<p>Hi all, i got in MIT and Stanford and waiting for H. if I like engineering why should I consider H over S or M. Appreciate your thoughts. Also, what if I just like sciences, will there be other reasons? I am interested in pursuing PhD. (I'm posting same on Y and P boards).</p>
<p>Harvard's engineering department is on the rise. They have invested loads of money recently into funding engineering projects. So, the ability to gain research and insight in engineering faster will be there if you are an engineering major at Big H. Though the power houses of engineering are Stanford and MIT (with a few exceptions, one being princeton and their few great engineering disciplines), Harvard is still climbing. Harvard has the number 1 department in mathematics and physics (usually, the only contender is princeton for the number 1 spot). 3rd and 4th are usually stanford and MIT for those 2 subjects, which are critical in engineering. If you like sciences as well, again, all three are top notch. It is going to be hard to choose, but it might come down to which university poses a bigger challenge to you. If you are worried about grades and stuff, watch out for stanford and MIT. Not being bias, but harvard undergrads will say that they are scoring relatively high in courses thanks to curves. They try to make it easier to make students score high. With stanford, it usually comes down to their quarter system. Some kids can't handle that and that impacts their GPA greatly. Also, i am not sure about how their grading policy is, but I don't think it's like harvard's. For MIT, this is a HUGE CHALLENGE. The courses are not meant to fail you, but the type of material they are teaching you is extremely tough. MIT's grading is weird lol. They have a standard normal distribution, average always set at a C. from there, they give u that and make you calculate your own standard deviations and stuff. Compared to many other schools, MITs GPA for many of its undergrads (i could be wrong since i do not go there, but friends of mine currently at MIT are doing decently compared to other places) do get gpa's below 3.75, which is normal actually. The gpa trend usually goes up at MIT once ur in 3rd/4th, according to my friends that is. One of my friends had a 2.5 GPA first year at MIT. This guy was top of his high school and everything before, but once he got into MIT, it was a whole different playing field. luckily, his GPA rose, and he is sitting confidently with a 3.6 IN electrical/computer engineering (tough tough major at MIT).</p>
<p>You are not going to go wrong in choosing either. If you are considering graduate school, better find out where you want to go for graduate school. If it happens to be one of the places you were accepted for undergrad, i'd advise you to go to that university for undergrad and make connections with profs that way you will be known come the time for PhD etc.</p>
<p>Note: Stanford's inflation is about the same as Harvard's, and the quarter system can help you if you have a weak quarter by allowing you to make up for it with 2 strong ones. (think 2:1 instead of 1:1 in a semester school)</p>
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MIT's grading is weird lol. They have a standard normal distribution, average always set at a C. from there, they give u that and make you calculate your own standard deviations and stuff.
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This is not true. There's no standard grading practice at MIT -- every course is free to make their own rules. Most courses I took were curved to a B as an average.</p>
<p>This will be a very tough decision for you.</p>
<p>As has been said, H has recently invested a lot of money into its engineering school and that is definitely a plus. My impression is that H lags behind MIT and Stanford in the sciences overall (though not by much I would imagine), but honestly you'll get a phenomenal education wherever you go.</p>
<p>You will have to consider other factors: location, student culture, etc.</p>
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This is not true. There's no standard grading practice at MIT -- every course is free to make their own rules. Most courses I took were curved to a B as an average.
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<p>Mollie was a bio and cognitive science major, and that may have been true for her classes, but engineering is graded tougher typically. In most of my engineering classes, the mean was the borderline between the B and C grades. My experience with the pure science classes was that the grade distribution was slightly easier (maybe like the 40th percentile was the cut-off for the B.)</p>
<p>Also, it's not correct that MIT is #3 or #4 at physics. Typically, it is #1. Less sure about math, but probably the same thing. Typically, they are tied with other schools such as Harvard though. So there is not much to distinguish MIT from Harvard in the pure sciences.</p>
<p>"My impression is that H lags behind MIT and Stanford in the sciences overall (though not by much I would imagine)" Only in engineering certainly not in the pure sciences!</p>
<p>^ Probably true. But TBH I'd pick MIT over H any day.</p>
<p>If you attend H can't you take classes at MIT?</p>
<p>Correct allbusiness</p>
<p>itsme123, I encourage you to do a quick internet search to supplement and/or to give perspective on the comments in this thread.</p>
<p>I am going to use the US News and World Report Rankings to give you some sort of perspective. These rankings are by no means supposed to be definitive (they are far from perfect), but they can be a good starting point for guiding you in a general direction. </p>
<p>If you are looking for a solid undergraduate training in general engineering, these schools rank on top this year:
1. MIT
2. Stanford / UC Berkeley
4. Caltech / Georgia Tech / UIUC
7. U. Mich
Source: Best</a> Undergraduate Engineering Programs - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>The differences between these schools are hard to tell on the surface, and you'll ultimately have to take a closer look at each program. You can't go wrong with MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>These schools tend to show up high on the research rankings: MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Caltech - with MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley usually claiming the "top" spots. From what I can tell, the differences tend to be small, again. If you have a preference for a particular engineering field - you should look into that as well. If Harvard is starting to put a lot of money into engineering, you should take note of that. source: Search</a> - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>All 3 schools are highly regarded in the sciences, and again, the differences between them are small - so it's a matter of personal preference and the subfield (ie. Condensed Matter Physics vs. Astrophysics).</p>
<p>If you are looking to go into research engineering, it may be best for you to consider a school with a strong engineering program such as MIT and Stanford, but I imagine you can't go wrong with Harvard's resources. From a purely academic standpoint, you'd probably be hard pressed to find something that Harvard has that MIT/Stanford don't have - so you should consider other aspects besides academics.</p>
<p>^I agree with your assessment. I also have a fullride at GaTech (in addition to admission to MIT and S). I wonder what if i choose to pursue another non-engineering major (physical.natural science). i want to be able to keep that option open. if i am 100% engineering, i probably take GaTech fullride, unless the FinAid at H is fabulous. would that be a wise choice from academics point of view?</p>
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^I agree with your assessment. I also have a fullride at GaTech (in addition to admission to MIT and S). I wonder what if i choose to pursue another non-engineering major (physical.natural science). i want to be able to keep that option open. if i am 100% engineering, i probably take GaTech fullride, unless the FinAid at H is fabulous. would that be a wise choice from academics point of view?
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<p>From a purely academic point of view, I like to look at it this way:</p>
<p>Both schools will probably not limit you intellectually in either engineering or science unless you think you are the next Einstein, so your options will be open at either school. I see your GaTech situation as a higher risk-higher reward situation.</p>
<p>It is a higher risk because the name isn't "Harvard": if things don't turn out well in GaTech, you don't have as much of a fallback plan as you would have if you attend Harvard. This statement works on two levels: Harvard looks like it offers more academic breadth and it offers that name if things don't go right for you in your undergraduate career - although I wouldn't call GaTech a no-name school.</p>
<p>Going to GaTech can yield higher rewards because you can have no debt and still attend a top graduate school. If you look around at top tier graduate school's faculty websites, you'll notice that many students don't come from these elite undergraduate institutions. In my personal experience, I had many top tier choices for graduate school, and I am debt free, which is a great feeling. The amount of money grad schools pay you will probably not be enough to pay off your debts, so you could theoretically be in debt for a very long time.</p>
<p>In your case, I would choose Harvard/MIT/Stanford if you are uncertain about your future career. If you are confident in your abilities and certain about your career path (science and engineering), I would suggest GaTech.</p>
<p>PS - PhD admissions are an entirely different animal; you can read my opinion here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/668477-rejects-where-you-going-go-4.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/668477-rejects-where-you-going-go-4.html</a> . I also think choosing a PhD program is more difficult because it's very department/advisor dependent - the schools you hear in the news aren't always the best schools for what you want to do.</p>
<p>Ambitiousteen stated: "Not being bias, but harvard undergrads will say that they are scoring relatively high in courses thanks to curves. They try to make it easier to make students score high."</p>
<p>Most courses my D (a Math/Science person) took were curved to a B as an average.</p>
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Less sure about math, but probably the same thing. Typically, they are tied with other schools such as Harvard though. So there is not much to distinguish MIT from Harvard in the pure sciences.
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<p>Well, they have an amazing math graduate department, which means that the faculty is amazing. If you want very specific comparisons of undergraduate curricula, well I can give them just from having looked at how their courses are run. I can tell you that Harvard does its courses very well and thoroughly. Probably I am most impressed by their undergrad course selection of any school, though I'd say there are other schools whose graduate departments look as awesome to me.</p>
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In most of my engineering classes, the mean was the borderline between the B and C grades. My experience with the pure science classes was that the grade distribution was slightly easier (maybe like the 40th percentile was the cut-off for the B.)
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<p>I think this is true at some schools for sure, my own school's engineering department specifically forces the average GPA of some courses to be more around the C to C+ range.</p>
<p>I think the question is whether you view yourself as a "pure" engineer, or whether you are deeply interested in the liberal arts as well. Would you view the distribution requirements at Harvard as a pleasure or a distraction?</p>