful?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>(Apologies for cross-posting.)</p>
<p>Wouldn’t the technical school be the most logical choice…?</p>
<p>I would estimate that MIT would have a harder workload, would be harder, and would be more stressful. Obviously nobody has done both, so they can’t REALLY answer, but MIT is a more rigorous, technical school overall, so it is likely that EE is harder there. It is also probably much better there.</p>
<p>I don’t really have the experience required to answer this, you should really ask an EECS major from MIT, but I wanted to caution that the above guesses, while possibly sound, still seem to leave much to be said. Pretty sure Stanford EE is going to be fabulous, and extremely challenging/stressful to excel in (I mean, when people distinguish schools like Stanford/MIT in terms of difficulty for engineering, I find for a high schooler, it’s kind of missing the point, because in reality a vast majority of high schoolers are at least somewhat under-prepared for engineering at any top school… it’s better to distinguish overall atmospheres, because a typical HS student who’s faced a ton of AP courses and possibly some more courses beyond that even is still going to be pretty overwhelmed regardless!).</p>
<p>I think you’ll find a very different campus at Stanford though, because a huge ton of your classmates will simply not be interested in EE or any technical discipline at all, and this can be both a good and bad thing. I think I would actually find it refreshing. </p>
<p>As a simple basic thing, I think MIT is going to be overall a bit rougher a school to do academically well in, at least a bit that is. </p>
<p>Anyway that’s just all general stuff. I think PiperXP and collegealum314 are two EECS people from MIT, and can address your question.</p>
<p>Stanford and MIT are the two best schools in the world for EE. So from a purely academic point standpoint, I don’t think you can go wrong with either. The atmosphere at Stanford and MIT are very different though, so I think that should be the deciding factor for your daughter.</p>
<p>I will echo some of the other posters. Both programs have excellent reputations. While I would be very surprised if the average MIT undergrad did not work harder than the average Stanford undergrad, an EECS students at MIT probably works about as much as the average MIT student while EE students at Stanford probably work harder than most Stanford students. The conclusion is that it’s not obvious which EE program is harder/more stressful/requires more work. Deciding on other factors like school culture may be a good idea as well.</p>
<p>The simple answer is that, yes, EECS at MIT will be harder, in terms of work volume per class, difficulty of the work, grading with respect to the mean, and also probably the number of classes required for the degree. The MIT kids are more stressed. They call it a firehose for a reason.</p>
<p>Stanford does have an excellent program. It is a more relaxed environment though.</p>
<p>Another difference between the two is pedagogical philosophy. I don’t know if it has changed, but an electrical engineering major used to have to take a couple of core CS/ computer engineering classes–6.001 (intro to computer science) and 6.004 (computer architecture). Electrical engineering and computer science are in the same department at MIT–course 6, and it is structured such that electrical engineering and computer science are just on oposite ends of the same spectrum. Specifically, you start out with electromagnetic waves (EE subfield electormagnetism), you go up a level of abstraction to circuits, another level of abstraction to computers, and then finally to software and computer science.</p>
<p>Unless someone has a strong preference, most MIT course 6-ers elect to do the electrical engineering and computer science dual major, which allows people to take electives from both sides. Alternatively, you can strictly major in electrical engineering or computer science, but as I said, they share a core.</p>
<p>In most places, however, EE and comp sci are completely separate.</p>
<p>I suggest you should let her attend both admitted days and make a decision herself.</p>
<p>It is 4 years of her life.</p>
<p>I live next to Stanford and know many people who went or are going there. But my husband and I graduated from MIT and my daughter is a senior there now. </p>
<p>I think that you can get a great education at both places but the cultures, not to mention location, weather etc. are totally different. My daughter would not have blossomed at Stanford like she did at MIT. There she found her people. It’s important for your daughter to visit both schools and see where she feels the most comfortable.</p>
<p>I think that you learn many of the same things but how the information is taught and how the problem sets are presented are different from what I hear from people who were undergrads at MIT and grad student TAs at Stanford. The MIT problem sets don’t have any fluff. One current grad student said that at MIT she almost always had to do the problem sets in groups and sometimes would look at a problem and have no idea how to begin. At Stanford she thinks that if you put the time in you can grind through the problem sets yourself and get an A. MIT wants to see HOW you approach the problem rather than the actual answer that you get. In some ways you may learn MORE material at Stanford, but become better at how to approach problem solving at MIT. </p>
<p>Because problem sets and tests can be unbelievably hard, most classes at MIT are graded on a curve. The center of the bell is a “B” and one standard deviation above is an A and one standard deviation below is a “C”. If almost all of the kids in a class are engaged and working hard, getting an “A” is very time consuming at MIT. The grad student mentioned previously felt that if you did the work you could get As easier at Stanford. I’ve known several grad students over the years who have said the same. But I don’t know what an MIT grad student with a Stanford undergrad would say about the MIT undergrads s/he is TAing. That would be interesting to find out.</p>
<p>Working on easier problem sets does not seem to make Stanford EE graduates less successful, at least historically. </p>
<p>For example,
MIT’s current president Rafael Reif, and MIT’s EdX president and former director of CSAIL Anant Agarwal are both Stanford trained Ph.D in EE.
HP, Yahoo, and SUN were all founded by Stanford EE students.
The first LASER was made possible by Theodo Maiman, a Stanford EE Master graduate
The most widely used LASER, CO2 laser was invented by Kumar Patel, a Stanford EE Ph.D.
Microprocessor was invented by Ted Hoff, a Stanford EE Ph,D.
John Cioffi, The father of DSL, was also a Stanford EE Ph.D
The inventors of public key cryptography Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman, and Ralph Merkle are all Stanford EE graduates.
The pioneer of SPICE Donald Pederson was also a Stanford EE graduate.
And several days ago, a former Stanford EE student Mung Chiang just won Alan Waterman award, the NSF’s highest award to a young scientist under age of 35. </p>
<p>The list can go on and on.</p>
<p>Maybe I wasn’t clear enough because I was trying to find little differences in academics.</p>
<p>I believe fit is the most important. If your child feels more comfortable at one or the other, that’s where s/he should go. Academically they’ll come out mostly the same.</p>
<p>My daughter felt more comfortable at MIT because she is really into nerdy things: she is President of the MIT Science Fiction Society. She is very involved with the Assasins Guild, a live action role playing group. She plays dungeons and dragons board games and has mastered many multi-player on line role playing games. She lives at and was President of Random Hall one of the Nerdiest dorms on campus. MIT is a PERFECT fit for her. Stanford would not have been. She found her “tribe” at MIT and therefore was able to blossom and take on a bunch of leadership roles. She probably would have done fine academically at Stanford but not been as happy or blossomed in the same way. To look at her you’d never know she was such a nerd. She is a tall, thin, athletic blonde (who runs 40 miles a week) who can get along with just about anyone.</p>
<p>But most of her high school friends would not have liked MIT. They weren’t as into the types of activities that she enjoys. One of her best friends from high school is getting a Stem Cell Biology degree from Harvard, which is PERFECT for HIM. They see each other several times a semester and she has visited Harvard many times. It wouldn’t have fit her like MIT wouldn’t have fit him.</p>
<p>My daughter has several friends at Stanford. They love it there.</p>
<p>I believe that FIT is most important. MIT is not for everyone.</p>
<p>I’ll agree that they’re both great engineering schools but vastly different environments, so I would look more at fit. With 50% more undergraduates and Division 1 sports, Stanford has more of a big college feel. MIT has the largest Division 3 sports program in the country. So while it’s certainly a great place for nerdy people, it’s also a great place for students who want to participate in rather than watch sports.</p>
<p>Tough one. Let her make the choice, she really can’t go wrong with either one. I would consider other things besides EE because obviously both of their EE departments are superb.</p>