I agree with all of that. The rankings have become so skewed, I don’t put much faith in them. I do think the culture at Stanford is different from that at schools in the East. My husband went undergrad to Stanford and one of the reasons he chose it was because it was not MIT (he actually walked out of this MIT interview after telling the interviewer, “thanks for your time but I’m pretty sure MIT isn’t the place for me.” That being said, my daughter (who is at Wellesley) has several friends at MIT and tells me that they work hard but have a great sense of humor (the Banana study lab is hilarious.) But MIT is unendingly nerdy (not a bad thing!), and so it appeals to a very specific type of kid. Finding your place within a culture is important.
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