<p>I’m curious to know what you would encourage your child to do - as an accepted student to MIT and UPenn, I’m thinking that Penn will be a lot more relaxed and can offer the full college experience. However, MIT is an impressive name, and it’s hard to let go of that…</p>
<p>for a business/cognitive science (primarily business though, cog sci is more of a side interest) double major, what school would you recommend for your kid to go to? is it worth the intense workload for the prestige?</p>
<p>The anti prestige troops are about to beat you up! Actually, Wharton has the better reputation for business. Both schools are seen as very top schools.</p>
<p>There is a lot of quirky fun at MIT. If you mean less pressure, I can’t comment other than based on stereotypes.</p>
<p>I would tell my child to take a year off and reapply to other schools.</p>
<p>While UPenn would also strike me as a more “typical” college experience, I’m sure that a lot of fun can also be had at MIT. And neither school is a slouch, so there will be a lot of studying either way.</p>
<p>I would put aside the “fun versus prestige” discussion. Both are prestigious and students have fun at both. A major difference between MIT and Penn is that at MIT all students, no matter what their major, take a heavy load of science and math as freshman (physics, chem, bio, math) while at Penn, someone with your son’s academic interests would not take this curriculum. It depends if your son wants an education with a heavy technical foundation or more of a standard liberal arts/science foundation.</p>
<p>However, MIT has a very highly respected business school (Sloan), but I don’t know what is available to the undergrad.</p>
<p>If acceptance at UPenn is at Wharton, and if interest is business, for undergrad it’s no contest. :)</p>
<p>
Taking a Cambridge Police car apart and reassembling on top of the dome, with remote control of the siren and lights really does sound like fun. I have to admit it.</p>
<p>MIT students have a strange sense of humor…</p>
<p>And I love it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/[/url]”>http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/</a></p>
<p>while it seemed like they are a fun group, we went to MIT and talked to many students – they said that the workload was very stressful, and when i asked them “are you happy here?” many answered that they werent as happy as they wouldve been somewhere else, but were just hoping that the work would pay off. </p>
<p>one girl commented that the day-in, day-out work seemed to “suck the life out of students that used to be so enthusiastic”…which was a very powerful phrase.</p>
<p>if youre all telling me that a wharton grad could end up in the same place as an mit grad, i think wharton would be a better choice. </p>
<p>any other thoughts?</p>
<p>with MIT its hit or miss. if he/she feels he/she can fit in at MIT, go for it. otherwise, go to penn. the business degree from wharton will get him/her where he/she wants to go (provided he/she works hard and all that jazz). personally id take penn over MIT, but im not ur child.</p>
<p>18, hold out your cyber hand for a little cyber smack. The ‘prestige’ factor is a hair’s breadth, by any sane gauge. </p>
<p>Then, look up jnmom’s thread on How to Make A Decision.</p>
<p>Well, the hacking link for MIT is wildly out of date. I do know that over the recent CPW, CalTech students managed to put up a sign at MIT changing its name for a few hours to “The Other Institute of Technology”–which was promptly changed back to “The Only Institute of Technology”–and that the CalTech students were then invited to stay and visit for the weekend.</p>
<p>And Spaceman Spiff landed on the roof of the Great Dome last year, too.</p>
<p>Oh yes, MIT students work their little tails off–and then they do things that require enormous creativity and technical skill–like reassembling a police car on top of the Dome. In the dark.</p>
<p>thanks for all of the advice…it’s looking like penn is it. </p>
<p>penn has almost the same amount of recognition, and a better overall fit. picking MIT just to see people’s impressed reactions will probably hurt in the long run. </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad at Wellesley, the best hack that occurred (other than blowing up the big weather balloon at the Harvard-Yale football game) was putting a telephone booth (the old wooden kind) on the Great Dome. When the Campus Police got there to dismantle it, the phone started ringing!!!</p>
<p>The students also “spelunk” through the various tunnels and other apertures in the buildings. MIT students work hard, but they also play hard.</p>
<p>I agree with others…Wharton, yes. Otherwise, I would have to know more about the student to have an opinion.</p>