<p>MIT? Showboat?</p>
<p>MIT is intense, for sure, but it's also an extremely collaborative environment -- you can't afford to act in cutthroat ways, because then nobody will help you on the next problem set. We're all in this boat together, etc.</p>
<p>Another thing I've noticed over the course of four years at MIT is that MIT students are almost pathologically helpful -- if you have a problem, MIT kids can't stop themselves from helping you.</p>