<p>I got into both Harvard and MIT, and I don't know which to choose. They are both in the Boston area, and are amazing places. </p>
<p>I am thinking about majoring in biomedical engineering, with a minor in economics. I either want to go to medical school afterwards, or get my MBA. </p>
<p>Pros and Con's for both. I don't know what to do. </p>
<p>HELP!</p>
<p>MIT's definitely a great place for biomedical engineering and for economics. You'd also have the opportunity to take graduate-level management courses from the Sloan School.</p>
<p>It's tough to talk about MIT and Harvard comparatively in such general terms. What else are you interested in doing in college -- extracurriculars, research, particular living groups?</p>
<p>I've heard that the atmosphere at the two places are entirely different. I was talking to a freshman at Harvard when she came back during winter break and she said that the competition there was cutthroat between the students. They seriously don't tell each other their extracurricular activities because they're so afraid that other people will go and do them too. Of course MIT is also hard, but it seems like it's students v classes/ institution rather than students v students. That being said, they're both amazing and aesthetically, Harvard is much prettier.</p>
<p>^^ I've never heard about competition being THAT cutthroat at Harvard. Students usually mention NYU and Johns Hopkins as the more cutthroat places.</p>
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Of course MIT is also hard, but it seems like it's students v classes/ institution rather than students v students.
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<p>Very much so.</p>
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That being said, they're both amazing and aesthetically, Harvard is much prettier.
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<p>Depends on the context. :) Yeah, MIT looks very...industrial. But go up somewhere high and look over campus on a clear night, and it's beautiful. I actually wrote a blog entry at some point about MIT's attractiveness or lack thereof.</p>
<p>After being around MIT people, you will quickly reduce the importance of campus aesthetics in evaluating your 4-year university experience, in all likelihood. With that being said, most of the pretty pictures you've ever seen of Boston where taken from the grounds of MIT. The view across the Charles from MIT campus is magnificent.</p>
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Aesthetically, Harvard is much prettier
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If your taste goes to traditional Ivy covered brick buildings, I would agree. On the other hand some of the Harvard buildings such as the science building are truly ugly and in sore need of an upgrade. </p>
<p>If you like avant-garde architecture, and designs that integrate form and function, MIT probably has more innovative buildings than any other campus in the US. Many of the world's finest architects have designed award winning buildings at MIT:
Stata Center (Frank Geary), MIT</a> Stata Center Photo Gallery by Doug Eng at pbase.com
the new Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex (Charles Correa), MIT</a> Facilities - In Development & Construction
Simmons Hall (Steven Holl) , MIT</a> Simmons Hall Photo Gallery by Doug Eng at pbase.com
the Zesiger Sports center (Kevin Roche), ArchitectureWeek</a> - Design - Zesiger Sports Center at MIT - 2002.1023
Media Lab (I.M Pei). The</a> Media Lab Lab Overview</p>
<p>Some of the older buildings such as Kresge Auditorium & Chapel (Saarinen) or Baker House (Alvar Aalto) are true architectural landmarks still very functional today more than 50 years after they were built. Baker is still MIT's most popular dorm. </p>
<p>Even if your taste goes towards the classics, it is hard not to be struck by the beauty of place like Killian Court, right on the Charles River. When the weather allows, it is my D's favorite place to hang out between classes.
MIT</a> Killian Court Panoramic - LaPayne Panoramic Photography</p>
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Stata Center
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<p>To be fair, I don't think I would cite the Stata Center as a positive. :) I don't care how many awards it has won, that building is a travesty. I (and a lot of other students and alums) think that the MIT powers-that-be are getting what they deserve for having gone with trendiness over functionality.</p>
<p>MIT</a> Sues Gehry Firm Over Stata Problems - The Tech</p>
<p>I do think the first floor is nice, though.</p>
<p>Simmons Hall is also an interesting case. It's a pretty bad situation, during Boston summers, when you can't fit a window air conditioner into any of the million little windows in your room. And the residents have been in constant fights with the folks who forget that people actually have to live in this "art", over moving their furniture, hanging up their own artwork, putting rubber ducks in the "art piece" pond, etc. Also, the deskworkers are plagued by architects trying to sneak into the building.</p>
<p>My old blog entry on beauty on campus is here:</p>
<p>MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "Bed arrangements in dorms, and beauty on campus"</p>
<p>for the Stata Center, MIT wanted a Gehry and they got a Gehry. Many consider it among the architects best designs. </p>
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The Boston Globe architecture columnist Robert Campbell wrote a glowing appraisal of the building on April 25, 2004. According to Campbell, "the Stata is always going to look unfinished. It also looks as if it's about to collapse. Columns tilt at scary angles. Walls teeter, swerve, and collide in random curves and angles. Materials change wherever you look: brick, mirror-surface steel, brushed aluminum, brightly colored paint, corrugated metal. Everything looks improvised, as if thrown up at the last moment. That's the point. The Stata's appearance is a metaphor for the freedom, daring, and creativity of the research that's supposed to occur inside it."
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<p>One should not be surprised that commissioning a building of that type, especially from Gehry, would result in some functional trade-offs. After all, the randomness was the whole point. Everybody bought off on the idea of a sculpture as a building, even if living in a sculpture may require some adjustments! </p>
<p>BTW, the MIT suit had nothing to do with dissastisfaction with the design but a water leak.</p>
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One should not be surprised that commissioning a building of that type, especially from Gehry, would result in some functional trade-offs.
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<p>That's why I'm saying that the powers that be who sanctioned it deserved what they got.</p>
<p>The functional issues that the suit was over were arguably design-related. For instance, snow and ice sliding off the building just might have something to do with the diagonals.</p>
<p>But we are getting off topic. OP, you should be aware that at MIT, there is no "biomedical engineering" major. There is a biological engineering major, and a biomedical engineering minor.</p>
<p>I personally do not think that MIT is the best environment for premeds. Of course, I'm hardly unbiased, as an ex-premed who majored in life sciences.</p>
<p>
I agree. And after some period of time, anyway, it will start to look like home to you, and then it won't matter anymore. Think about your hometown -- are you objectively capable of determining whether it's beautiful or not? I know I'm not.</p>
<p>I have to admit that I find the "campus aesthetics" thing to be the stupidest factor in choosing a college. I mean, seriously? So ridiculously frivolous.</p>
<p>@jessiehl</p>
<p>Would you please elaborate on what you mean by "MIT's not the best environment for premeds"? As I'm almost definitely going to MIT and almost definitely going for premed, this worries me a lot. Does it have to do with the courses, teachers, etc.?</p>
<p>Actually, doesn't a biology major at MIT satisfy pre-med requirements?</p>
<p>^^yes, it does. (do they require you to take anatomy for medical school; because that isn't covered by the bio major.)</p>
<p>"I have to admit that I find the "campus aesthetics" thing to be the stupidest factor in choosing a college"</p>
<p>I disagree. You have to live at college for 4 years. You should feel comfortable there. It's a quality-of-life issue. It's more of a factor if you have a strong reaction one way or the other to the campus, which of course doesn't happen with everybody. But if you feel like the campus seems depressing, it's something to consider.</p>
<p>My D is a freshman at MIT and premed. I believe most of the premeds are Course 7 and Course 9 majors as many of the requirements overlap. </p>
<p>The only concern she had before matriculating was the perceived grade deflation at MIT and the fact that GPA is important to med school admission. There are no easy majors, but there are certainly harder ones. Some of the advice she has received from her advisors and other students has been to: </p>
<ol>
<li>Not try to double major. You will make your life unnecessarily difficult.</li>
<li>If at all possible, test out of some of the GIRs prior to IAP freshman year or use AP credits. </li>
<li>Don't pick an absurdly hard (for some) major like Course 6. </li>
<li> Plan your schedule carefully, so that you don't overload on classes with psets.</li>
<li>Take UROPs and seminars for credit as it helps your GPA.</li>
<li>Take more HASS classes than the minimum required. They are not necessarily easier but they have a different pace and no psets. They are also a lot of fun. </li>
<li>Take hard classes as exploratory so that you can scratch them from your record if you are not happy with your grade. </li>
<li>Prepare to take the MCAT as soon as you have met the premed requirements, possibly as early as the end of sophomore year. Courses will still be fresh in your mind and you will probably score better. </li>
<li>Join a group like ESG if you prefer learning in small classes. ESG does cover most premed requirements like Organic Chem. </li>
<li>Don't wait to get a premed advisor as some students decide late at MIT to apply to med school. </li>
<li>Arrange to get some volunteering and physician shadowing experience at local hospitals early while at MIT. It is easy to get experience at Mass General for instance where there are many MIT grads as docs. Volunteering experience is hugely important for med school admission. </li>
</ol>
<p>Obviously, if 84% of MIT students applicants are admitted to med school, chances are quite good, especially at top schools like HMS. Many HMS faculty also teach courses at MIT that undergrads can take. </p>
<p>Because MIT has a very collaborative spirit, you are not competing against other students for grades, so the environment for premeds is not at all cutthroat. You can easily get help from others and tutoring by grad students is available if necessary. Being a premed and enjoying the MIT experience are not all incompatible.</p>
<p>To the OP: You are in the wonderful position of having a very difficult choice - and either is win. </p>
<p>My perspective: I have a daughter ('11) at MIT, who looked hard at H; and I had the chance to spend a year at the 'Tute as an undergrad (before returning to my LAC), and then spent a couple years of grad school at H (cross the river) - so we have seen a bit of both schools. </p>
<p>My D found the kids at Harvard to be very wrapped into their ECs - seemed to absorb the bulk of their energy and focus. On her week day visits the kids would go to EC club meetings from 6 or 7 until 10 or 11, then start their homework - mostly writing papers. Academics seemed to take a bit of back seat among those she encountered. And while the river houses were grand and gracious, she thought "the bathrooms are way old and grungy". </p>
<p>At MIT, she has found the primary focus was academics. She does sports every day from about 5 to 7:30, then starts the work - and the work is focused mostly on PSETs, not on reading. She was in an 8.012 study group last fall that Paul '11 wrote about in an Admissions blog entry titled "What Though the Odds". Give it a read - they met every Thursday night at 10 PM until done, and the kids really helped each other work through the material - she said they didn't leave a problem until everyone understood the problem, the principle, and the solution. MIT housing is a complex set of many choices in many forms - I get a headache trying to describe it all. </p>
<p>One startling factoid from the Harvard Crimson: Some 60% of students who arrive at Harvard intending to major in one of the Sciences, Math or Engineering end up shifting their concentration out of those areas and into something else. The Crimson decried the lack of support for the technical subjects.</p>
<p>A personal contrast about winters in Cambridge / Boston:
- At MIT, the wind off the river was freezing, biting cold, and cut right through my jacket as I walked from my dorm up to the Sloan building most mornings. I took the tunnels or corridors whenever I could, but ya still had to go outside.
- At Harvard, the wind off the river was freezing, biting cold, and cut right through my jacket as I walked from my dorm across to the Square. I took the tunnels or corridors whenever I could, but ya still had to go outside to cross the river.</p>
<p>Try both - your choices are great ones.</p>
<p>Haha, collegealum, then what do you find to be the stupidest factor people use to choose a college? I mean, something has to be the stupidest factor. I happen to think it's campus aesthetics, with weather being a close second.</p>
<p>^^Well, it's like you said about people's attractiveness. As hot as you may think you are, there is someone at MIT hotter.</p>
<p>Likewise, no matter how dumb someone's reason is for choosing a college, someone else has a dumber reason.</p>
<p>I knew someone who's mom told her not to go to a certain ivy league college "because it's a color." I think (hope) she was joking though.</p>
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@jessiehl</p>
<p>Would you please elaborate on what you mean by "MIT's not the best environment for premeds"? As I'm almost definitely going to MIT and almost definitely going for premed, this worries me a lot. Does it have to do with the courses, teachers, etc.?
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<p>Others have already given their (contradictory) opinions on this. Again, take what I say here with a grain of salt. I'm an ex-premed (good thing MIT kicked me around a bit, otherwise it would probably have taken at least until med school to admit to myself that I didn't really want to be a doctor), and I was a non-premed life science major (the non-premed life science majors tend not to appreciate the "stereotypical" premeds very much).</p>
<p>MIT academic culture is all about:</p>
<ul>
<li>Challenging yourself academically even if it means that your grades suffer.</li>
<li>Cooperation rather than competition, even if you will be competing with those people that you're cooperating with for grades on a curve.</li>
<li>Not being a grade-grubber.</li>
<li>Having relatively little grade inflation (I say "relatively little" instead of "no". because some people believe that it's grade inflation unless the average grade is a C in every class).</li>
<li>Choosing activities because you like them (as opposed to "because they'll look good to professional school admissions committees).</li>
</ul>
<p>If you're a premed, and you can thrive in this culture, awesome! You will probably be happy, and the people around you will like you, and you will probably also get into med school, since most MIT premeds do! You will have fun with the people who don't believe that you're <em>really</em> a premed at first.</p>
<p>And you will probably hate the stereotypical premeds, because the only people who are more irritated by the stereotypical premeds, in my experience, than the non-premed life science majors, are the non-stereotypical premeds.</p>
<p>I very much admire the non-stereotypical premeds (and there are plenty of them). They value an MIT education so much that they stay there even though MIT culture is not exactly the most compatible with med school admissions culture, and they want to be doctors so badly that they stay premeds even at a place like MIT.</p>
<p>The stereotypical premeds would make life a lot easier on themselves and the people around them if they went somewhere else where the culture was more compatible with what they seem to want out of college.</p>