<p>syph13, congrats for being in the position to be able to select between three fine universities.</p>
<p>Here is a posting I made last year comparing MIT & Princeton. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14275402-post5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14275402-post5.html</a> </p>
<p>Do not make a decision based on rankings without a complete understanding the criteria of the rankings. Many ranking consider the number of courses, the number of professors and students. Larger departments e.g. MIT and Cornell are ranked higher. This type of metric would rank Princeton lower than larger universities. The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked Princeton number one in terms of scholarly productivity. Your opportunities to be taught by a well known MAE researcher is very high at Princeton. Ranking are based on graduate education not undergraduate. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ Engineering and Technology ranks Princeton third in the world after MIT/Cal Tech and before Stanford. See: [Top</a> 50 engineering & technology universities - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-12/subject-ranking/subject/engineering-and-it]Top”>Subject Ranking 2011-12: Engineering & Technology | Times Higher Education (THE)). You will take similar engineering courses at MIT, Princeton, or Cornell. PtonGrad2000 has done an extensive analysis of the The National Research Council’s data of the quality of graduate programs. See: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1006939-princeton-2010-national-research-council-nrc-rankings-news-item.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1006939-princeton-2010-national-research-council-nrc-rankings-news-item.html</a></p>
<p>Many of the best female engineering students are selecting Princeton because they want to also study music, art, history, sociology, etc. Here is information about women majoring in STEM at Princeton. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/906176-physics-math.html#post10185728[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/906176-physics-math.html#post10185728</a> </p>
<p>Here is a MIT/Princeton comparison by a current Princeton undergraduate. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14007556-post11.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14007556-post11.html</a> </p>
<p>MIT is in a large urban city, Princeton is in a quiet suburb, Cornell is in a hard to get to rural area.</p>
<p>Visit both MIT and Princeton if you can. Both universities have good admitted students weekends. By reputation MIT’s weekend is fun; the Princeton Preview will give you a taste of student life.</p>