<p>I think Stanford has done more in creating new technologies than MIT, at least in the last 30 years or so.</p>
<p>I went to both schools for grad school (awhile ago) ... it is a great dilema to decide between these 2 schools. If you are accepted at both I would find a way to visit both because I think the better fit will JUMP out at you if visit both schools. </p>
<p>Both are terrific academic schools with great students, top faculty, great research facilities and both also are big research universities which can be both good and bad for undergrads. Job opportunities upon graduation will be outstanding given either choice.</p>
<p>That said the schools are very different. East coast versus west coast. Suburban campus (a beautiful campus) versus city sort-of-campus (in a great city for college kids). While both schools are terrific academically I would say MIT is a little more intense academically (intense is not the same as stressful) ... to me MIT kids, in general, will be a little more intellectually focussed. At both schools while the students work hard at school they also play hard ... at Stanford kids are more likely to do classic college stuff like by one of the 50,000 people at a Stanford football game ... while at MIT kids are more likely to skip the football game and play ultimate frisbee or dungeon and dragons.</p>
<p>Both places are great but, to me, have very different feels ... given a $180,000 investment looming to pay for school ... I highly recommend visiting them if at all possible.</p>
<p>PS - either choice you make will be a GREAT experience!</p>
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I think Stanford has done more in creating new technologies than MIT, at least in the last 30 years or so.
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Oh God, please don't start this one [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=30761&page=6%5Dagain%5B/url">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=30761&page=6]again[/url</a>].</p>
<p>
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I think Stanford has done more in creating new technologies than MIT, at least in the last 30 years or so.
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</p>
<p>Back again, datalook? Shall we just cut and paste from our previous thread that molliebatmit pulled up where we crossed swords?</p>
<p>The DARPA challenge will decide who is better! :)</p>
<p>Like a lot of the above posters said MIT and Stanford are pretty similar academically, so last year when I had to decide between Stanford and MIT, it was their housing systems that made me decide to go to MIT. </p>
<p>MIT's system lets you actually pick where you live; your first week here is dorm rush. Since people choose their living community, each of these living groups has its own personality. Since most of these dorms also have a hall rush (at least thats whats its called in East Campus) where you pick where in the dorm you want to live, some very distinct cultures form. For example, in my dorm one floor is known for its hackers while the one above it is known for nightly hall hot cocoa. </p>
<p>Basically this means that at MIT, if you take rush seriously you're bound to find a living group that matches your personality pretty well since there's so many groups to choose from.</p>
<p>When I went to Stanford's admit weekend I was surprised to see that their system seemed to be the exact opposite of MIT's. From what I remember you get to pick whether you want freshman housing, freshman and sophomore, or all year housing(on a side not everything at mit is all year housing, which is really good since upperclassmen are much more helpful than your adviser) for your freshman year. After that housing is randomized. Suppose you say you want freshman housing, then they'll randomly place you in one of the frosh dorms. </p>
<p>Ok, so they don't have rush, thats not that bad. What is bad is that you have to switch to a different living group each year, making the formation of any dorm identity pretty much impossible. Fine they let you staple your preferences to like a dozen of your friend's so you all go to the same dorm next year. 12 people do not make a dorm. To me it just seemed that Stanford's housing system seemed to actually get in the way of dorm culture instead of fostering it.</p>
<p>So pretty much last year I went to CPW, thought z0mg EAsT camPUS ftw!, went to Stanford's admin weekend, couldn't find a trace of east side culture
and then decided to go to MIT.</p>
<p>I hope that helps a little</p>
<p>How is switching to a different living group every year a bad thing? In fact, it's an incredible way of meeting new people and experiencing new lifestyles. And the fact that you get to choose 12 friends to be in a dorm with, year after year, strikes an excellent balance between getting to know your good buddies better and exposing yourself to a brand-new network of potential friends.</p>
<p>And I must say, my knowledge of people's experience with Stanford dorms is much different than the one you just described. One of my brother's friends spent one of his upper-class years at Rinconada and became involved in the production of the dorm movie (starring every member of the dorm), setting up an obstacle course for orientation day for freshman (complete with a pie-eating contest), organizing weekly movie trips, and masterminding inter-dorm pranks. He would boast the camaraderie of his dorm-mates and the superiority of his dorm to others (apparently their dorm slogan that year was "One Rinc to Rule Them All").</p>
<p>To be honest, the idea of moving to a different dorm every year is completely unappealing to most MIT students, who think of their dorms as their personal communities. It would be one thing to move from dorm to dorm if all of the dorms were similar, but a dorm can only have a lasting culture when people stay there for multiple years.</p>
<p>I mean, you still get to meet new people every year when freshmen move in, since all of the dorms house people from all four years.</p>
<p>In the late 90s, the MIT administration wanted to institute a system in which students were assigned to a random dorm freshmen year, then lotteried into a different dorm sophomore year. MIT students, led by the UA president (a certain Matt McGann :)), fought tooth and nail and managed to preserve the current system. That's how much we value the way our housing system is run.</p>
<p>I had the same decision to make as you, though for a different field. I chose MIT, and I'm very happy with that decision. The work exists, but is absolutely manageable. The diversity in personality types is amazing; you can find uber-nerds like myself, to classic college students very into sports, social life, etc, to everyone in between. </p>
<p>One thing that I think jumps out at me is the amount of fun stuff around here, sponsored by the Institute. For example, my seminar group went flying. No, really. Our seminar leader asked us one day if we wanted to go flying, we said yes, and before you know it we're out at the airfield Saturday bundling into 4-person planes. We were even allowed to fly them -- I excecuted takeoffs, landings, and touch-and-go's (with supervision & help from the instructor!) There are also a lot of hiking trips, caving trips, and stuff like that. If you're into international development, health, environment, or public service in general, MIT has an amazing amount of that. Every summer and IAP, we send a bunch of people overseas to work on different projects -- and of course there are a bunch of programs in the area year-round.</p>
<p>UROP's fall off trees. I haven't heard of any place where there are so many research opportunities. I got a UROP my first term, and I could have gotten it earlier (summer before). If you want a research position, you will get one, without much effort.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>sran, how could you have gotten a UROP the summer before your freshman year?</p>
<p>Same way you get a UROP any other time, I imagine -- email professors and see who needs a UROP. :)</p>
<p>Well, one option I had right off the bat was working with my RSI mentor. Additionally, though, while at RSI there were students on my floor who were incoming freshmen, so I know it is very possible to get involved with research before term starts.</p>
<p>I said a while back that I would post my decision as I was trying to decide between the two schools. I feel really bad for turning down such a great university and I am still nervous if I am making the right choice.</p>
<p>I believe I am about to choose to go to Stanford this year. This is in no way a put down on MIT. I went to CPW and met some really incredible people and knew that 4 years there I would be just fine. MIT is an awesome place and I hope to many go to grad school there but that is a few years away.</p>
<p>It really took some nitpicking to find which school I would feel more comfortable at. The school spirit at Stanford around sports and tight knit campus with 99% living on campus have drwan me in.</p>
<p>I do regret that I will not have the challenge of an MIT undergrad and the chance to experience a REAL winter. Also not the opportunity to meet all you wonderful people. </p>
<p>I thank everyone on this forum for helping me. I do not want to seem like I don't like MIT. It is an awesome place and I wish the best for all of you in the upsoming years. As I said I will probably try to go to MIT for grad b/c I loved many other parts of the school. Like I said I agreed to post my decision and hope that all of you in similar situation will happy with your choice. </p>
<p>I so hope that I am making the right decision.</p>
<p>I went the other way -- I pretty much fell in love with MIT at CPW. Stanford's too close to home for me, now that I think about it, and so I picked MIT over Stanford and Princeton, though I can see myself at both schools for graduate school.</p>
<p>Good luck to you, too!</p>
<p>"tight knit campus with 99% living on campus have drwan me in."</p>
<p>not that you're wrong, but you do know how large stanford's campus is?</p>
<p>basically, I agreed with pgbovine.</p>
<p>yeah and I am kind of a fitness buff so the biking everywhere isnt a big problem for me. What I meant by tight knit was that at MIT the focus is more on going into Boston while at Stanford it is more on campus with occassional trips to San Fran. I didnt mean to imply MIT is not tight-knit. I found it was preety collaborative and each floor in the dorms seemed preety tight-knit community with thier own personality.</p>