<p>I recently got into both MIT and Stanford and wanted to know which school to attend. I am still undecided towards the engineering I might want to pursue but I am leaning towards bio or computer. I definitely know I am a STEM individual. So thoughts! What school would you choose and why? </p>
<p>MIT would be a better choice if you want to major in engineering/technology field. Stanford is great but MIT will give you a the best undergrad experience. You can always go to Stanford in grad school for the connection. Honestly, you can go anywhere in your undergrad years because most corporations only care where you attend grad school. Stanford may announce they have professors that won several international awards but none of them were undergrad alumni. All the notable alumni only went to Stanford grad school. Most professors there come from MIT or Caltech. I hope you will not be like many students choose school BLINDLY based on stupid rankings. All the rankings and prestige are of the grad schools. And these schools often pay more attention to their grad students so you as undergrad may not have the opportunity to do real research. Also, the professors may only care about their research projects and give the teaching works to the TA. You can’t go wrong with either but I just want to give you my 2 cents :D</p>
<p>My son chose Stanford over MIT and Cal Tech for computer science. He is currently a sophomore at Stanford and certainly happy with his decision. I think my son was interested in getting more of an “all-around” college experience, and that has been fully realized at Stanford. He loves following all the Stanford sports teams, as do MANY of his friends. They attend games regularly. He participates fully in dorm intramurals and loves that. He really had the most wonderful freshman year experience where his floor in the freshman dorm bonded incredibly well. I know he will stay in touch with those kids forever. And they are really quite amazing kids. I have had the pleasure to meet many of them, and they are a brilliant and personable group with goals and interests that have inspired my son in so many ways. </p>
<p>I personally really like MIT and Cambridge. It is a fantastic place to go to college. But I was worried about the gut-wrenching first-year MIT academics and the isolation that some students seem to feel there. My son really liked Simmons Hall at MIT. But I don’t think he would trade the enormously great transition that he had to Stanford, and I don’t think his experience was an isolated one. Most kids seem to love freshman year. Not that the academics are easy in STEM at Stanford. It is HARD!! My son has worked so much harder on his schoolwork than he has ever needed to in the past. But he has got it all under control, and he is having a blast!</p>
<p>@Maelic. Congratulations! First and foremost…I have a good feeling you KNOW where you want to be and where you BELONG…</p>
<p>…if you are the type that would enjoy the hardcore high level STEM/CS/engineering 24 hours a day by breathing and eating this stuff…you belong at a place like MIT or Caltech…</p>
<p>…if you are the type that would enjoy high level STEM/CS/engineering in a setting that allows you to take a “break” and smell the roses (literally there are roses on the Quad year round) and also have a more balanced mix of students who also enjoy high level humanities/social sciences along with high level (future Olympic/professional) athletics…thrown in with exciting outside extracurricular activities (too numerous to mention)…and being able to wear flip-flops year round…then you belong at a place like Stanford…</p>
<p>and if you want to let loose on national TV like this mechanical engineering student…you can join the LSJUMB…</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/03/27/ncaa-tournament-made-famous-among-the-madness-the-stanford-cowbell-pl”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/03/27/ncaa-tournament-made-famous-among-the-madness-the-stanford-cowbell-pl</a></p>
<p>Hello - I agree with gravitas2. I’m an international who got into Stanford (wait-listed MIT), and a person who I know (who currently attends Stanford) told me that MIT has a more “nerdy” atmosphere, so if you enjoy that kind of thing, you should choose to go to MIT.
I’m planning to major in math and computer science, and I know that both MIT and Stanford computer science programs are great, so you can’t go wrong with either ^^
Once again, congratulations for your acceptances!</p>
<p>If you are planning to major in CS then go to Stanford. A CS degree from Stanford is the most valuable major/college. <a href=“Which College—and Which Major—Will Make You Richest? - The Atlantic”>Which College—and Which Major—Will Make You Richest? - The Atlantic; </p>
<p>Go to MIT.</p>
<p>The lower Stanford’s yield this year the more chance my daughter will get off from their waitlist. :)</p>
<p>Seriously though, for CS, nothing is better than Stanford.</p>
<p>@2018dad. That’s funny. 
I like your strategy. And I feel your pain and know where you are coming from. I know there are so many kids and their parents wish that Stanford would have to go to their waitlist…at least even one (1) for their kid to get off the waitlist…</p>
<p>…but, as I have said before…I believe they have accepted “too many” even this year…NO ONE got off the waitlist the last 2 years…</p>
<p>@2018dad: “Seriously though, for CS, nothing is better than Stanford.” </p>
<p>Why? My son’s in the same position. He plans to do CS. He’s not entrepreneurial, so I’m guessing that Stanford’s strong start-up culture won’t make a difference to him. So why Stanford CS over MIT CS? So far, he’s more theoretical CS-oriented, if that makes any difference. (He’s also considering CMU.)</p>
<p>@CalBearsMom, those are all 3 amazing schools for CS. I don’t think you necessarily have to be entrepreneurial in CS at Stanford, it’s just those opportunities are abundant. In theoretical CS he may find he gets more attention from professors, as so many of the kids are more into the applied, entrepreneurial stuff these days, and most of the CS majors are more likely seeking software engineering jobs than going into theoretical CS and possibly academics. One of my Stanford degrees is in CS, and while it has changed a lot since I was there, the university has always greatly excelled in theoretical CS as well. CMU is also a great school for CS. I will say that some of the best software engineers that I have worked with went to CMU. The campus environments are totally different, so that is something to consider.</p>
<p>@calbearsmom</p>
<p>FIrst off, the bottom line: your son can’t go wrong in any of those schools…and congrats to him!</p>
<p>My DS chose Stanford - I posted a little bit about it in another Stanford thread, but one factor was just that he felt Stanford had a bit more flexibility, especially if you have a lot of AP and college credits. Oh and pre-reqs are more suggestions that anything enforced. </p>
<p>The flexibility helps since he is interested in math…and CS…and math combined with CS…and the theoretical side of CS…and the practical side of CS. So he has a lot of flexibility to explore, try different classes, etc. Of course you can do that at MIT or CMU, but with the quarter system and the flexibility and the seemingly lighter core required classes, it just seemed a better fit.</p>
<p>The other thing is that entrepreneurship does not necessarily mean eventually working for a startup. There are a lot of initiatives (especially CS related) that seem to pop up all the time. It may be working on a project for a startup during a quarter or two or trying something new over the summer. I view it as just another form of exploration in which you get a heck of a lot of responsibility early on.</p>
<p>Again, he may very well find all this too at MIT or CSU. He can’t go wrong. It may come down to a personal fit and preferences on the margin (weather, location, closeness to home, etc)…and of course finances.</p>
<p>Best of luck. He will do great.</p>
<p>
When I applied to colleges, several years ago I had to make the decision between Stanford and MIT. I ended up choosing Stanford. Some of the reasons I favored Stanford were the entrepreneurial culture with silicon valley; my experiences while visiting, during admit weekend, particularly a very friendly and helpful atmosphere; what I perceived to be increased opportunities outside of engineering, and the moderate CA coastal climate. </p>
<p>While at Stanford, I ended up doing a lot of things I hadn’t planned on during high school, things that would have likely impacted my decision. For example, I did a double co-term where I simultaneously pursued a BS in engineering, MS in engineering, and MS in a business related field. It’s likely easier to simultaneously pursue a BS and MS at Stanford than at MIT. I finished these degrees surprisingly quickly because all of my ~1 year’s worth of transfer credit from classes I took during HS were approved. I’m not sure if MIT would have been so generous about the transfer credits. The program I entered was designed to foster tech entrepreneurship. While at Stanford I heard about experiences from many alumni who have started successful companies, including some well known ones, such as meeting one of the Yahoo founders. This atmosphere and my degree background contributed to me starting a successful Internet company. I doubt that would have happened had I attended MIT. </p>
<p>I was involved in many areas I didn’t plan on while at Stanford, which related to random exposures or things going on around campus. For example, 1st semester freshman year chem was taken by both pre-med and engineering, I found chem really interesting, so continued with the pre-med track, as well as my original plans for an engineering major, which led to taking bio classes as well. After being inspired by my classes in psychology and being involved in some psych related research at the medical school, I tried to make a self designed major that combined neurobiology and psychology into a unified theory. After getting a bike and biking to my classes (most bike to their classes because of the large campus size and bike-friendly weather), I joined the cycling club-team and went on their daily rides from the post office, when it fit my mood. The sports-friendly atmosphere led to me briefly joining the crew team as well (Stanford has won more div I national championships than any other school over the past few decades). Stanford probably has a more diverse student body, in terms of things like percentage of students who are focused on non-STEM areas, and with it probably has more of this type of exposures to random things in unplanned areas. It also probably influences that atmosphere in dorms and generally around campus. It can be either good or bad, depending on what you are looking for in a college experience.</p>
<p>I’m originally from NY. I now live in CA. After college, I stayed in CA because the bulk of the recruiters in career fairs were from the west coast, and I came to enjoy the CA weather and atmosphere (more laid back, healthy, athletic, … than were I grew up). I’d find it quite difficult to get used to NY winters again. If I had gone to MIT, I’d probably still be living in the northeast. If you are majoring in a tech field, I think the Silicon Valley area has the advantage in terms of work opportunities and salary. While I was a student, I was able to find a part-time job at a tech-research company that was within biking distance (did not have a car). One big downside is to this area is the cost of living, particularly home prices.</p>
<p>I’d suggest going to admit weekend where you can really experience the campus by living in a Stanford dorm, attending Stanford classes, and the many planned events. MIT probably has something similar. They are both excellent colleges, and you’ll likely be content at either school.</p>
<p>In usnews graduate school ranking，stanford and mit are tied as no. 1 in both biological science and computer science. However, stanford pretty much swept mit in the 8 biological subfields rankings. In cs, stanford is ranked as #1 by national research council, business week, and shanghi jiaotong university world university ranking. The only ranking in cs that placed mit ahead of stanford is qs ranking by British, which is severely biased and laughable. Even qs has ranked stanford #2 right behind mit. In terms of contributions to IT industry and milestone inventions in high tech, stanford is far ahead of mit.</p>