@madglav i think the way you should approach it is trying to strike a balance between a school that is good all around and ahas a good name and is a target in terms of recruiting for various different industries and a school that has a good engineering program. If you are good enough to get into harvard you will probably be good enough to have a shot to at least a few more schools that strikes a better balance between the two. Prime example of that is stanford. In most other departments is at least at the same level or half a notch below harvard and when it comes to engineering/tech it is light years ahead, plus you will be close to the amazing world of silicon valley. if you are looking for an ivy, princeton, penn, columbia have better engineering programs than Harvard and still a good name/ a lot of resources and each has its own advtanges to offset their less prestigious name compared to harvard. ( at princeton is the unparalleled quality of its undergraduate academics ( something harvard lacks a bit), at penn is the unparalleled recruiting opportunities- penn is the most targeted school, and at columbia is the location and the amazing reaourxes/opportunities that come with that. Of course cornell has a better engineering program than all of them , but tbh i would never really choose cornell over harvard no matter what ( or over princeton, yale, penn and columbia for that matter…)