<p>Look, its not about picking a school, its about picking a home. A close friend from my secondary school ended up at Harvard, a mile up the road, and as a result, I spent a fair amount of time on the Harvard campus particularly my freshman and sophomore years. One day I turned to her and explained that Harvard never felt particularly right for me, it was always vaguely pretentious in a way that I was not completely comfortable with. “I’m so glad you said that,” she said to me. “I’ve always felt the very same way about MIT.” And indeed it is a very different kind of pretentiousness at Harvard and at MIT. I was better off at MIT, she was better off at Harvard. I would not wish to claim that one school was “better” than the other. </p>
<p>When I think of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, and MIT, I think of very different feelings walking around the campus (and yes, I have walked around all of those campuses). I think that the original poster should forget all the well meaning advice about which is “better” and, if finances permit, visit both of the schools. Then go to the one at which you feel most at home. There is no wrong pick here.</p>