<p>Couple of points, the UG experience is quite different from the
graduate experience. At Harvard if you did not spend your first
year in the yard it could be a different experience. At MIT you
are going to get a flavor of the essence no matter when you
sip.</p>
<p>1) pulling the 20+ somewhat rigid required courses at Harvard
compared to the 12-16 you would typically do there makes
Engineering a not so good choice to do at Harvard even if you
are not comparing to MIT. </p>
<p>2) Harvard's recent introduction of OEB, HEB and upcoming introduction
of SCRB will imply that there are options at Harvard that are unique and
specific to Organismic, Stem Cell and Human evolutionary studies.</p>
<p>3) Course 10 totally rules. However, the courses at Harvard in Chemistry
are quite varied and equally deep (though not quite engineering focused
obviously). Profs in physics are comparable.</p>
<p>Research opportunities are roughly the same between the two.</p>
<p>For someone wanting to develop his own business related to engineering, which school would be better?
How would a major in mech engineering or aerospace engineering and a minor in business compare between the 2 schools?</p>
<p>Well, for one thing, Harvard doesn't have aerospace engineering or business, just mech E and economics. It also seems somewhat more difficult to minor at Harvard, because fewer classes can be counted for both the secondary field and the concentration. It's pretty straightforward to minor or double-major at MIT.</p>
<p>The engineering programs at Harvard are simply not as strong as they are at MIT. This isn't much of a knock on Harvard, because there are few schools with across-the-board engineering strength like MIT's</p>
<p>My Carnegie Mellon interviewer back when I was applying put it like this:
Pick Harvard if you want a “back-door” way into a highly prestigious school, perhaps the one with the most global recognition.
Pick MIT if you want recognition from people who know their STEM.</p>
<p>While I don’t know if I completely agree with that, I see it like this: if learning Spanish were like being an engineer, then Harvard would be taking all the Spanish courses possible at your college, while MIT would be like living in Spain for four years. (Not referring to the workload, of course.)</p>
<p>At Harvard, it seems that the kids do tend to be more well-rounded/artsy, perhaps, while at MIT kids tend to be more scientific. However, I would definitely not say that Harvard kids are less nerdy than MIT kids, or that they get out any more. Just saying. P:</p>