<p>I agree with afan.</p>
<p>Another “MIT/engineering effect” that was often mentioned is that, just because of the high academic standard at MIT, it hurts their premed students. (Poor advising is another major one.) The reason is that the students are too busy with the course work to have time for developing other quality that is required for a successful premed.</p>
<p>I do not know whether the life science part of MIT is any different. A well-known phenomenon at a top engineering school (MIT, Cal Tech, CMU, Harvey Mudd) is that the engineering students are forced to team-work with each other by necessity, and many of the “design” courses are designed in such a way that it sucks up almost all of your time.</p>
<p>Regarding “MIT’s SAT-CR was higher than Stanford’s,” MIT’s “more meaningful” math test scores like USBMO may be even higher than Stanford’s. It is said that at that kind of math/science school, SAT level test scores are not a major criterion in admission. I know plenty of SAT-CR 800 scorers (or SAT-MATH) got rejected by MIT. Females do get a boost there though.</p>