Harvard or MIT

<p>Okay,
Through what I have been told from several people, I am still unable to determine whether Harvard or MIT ranks overall higher than the other? Which is the better school for one who enters college with no idea as to his or her major? I am really curious as to what you guys think, and how you distinguish between the two as to quality. Are they perhaps equal? Thanks</p>

<p>Give me a break! Try a public school!</p>

<p>Harvard tends to have the edge in prestige, and it wins the majority of cross-admits. Take it as you will.</p>

<p>Do you actually think there's an objective, definitive way to rank these schools? I'm sick of the culture built up around college rankings, dammit...</p>

<p>Harvard and MIT are similar only in quality and location- their campuses look REALLY different, they have different social scenes and have really different focuses in extracurriculars. Why listen to some arbitrary ranking of which is "ranked higher" when you can visit both campuses and see which one feels more right to you? Put down the U.S. News and World Report and actually think about what YOU want in a college!</p>

<p>If you want to look at just academics, then here's a pretty general idea. Contrary to popular stereotypes, you can get a fantastic liberal arts education at MIT, and Harvard's math and science departments are easily among the best in the country (if you don't believe me, take a look at the Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, or Medicine, and how many graduated or worked at Harvard- including a number that are still professors). However, it's true that both MIT's liberal arts majors and Harvard's math/science concentrations will always be overshadowed by the other school. So while you say you have no idea what you want to major in, you have to have some inkling if you want to get a definite answer on which college is better for you academically. In general (and in many of these cases, like math, it's a small and often debatable margin), MIT is better for physics, chemistry, math and almost any area of engineering, and Harvard is better for biology and most liberal arts majors like English, government, social studies, and so on. Also, don't forget that only MIT has an undergraduate business major (and is, of course, one of the best undergraduate business schools out there), if that's what you're interested in.</p>

<p>What's far more important than these generalizations about departments, though, is the academic requirements. MIT, for example, has a core curriculum that is REALLY slanted towards science and math- no matter what your major is, you're required to take a number of "introductory" (which, at MIT, are said to be really intense) courses in biology, chemistry and physics in your first two years, as well as a set series of courses of math. So while you can get a degree in English and get a really good education from MIT, just know you'll also have to take a number of intense science and math courses (but if you didn't like science and math a lot, I'd be surprised that you're applying to MIT...)</p>

<p>Don't forget that each school also offers students different programs and opportunities. MIT has a program called UROP- students don't have classes in January, and are instead required to find an internship- could be with a professor at MIT, could be with a company, could be in another country (I don't know much about it- if you're interested, the MIT website has lots of information about what the students do for UROP). Harvard has some student organizations that are outstanding, from the Crimson (school newspaper) to the Lampoon (satirical paper, former writers including Conan O'Brien and quite a few Simpsons writers) to the Institute of Politics (which has very well-known guest speakers on a regular basis- Steven Colbert came just a few weeks ago). You have to learn about the opportunities available at both to make an informed decision about which is better for you. </p>

<p>Anyway, your question is misled- you really need to have some idea of what you want out of a college, and right now all it seems that you want is to go to the college that's "ranked the highest." You should look into each college and their academic programs, but you should also ask yourself what you really want out of college. If you're so unsure that you can't tell which would fit you better (as they are very different schools), then no amount of ranking in the world is going to help you find the college that's right for you.</p>

<p>Also, I'd say you should hold off on this speculation- if you're interested in both schools, great, apply to both of them (though I'd say you should really learn more about them before you do), and if you're lucky enough to get into both (not too many people do), THEN you can worry about which is better.</p>

<p>Seriously, it's been said and I'll say it again in a simpler way, if you're so smart that you're in a position to choose between these two schools, you should understand that there is no definitive ranking of "quality" of colleges. </p>

<p>The whole college ranking game is the product of a popular weekly commercial newsmagazine (US News( and bought into by desperate teenagers and their even more desperate parents with most college administrators begrudgingly playing along with the game, knowing the ranking formulae are severely flawed, because when you get to the top 100 national universities and top 100 liberal arts colleges, they are, for the most part, fairly equal. </p>

<p>You should be smart enough to look at MIT and Harvard and see their differences and similarities and figure out which is a better fit for your interests and goals.</p>

<p>Rather than looking at "quality," since both Harvard and MIT are top notch in terms of level of teaching, quality of curriculum, etc., you might visit both campuses after classes start next semester and see which one feels like a better fit. Though you say you have no idea of a major, you won't find an engineering major at Harvard and you'll find a paucity of arts and humanities at MIT. This, rather than the over-emphasized and over-stressed concept of "quality" should be your focus.</p>

<p>Good luck in making the right choice.</p>

<p>The general stereotypes of math and sciences being better at MIT and liberal arts better at Harvard--while not baseless are also not the whole picture. Harvard's pure physics and math departments are actually notoriously good and probably no worse than MIT. MIT also have certain great departments in the humanities like its music department which boasts great faculty.
So I must disagree with Admiral on that point.
Otherwise, he's completely correct. There are glaring differences between the two schools, socially, structurally and in terms of extracurricular involvement. One school is incredibly frat based, the other isn't.
The Crimson is a daily paper while MIT only has a weekly. The differences go on and on.
You really need to expand your research beyond US. News.</p>

<p>There is engineering at Harvard. And please read my point on arts at MIT...</p>

<p>WindCloudUltra- I did everything I could to emphasize the strength of both science/math at Harvard and the liberal arts at MIT (as a science major at Harvard, I'm well aware of how strong it is), and emphasized that in most departments the difference was pretty marginal. (I'm not as sure as you are about pure physics- I'm very well aware about the strength of physics at Harvard, but I thought that MIT and Caltech both were considered stronger. Whatever it is, they're all the frontrunners, so it certainly doesn't matter.) You actually didn't mention the strength of Harvard biology program, which is considerably stronger than MIT's. </p>

<p>And I'm very well aware of the strength of some of MIT's humanities departments, as I stated in my post, though I thought Harvard's music department also has a lot going for it (though lets face it, Yale has both schools beat).</p>

<p>I forgot to mention computer science, incidentally, which of course is an area where MIT is unquestionably better than Harvard.</p>

<p>But more important point is, yeah, trying to figure out which is "better" is ridiculous.</p>

<p>Yale's undergrad music is probably comparable to Harvard's. The only difference is that they have a graduate school of music, which is kinda off limits to undergrads anyway.</p>

<p>
[quote]

You actually didn't mention the strength of Harvard biology program, which is considerably stronger than MIT's.

[/quote]

I hate to quibble about this, because I know it's totally not the point, but I disagree with this entirely. Harvard, MIT, and Stanford all have absolutely fabulous biology programs, and I don't think it's reasonable to say one is better than the other two.</p>

<p>Harvard's biology department is bigger than MIT's, but neither is better.</p>