<p>I have heard that Stanford's workload is lighter than MIT's. How much of a difference would you say there generally is?
How does Stanford's Electrical Engineering undergrad education compare to MIT's?</p>
<p>I would contend it is better. You'll learn the same thing at Stanford and MIT, but Stanford has more research opportunities for undergrads and the quality of life is highest in the country.</p>
<p>of course you would contend it's better.</p>
<p>In my experience, Stanford's undergrad EE curriculum is a cakewalk compared to Berkeley and UIUC, let alone MIT.</p>
<p>Zephyr, do you know about what percentage of Stanford Undergrads have research opportunities? I've heard that about 80% of MIT undergrads do, and the work is really involved in the research itself; in what ways is the research better?</p>
<p>im_blue, would you say that Stanfords EE curriculum is a cakewalk in terms of the workload or in how challenging the material is? From Stanford's curriculum, do you/your classamtes feel that you know the material really well?</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>"Zephyr, do you know about what percentage of Stanford Undergrads have research opportunities? I've heard that about 80% of MIT undergrads do, and the work is really involved in the research itself; in what ways is the research better?"
It is my understanding that because Stanford's graduate science programs are not as dominant, there are more opportunities for undergrads. There are millions of dollar available for individual grants for undergrads. </p>
<p>As for the 80% figure, I don't know if that's true, but it's hard to compare to Stanford because a lot of kids are, of course, in the humanities where research is less important.</p>
<p>Here's a couple of links which might help you (I am an editor at SURJ):
<a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/urp/%5B/url%5D">http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/urp/</a>
<a href="http://surj.stanford.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://surj.stanford.edu/</a>
<a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/urp/StudentGrants/%5B/url%5D">http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/urp/StudentGrants/</a></p>
<p>As for Pebbles's comments, of course I would. Research is one of the reasons why I chose Stanford.</p>
<p>Zephyr, what are the opportunities for non-scientific research(economics and political science)? Is it possible to research at the hoover institute?</p>
<p>Are you sure research opportunities at Stanford outnumber MIT? Maybe Stanford has a lot of opportunities, but MIT has many programs of its own like UROP. From what I have seen, MIT (and Caltech) place more of an emphasis on research than Stanford. But yeah, you can't go wrong with either MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>if research is important to you, there's no place better than MIT. Sure you can cite numbers and figures and admissions brochures here and there but they're really nothing conclusive or relevant to a typical student's experience. The most important point of consideration is the simple ease of attaining a research position. Any kid motivated enough to go a-knockin' door to door at big research universities WILL get a position somewhere doing something, but what about the average kid, who's a little shy, and needs a little push? Well, that's where the small differences between research universities become big. At MIT, I don't think I know anyone who hasn't gotten involved in research some way or other (and that includes freshmen), a simple email, a face-to-face chat, and suddenly you're doing big-time research. There's even the positive peer pressure to do research... "c'mon... all the cool kids are doing it."</p>
<p>n1bigdude, there are a variety of opportunities for econ and polisci research. There's the Economics Policy Research Institute on-campus as well as a variety of polisci-related centers like the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. A lot of econ professors want students to help them do quantitative analysis. </p>
<p>Hoover professors often hire kids over the summer and during the school year to do some very high-level research.</p>
<p>I agree with pebbles. I think there are research opportunities at Stanford for undergrads, but I think it's hard to content that there are more such opportunities at Stanford than there are at MIT. I have seen no evidence that this is the case. </p>
<p>I would also point out that MIT also has plenty of economics and political science research opportunities available. The grad MIT economics department is not only ranked #1 now, but has a relatively small undergrad enrollment, meaning you won't be competing with lots of other undergrads for research spots. Don't deride MIT polisci - the grad department is now ranked #10, equal to or higher than such places as Columbia, Penn, Duke, Northwestern and Cornell. Granted, these are grad rankings, but indications are that the undergrad econ and poli-sci programs at MIT are extremely solid. Besides, you can always just cross-reg at Harvard.</p>
<p>I am a Stanford undergrad majoring in EE. Personally, I really like the EE major here at Stanford. There are only a 100 undergrads who are declared EE majors so that creates a nice intimate feel. Also, given the huge grad student population (over 900 grad students in EE), there is a huge variety of graduate level courses that are open for undergrads as well. </p>
<p>While MIT may have more research opportunities, I feel that it is definitely possible for any Stanford undergrad to get involved in research. Every summer, the Stanford EE department sponsors the REU (Research Experiences for Undergrads) program in which the department pays 50 undergrads to do research over the summer with faculty and grad students. Also, it is possible to do research over the school year for credits.</p>
<p>Undergrad EE: Stanford > MIT > Berkeley
Graduate EE: MIT > Berkeley > Stanford</p>