<p>All are great (est) colleges. Any choice is right choice. However, for those who think Harvard should come first, can you kindly list top three reasons? The field of study is not main issue here since the intended field in all three is top program.</p>
<p>1.Harvard
2.Harvard
3.Harvard</p>
<p>Congrats on great acceptances. You must be really dadhappy!.
Truly, none of the three should come first. Below is S’s reasoning for choosing Harvard, which does not apply to your kid’s situation entirely.
Yale was ranked lower on list (and eventually not applied to) because math department was not as strong and was undergoing loss of senior faculty owing to retirements. But S liked the general atmosphere at Yale and could see himself spending four happy years there.
MIT originally at the top of the list, ranked lower when S decided it might not be the best fit for someone who was not a hands-on person (being hands-on was stressed by Marilee Jones as a characteristic the adcom and the school valued). S ended up not applying. But he has many happy friends there who love being surrounded by other science geeks.
Harvard came out top when S decided that, apart from not being hands-on, he also valued being surrounded by a more academically diverse group of students than might be found at MIT. S applied early and was admitted.
He enjoys being part of the Boston/Cambridge scene.
Your kid may have totally different interests, and S’s reasons for deciding on one school over another may well not be his.</p>
<p>D was accepted to both Harvard and MIT but selected Harvard. Her reasoning was that she was a science major and could get a great science education at either school. However, it was the incredible richness of the courses offered beyond science that sold her on Harvard. Not that MIT offered only science, but the non-science at MIT was in her opinon not in the same league with Harvard. The possibility of changing majors lurked in the back of her mind, and she didn’t want to be trapped in a school that in both course offering and campus atmosphere was science & math, science & math, science & math - 24/7. </p>
<p>So far she has stuck with science (Physics concentrator), but she still loves Harvard and feels she made the right choice. For example the course she has enjoyed above all others so far was a course on the History of Robots in Cinema. You wouldn’t think you could make a whole course on that. But some Harvard professor did, and D loved it.</p>
<p>My S chose Harvard over MIT and Yale with similar reasoning to Marite’s and Coureur’s kids. He really like the feel of MIT, but felt he was more of a theoretical than hands-on guy. He also wanted the breadth of a traditional university, and in particular realized that while in high school he was in classes with the advanced science and math students, he preferred to hang out with the humanities kids. As for Yale, he didn’t like the fact that the science buildings were somewhat apart, up the hill, and he also wondered whether Yale had the same concentration of science kids as the others. As things have worked out, he’s still a science major (soph), but MIT would have been a mistake, as he has gotten great pleasure from the humanities and social science courses he’s taken, and may not even go into science (tho he started college with a longstanding goal of being an academic scientist). I think Yale would have been fine, however.</p>
<p>Yale and MIT are completely different…depends on your interests.
Harvard, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, trumps both in prestige. So if that’s a big factor, Harvard it should be. If not, it really deprends on what suits you, and you didn’t provide us with much info regarding that.</p>
<p>I’m choosing Harvard over MIT. I liked the atmosphere more and I would like to be well-rounded. Also, I want to do biology, which is awesome at Harvard with its affiliation with Harvard Medical School, stem cell research, etc.</p>
<p>I chose MIT over Harvard (actually, wait, I just told Harvard to stop considering me once I got into MIT, I was never accepted or denied). It all depends on what you want to do. Initially I thought math (pointed towards Harvard), but I finally decided I would definitely be doing engineering, so it was a pretty easy choice.</p>
<p>Both are in the general area so neither has a location advantage. It’s about what you want to do. As for Yale, I have no clue, I never applied because I hated the location.</p>
<p>Great thread on choosing between HYP here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=319575[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=319575</a></p>
<p>I’m having this issue now. I want to go to MIT for management/mech engineering/product development, but my mom wants me to go to Harvard. She is worried about the difficulty of MIT and I am worried about the value of the engineering/applied math program at Harvard. Anyone comment on the Applied Math/Engineering program in terms of strength, value, and prestige?</p>
<p>^I second that
How does Harvard DEAS compare to the counterparts in MIT</p>
<p>Mathson (interest computer science) would have gone to MIT over Harvard. Harvard’s engineering is expanding, but I can’t tell how fast. </p>
<p>How is Harvard better than MIT?</p>
<p>Looks - it’s prettier
Age/History
Breadth of offerings
Harvard Square </p>
<p>But there are many ways they are different - not better or worse. Those are far more important but how to rate those differences will be an individual matter.</p>
<p>I could tell you the type of students at MIT and Harvard are quite different. There is some overlap for sure and I wouldn’t say that the students are more intelligent at one place than the other. However, there are differences in the student body, but I don’t think I’m the right person to describe it acurately.</p>