<p>I’m in my last throes of the college process right now, and despite my best
efforts, I’m still completely split between MIT and Stanford. So at the
eleventh hour (May 1 deadline!), I beg perspectives on the schools. As a
little background, I am interested in pretty much all the sciences and social
sciences, but am particularly interested in space science (planetary science,
astrophysics, etc) and physics, like math, and am sort of developing an
interest in bio and CS as well. My current questions about the schools include:</p>
<li>How does the workload/stress level compare between the schools?</li>
<li>How easy is social integration and involvement? In particular, how well do
nerds and nerd culture (ex. science fiction) fit in? Are there opportunities
for someone who would like to hang out, do fun stuff, etc but is not
tremendously outgoing and does not like parties?</li>
<li>How are courses, teaching, and research opportunities?</li>
</ol>
<p>However, any and all information/perspectives on the school would be very useful to me. All help is appreciated!</p>
<p>You'll always hear people promising that there's less stress at Stanford, but for people in science and engineering I don't necessarily think that's true. Being a science or engineering major is stressful, no matter where you are.</p>
<p>MIT has an incredibly</a> diverse social scene, and it's really up to you what sort of social life you'd want to pursue here. We have a very live-and-let-live sort of culture -- you can do what gets you psyched, and nobody's going to berate you about it.</p>
<p>Research opportunities are obviously abundant, although I can't imagine there would be a significant difference between MIT and Stanford in that regard.</p>
<p>One sort of interesting difference between the two schools that I noticed when interviewing -- at Stanford, the grad students spoke of undergrads like they were sort of helpless ("Oh, they're all very worried about their grades, and you have to encourage them and reassure them"), while at MIT, the grad students openly admitted that the undergrads were smarter than they were.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if that's because many upper-division classes at MIT are joint grad/undergrad classes, so the grad students at MIT are just used to considering undergrads their equals.</p>
<p>Hey man...
@ stanford it's a lot nicer atmosphere and weather...
I think it comes down to fit... and it seems if you're not too outgoing science fiction liking type you'd fit in slightly better at MIT there are alot of people there in to those kind of things. I mean some of the i3 videos had people role playing and sword fighting etc. not really my thing but if you like it's cool.</p>
<p>At Stanford i have to say that at least for the engineering department the undergrads and grad students have a lot of respect for eachother, they work together. Two undergrads developed the vision / tracking algorithm for the Darpa vehicle (if you have heard of it... it's pretty cool an autonomous car)</p>
<p>The stanford atmosphere is (obviously) more "california" everyone wears shorts and flip-flops alot of outdoor type activities. MIT is a bit different i can't really summarize it i guess "techie" would be best word to describe it.</p>
<p>stanford has better weather? I haven't been to the stanford campus but i've been in the bay area and its more like seatle weather than so cal for sure. Northern cal is a lot different than so cal, or so i thought?</p>
<p>I've been in Stanford in the summer and the weather was <em>awesome</em>. No single cloud <em>every</em> day! It's true that the weather is not like in Southern California. The ocean, for example, is freezing cold. Still great though ;)</p>
<p>The ocean around here (Bay Area, where Stanford is) is, unfortunately, for looking at, not for swimming in. (For most normal mortals anyway.) We do not have <em>weather</em> here: we have <em>climate</em>. Cambridge has <em>weather</em> (as in, 4 actual seasons -- we only have 2 here: rainy and summer). Do not equate San Francisco weather with Palo Alto weather: microclimates rule around here. </p>
<p>That said, my son is at MIT and not at Stanford. Some of his friends at Stanford are happy there, at least one is actively trying to transfer to MIT. You won't go wrong with either decision, sran!</p>
<p>
[quote]
2. How easy is social integration and involvement? In particular, how well do
nerds and nerd culture (ex. science fiction) fit in? Are there opportunities
for someone who would like to hang out, do fun stuff, etc but is not
tremendously outgoing and does not like parties?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sound like a MIT man to me~~~
Now sign that MIT card and drop it to the postbox, and kiss Stanford goodbye ;)</p>