<p>I was admitted to MIT. But I am also very interested in Harvard. I am interested in engineering, but this might change idk. If you were accepted to Harvard and MIT where would you go. It'd be nice if you could comment on
-student life
-rigor
-professors
and anything you think I should know. thanks!</p>
<p>(Disclaimer: MIT undergraduate '06, current Harvard PhD student)</p>
<p>MIT students consider MIT much more rigorous than Harvard. I can't tell you if that reputation is deserved, never having taken an undergraduate course at Harvard, but I can tell you that my first-year graduate student Harvard genetics course was taught at the same level as my MIT sophomore undergraduate genetics course.</p>
<p>If you're really going to do engineering, MIT is almost certainly the better academic choice. It's easy enough to cross-register at Harvard for a class or two if you want to take some neat humanities courses on the side.</p>
<p>Jess, one of the MIT bloggers, is taking two classes at Harvard this term. Her take on the issue is [url=<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/coursework/half_harvard_half_mit.shtml%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/coursework/half_harvard_half_mit.shtml]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>^ wow, that makes mit a bit intimidating...</p>
<p>
[quote]
wow, that makes mit a bit intimidating...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As a potential course 7, that gets me totally pumped. :)</p>
<p>Well, that doesn't mean it was impossible as a sophomore-level course. :) An MIT education is more or less predicated on the notion that undergraduates can handle a lot, but it's never impossible to succeed. You do have to love a challenge, though.</p>
<p>I took that course this past fall. Supposedly, it was significantly harder this year than it had been in previous years, so if it was on-level with a Harvard grad course -before-, well..</p>
<p>On an additional note about Course 7 (woot!), there may be the song "MIT Is Easy if You Study Biology", but that in no way makes it a cakewalk. Not to say the song is even right, given the newfound difficulty of 7.03 genetics!</p>
<p>For *****s and giggles: One of the MIT students who give the oncampus admissions presentations was talking about cross-registering and said that she and her friends all registered at Harvard to take some chem class thinking they could just cruise and they were all failing. They forgot to account for how cut throat the harvard pre-meds were.</p>
<p>
[quote]
...there may be the song "MIT Is Easy if You Study Biology", but that in no way makes it a cakewalk...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I loathe that song and its existence. So much. And I wasn't a bio major (though I was a life science major and took a number of course 7 classes).</p>
<p>It's not true, for the record. :)</p>
<p>"Harvard, cause everybody can't get into MIT"</p>
<p>Hehe...</p>
<p>In all honesty though, I'm interested in engineering and that is why I want MIT. Maybe if I was math/science major, I would want Harvard. But who knows. If you want engineering though, go to MIT :-). I asked a Harvard student once, "How does Harvard compare to MIT in engineering? Why should I go to Harvard's engineering?" He replied, "Well MIT is MIT" and that was that.</p>
<p>Well, the only reason to choose Harvard would be its campus or if you prefer a liberal arts atmosphere.</p>
<p>I was accepted to MIT EA and plan on majoring in biology; however, I'm also looking at Harvard for biology. At first I thought I'd choose Harvard b/c it offers more financial aid, but now I'm just not sure at all anymore. To make it worse, I can't make it to CPW... :</p>
<p>Harvard students are usually significantly much more successful than MIT in engineering fields. Look at
Microsoft, MySpace, Wang Electronics... etc.. they are all founded by harvard-educated billionaire engineers ..
I have never seen successful high-tech firms founded by MIT graduates..
If you go to MIT, you will probably end up working for Harvard graduates</p>
<p>^^This is total BS. </p>
<p>5,000+ companies have been founded by graduates and faculty, more than 35 a year. 4000 companies have been founded by alumni.<br>
Examples include: </p>
<p>Texas Instruments
McDonnell Douglas
Campbell Soup
3COM
Bose
Analog Devices
MathWorks
Gillette<br>
Akamai
International Data Group (IDG)
Teradyne
Raytheon
Genentech </p>
<p>Sales from MIT-founded companies account for 25 billion a year.<br>
So if MIT was a country, it would have the 24th largest GNP in the world.</p>
<p>looking at mok's history of posts, he seems to have some deep hatred towards MIT... so something's just not worth refuting.</p>
<p>Technology Transfer Revenue from Harvard and MIT</p>
<p>"...So far, however, Harvard’s published numbers don’t seem to indicate that its new focus on tech transfer is bearing fruit. To date there is no discernible change in the number of patents granted to Harvard faculty; if anything, the number is slightly down since Kohlberg’s arrival. Meanwhile, licensing revenues are flat. In 2006, with $20.9 million in licensing income,** Harvard still earns less than half of the $48.2 million MIT garners from licenses on its technology.** Nonetheless, patent applications at Harvard are up markedly in 2006 from years past."</p>
<p>Mok - Are you kidding me? I know someone (Rajat Bhargava) who graduated years ago from my school and went to MIT. He founded along with his friends an internet security company and become CEO of it his senior year at MIT. They then sold it for around 400 million I believe. He is now a very successful man running a few companies. That is just one of many examples.</p>
<p>I know someone who went to harvard engineering school, started software company and became the richest man in the world. </p>
<p>I know another one who went to harvard, started a internet social networking company and became the youngest billionaire in the world</p>
<p>Another one went to harvard engineering, invented magnetic tape, became multi-billionaire and funded hundreds of high-tech start-ups in boston area....</p>
<p>im mildly surprised that such great people as mark zuckerberg and bill gates know some one as pretentious and impolite as you. :O</p>
<p>But seriously guys, let's get back on topic, so where would be a better place to study biology, and in my case premed. :)</p>
<p>Having been a biology student in both places, I think MIT's a better place to study biology as an undergrad, but Harvard has more grade inflation and is marginally better for premeds.</p>
<p>It really should come down to the culture you like better, though -- Harvard and MIT are very different places.</p>