<p>There are a couple of things I’ve been told or run into a couple of times:
(1) If you plan to get a degree after undergrad, it’s way more important where you go for undergrad.
(2) For graduate school, it’s way more important how the university’s research fits with your interests and how they are rated in your specific field for research/grad school than an overall reputation.</p>
<p>What’s most important for choosing where to go for your bachelor’s is what feels like a good fit and where you think will give you opportunities to succeed and have great experiences like undergraduate research. Don’t feel like you have to go to MIT because it has its reputation or because of statistics. Graduate schools are more concerned with what you made of the school you went to than just the ranking attached to it. People get into top grad programs from all kinds of undergraduate institutions.</p>
<p>P.S. - From my experience as a college student in Boston, MIT has the reputation “Work hard, party hard.”</p>