<p>I heard from <em>unnamed source</em> that they had a friend (planning to study engineering) who got into MIT and Williams, and decided to go to Williams thinking it was a good strategic move, since he could go to MIT for grad school.</p>
<p>is this a good idea?</p>
<p>sounds sketchy to me...</p>
<p>Sure. It can be a great idea. It just depends on what you are looking for in an undergrad education. Some people like having tenure-criteria for faculty weighted towards undergrad teaching. Some people like that 100% of a school's resources are directed at undergrad teaching. Some people like small, interactive classes. Some people like to study things in addition to science and engineering and hang out with students who are studying in a broad range of fields.</p>
<p>Choosing a tech school like MIT is a little risky because it requires knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you want to exclusively pursue science or engineering related fields. The majority of high school seniors, without any exposure to college level courses, don't really have any idea what they will want to pursue. You would be shocked at the number of strong high school math/science kids who get to college and find out they hate it or aren't really that talented in those fields.</p>
<p>So, yeah. I don't think choosing a top LAC for undergrad is "sketchy" at all. MIT's a great school, but it's not known as offering an outstanding quality of life undergrad experience -- although they are trying very hard to improve the student experience.</p>
<p>It's not like you are even giving up much in science/engineering. Three of the top-10 undergrad producers of PhDs in math/science/engineering per 1000 graduates are small LACs.</p>
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<p>Having said that, Williams might be an odd choice for an engineering student since it doesn't have an engineering department! But, it's certainly not unheard of to major in physics or whatever and then go to a Masters program in engineering.</p>