<p>Ultimately, it depends on how good of a writer you are. Insults allowed in the academic community are strictly limited to indirect and general criticisms, so directly throwing any insults at Harvard would go way too far and reflect poorly on your maturity. If you want to elucidate on why MIT would be more appropriate than Harvard based on your personal interests, I don’t see why this would be a problem as long as you stay away from direct criticism.</p>