--->Reputation of Harvard Compared to MIT<---

<p>I am trying to compare these high ranked universities (according to the Times, first and second ranked universities in the world) for an academic applying for a tenured faculty position.
Incidently I would also loke to know which universities are considered the best in the following field:Business Management, Economics Computer Science, Engineering & Medical Science.
Please provide proof for your assertations (links to web pages, statistics, research surveys etc.)
A College Confidential wide poll would be VERY VERY nice !!!</p>

<p>Gathering data now ...</p>

<p>sample bias anyone?</p>

<p>what is that supposed to mean?</p>

<p>That's supposed to mean you're asking this on the Harvard forum, so don't expect a rush of "Go MIT!" responses.</p>

<p>Same thing will happen if you ask this on the MIT board (if you didn't already).</p>

<p>Are you an academic applying for a tenured faculty position? If so, why are you asking *us<a href="and%20why%20over%20such%20a%20wide%20range%20of%20fields">/i</a>, and if not...well, why are you asking us?</p>

<p>If we're talking Renaissance History, Harvard beats MIT hands down. If we're talking mechanical engineering, MIT beats Harvard hands down.</p>

<p>Apples and oranges.</p>

<p>I posted it on MIT section too. And the responses I got are, well...
EXTRAORDINARY</p>

<p>eh.</p>

<p>harvard is #1</p>

<p>Well that proves it conclusively ;)</p>

<p>if you're looking for reputation, nothign beats harvard.</p>

<p>
[quote]
If we're talking Renaissance History, Harvard beats MIT hands down. If we're talking mechanical engineering, MIT beats Harvard hands down.</p>

<p>Apples and oranges.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say 'apples and oranges'. There are fields in which Harvard and MIT are highly comparable. Such as the natural sciences. Such as economics. Such as math. Such as economics. Such as business. And in each of these fields, I would say that it's basically a tie. In certain specializations of those fields, Harvard is better. In others, MIT is better. Certainly, the academics in any field will know which schools are better at which specializations. </p>

<p>To give you an example, if you want to become a business academic specializaing in supply-chain management or operations management, then you should probably go to the MIT Sloan School. If you want to become a business academic specializing in strategy, then you should probably go to HBS. </p>

<p>Now, if you just want to impress the common man on the street, then the answer is Harvard.</p>

<p>sakky-- Hear hear. What a cool reply sakky!!! Hats down. Seems to match general opinion.</p>

<p>Why do you find it necessary for poster's to PROVE their opinions? Iwas interested in providing an opinion but I simply can't prove a reputation. All reputations are opinions based the information one has gathered through many different means. </p>

<p>DEFINITION reputation - 3: the general estimation that the public has for a person; "he acquired a reputation as an actor before he started writing"; "he was a person of bad report" [syn: report]</p>

<p>DEFINITION:an assertion, statement of opinion </p>

<p>My opinion is that both are excellent schools. I'm not sure I would be able to prove that if the your criteria for excellent was much different than mine.</p>

<p>fatherofthe-- What I meant was for the poster to provide some sort of basis for his or her opinion, like some sort of survey result, a reference from a book, a valid web page, an authentic quote etc.</p>

<p>Here's a comprehensive study showing how the top students "rank" the schools - based on where they choose to enroll when they <em>have</em> a choice:</p>

<p><a href="http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I'm not sure that that Hoxby study is relevant to the question at hand, which is about academics applying for a tenured faculty position. That study has to do strictly with undergraduate choice, which is not the subject here. For example, you can't study business management at Harvard as an undergraduate.</p>

<p>Hmmm... I'd say the quality of the student body is a relevant factor for <em>most</em> potential faculty members, plus the salary levels, of course, the intellectual atmosphere and the lifestyle. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.epodunk.com/top10/colleges/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.epodunk.com/top10/colleges/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Mmmm, that is a relevant factor for those who want to teach, or work with students, which surely isn't the case for a great many top scientists :) I believe the OP is asking about reputation (in other posts he has asked about grad programs, and postdocs, neither of which care about undergrads).</p>

<p>I wonder what it says about the respective populations of the schools that the MIT posters immediately cried "bull*****" to this question, while the Harvard posters (to a degree) seriously analyzed it. One could say MIT has no care for trivialities, and thus Harvard is more intellectual. Or one could say that Harvard is more arrogant and MIT is less concerned with prestige for its own sake (hence not wanting to debate it), and thus MIT is more intellectual. Truly, the most interesting aspect of this question is the disparity in responses to it... an observation which I'm about to hop on over to the MIT thread to post in the spoof thread running there. ;)</p>

<p>Byerly-- Great post! Could you be an academic by any chance?</p>