I am fortunate to be admitted to MIT and Stanford for the class of 2025. I would like to know which school is better for learning computer science (primary) and entrepreneurship (secondary) focusing also on applied physics. Thank you.
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Which location do you prefer?
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Congratulations!
When you are talking about this level, it’s really a matter of fit rather than “which one is better”. Both will give you an extremely rigorous grounding in computer science. Here are some things that will help you decide:
- Stanford is better in terms of entrepreneurship. Not only is it in Silicon Valley, it played a large part in creating Silicon Valley. You will be exposed to ample startup opportunities in college starting almost immediately. The startup community in Boston around MIT is probably second in the nation, but it’s a distant second. I have lived in Silicon Valley and currently live near Boston.
- In terms of CS programs, they are basically equal.
- Culturally they are quite different. You may have heard of Stanford’s “duck syndrome”, which presents a calm experience above the water that hides the frantic paddling below. MIT on the other hand is like a bunch of swimmers on a river, and everyone is showing off about how well they can swim upstream. It’s not uncommon for students to take 6 or more classes for credit per semester and auditing even more.
- Related to MIT’s culture, for many years their class ring had the word “IHTFP” on it. Some people say it stands for “I have truly found paradise”, whereas others believe it stands for “I hate this ****ing place”. That is MIT culture in a nutshell. For some it’s ideal (and we know students that are very happy there). For others, it is a bootcamp.
- Tech rules at MIT, which sounds obvious, but it also means that you won’t get exposed to non-tech people that much, unless you cross-register at Harvard. At Stanford it is much easier to take classes and have discussions with humanities majors.
- Weather wise, it’s always 72 degrees and sunny in Palo Alto (only slightly exaggerating), whereas at MIT you have the full four seasons.
- Palo Alto is in a suburb, so it takes some effort to get into a city if that’s your thing. MIT is right next to Boston.
- Boston is both a city and the world’s largest college town. Harvard is two subway stops away. Boston University is across the river. Funny story told by BU: Many MIT frats are across the river in Boston, and very near BU’s dorms. Some MIT frat kids who didn’t want to cook one right figured out how to hack into the BU card readers so they could get free BU dorm food.
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Not an expert here. Just impressionistically, I would think MIT courses would be harder; but Stanford probably better for start-ups or landing on jobs (and start-up jobs).
If you can afford to go there, it just comes down to personal preference. One school focuses on jobs on the east coast. The other on the west coast. After graduating, you’ll get a market rate entry level salary for a programmer with zero years of experience based on the local area. That’s a good thing. I would highly recommend gaining experience from a stable company that already knows what they’re doing.
Being an entrepreneur is more of a personality than a skill, and it’s not something you learn in college. First thing’s first. Get your education wherever you feel is the best fit. Then get a job and gain some experience.
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I disagree with this. While it’s rare for college students to become founders of highly successful startups, it’s very common for college students to intern for highly successful startups and join full-time afterwards. And it’s very common for people working in successful startups to create the next generation of startups.
That is why places like Stanford and MIT (and Harvard and some others) have an active entrepreneurship club where they invite speakers from both the startup community and the venture capital community and afterwards mingle with them in casual settings. Some of these people work with students on their startup ideas. Again, most of them won’t go anywhere, but the startup atmosphere is real.
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I live in close proximity to Stanford. My dog has a standing playdate with another dog each and every Saturday. His owners are both MIT graduates.
So I say MIT. Or Stanford would be totally awesome too. 
Best of luck with your decision, but I’d want to wear shorts and flip flops all year.
While this may hold true for graduates of many programs, it is not the experience my recently graduated son experienced. Here’s (I believe) why.
My son is very interested in AI/ML which is one of the reasons he chose Stanford out of a number of acceptances (CMU, Cal, etc). At Stanford he took all the core classes and was able to double up AI/ML classes taking several graduate level classes. He participated in ML research at one of the many AI labs, and only accepted summer internships that had to do with ML. As a result he received many job offers from both coasts - none were “entry level” all were for positions in research groups within the company. Some of the offers were from established companies, some from early stage startups, and some were from privately held unicorns.
How was he able to get all these “non-enty level jobs”? IMO the reasons include:
His CS program offered great undergrad and grad level courses in AI/ML (not all do)
Most of his courses had a project component with poster sessions that drew in audiences form the industry (that’s when his LinkedIn connections started to grow)
Participating in ML research allowed him to hone his skills and get published in several papers.
Accepting only ML related summer internships exposed him to working in companies of different sizes.
So, I think that you can do all the above at MIT or Stanford, or several other schools, and if you do you will have more than a “market rate entry-level salary” - you’ll have one of the most interesting careers you can imagine.
As far as entrepreneurship goes, while many have the “bent” there are many interesting classes on the topic at Stanford (and other places I’m sure), and these classes are hotbeds for connections and opportunity.
Best wishes on decision.
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Sure CS is very employable … NOW …
All the jobs you keep referring to we will soon lose to India, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Romania etc … these countries are churning out programmers at high rates.
The only way to stay ahead of that is to keep pushing the envelope in terms of education and next level technology.
As a very general rule, if you are interested in grad school in engineering, MIT is better, while for tech companies, Stanford may have the edge.
Also, MIT is in one of the top academic locations in the country, surrounded by top colleges and universities, while Stanford is right next to Silicon Valley.
I went into a bathroom stall at Stanford maybe 25 years ago and when I shut the door, there was a poster on the inside advertising some kind of symposium with venture capitalists. That’s when I knew Stanford had an obsession with entrepreneurship. I’ve been on the MIT campus but never used the bathroom there, so can’t realistically compare it with Stanford.
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Did you somehow time travel from the 1990s, when this was the common refrain and CS was a declining major?
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. “Programmers” and “Computer Science” are very different things.
Is it Stanford or MIT where you think this isn’t happening.
I am watching the trends in my group.
I’ve watched it for 25+ year as a Senior IT executive. Our programming is mostly in India. We have many CS graduates that aren’t “programmers”.
Choosing between Stanford and MIT for CS is far from the decision to take a 12 month programming boot camp to be a coder.
I agree and I am generally a proponent of reaching as far as one can in terms of education.
You know what you need to do, don’t you?
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It’s a long flight to Boston. 
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Pick based on fit.
Although I will mention the MIT Sandbox that provides seed funding to student entrepreneurs. I’m not sure if Stanford offers anything like that.
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Here’s my take. These countries do have programmers, but they don’t have the kind of advanced IT infrastructure we have or the kind of specialized knowledge to properly maintain it. Outsourcing is a big risk. It’s a lot more simple and cost-effective just to hire people who already know how to do the job.
Don’t underestimate Eastern Europe - those guys are tip-top