I’m super grateful to have been accepted to Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, and Cornell this year! I wanted help deciding which school I should attend. I’m majoring in mechanical engineering, but I’m also interested in computer science. The cost to attend each is relatively the same. I’m really into STEM and not so much the humanities, but I don’t mind taking English classes. I really want to do research and pursue internships in college. My main goal is to get my master’s degree and then go into industry. Any input you have would be extremely appreciated! Thank you!!
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Congrats! But honestly, why would you go to Harvard for engineering? I’d take that off the list. Gotta ask… is this for real?
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Thank you for your response! I’ve been extremely lucky this application cycle—I still can’t believe it.
Congratulations on your acceptances.
Have you visited all these schools? If not, will you be able to? Obviously CalTech is quite different from the others, and the others do have differences as well. Were you admitted into Cornell Engineering school?
A master’s in ME/engineering? What doors do you see that opening that a bachelor’s from these schools wouldn’t, out of curiosity?
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Thank you! I was admitted into Cornell engineering. I’ve toured Cornell and did a summer program at Harvard, but I’m planning to visit Stanford and Caltech in April. Honestly, I just really love the subject and want to learn more about it, so that’s why I hope to get my master’s. I also want to be more involved in the R&D aspect of my future job.
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Congratulations!!
Caltech is very much a “fit” school… and I feel like, if you were a fit for Caltech, you would know it, and you probably wouldn’t have Harvard in the mix.
Cornell and Stanford are the two that combine top-tier engineering with top-tier basically-everything-else.
Given your desire for curriculum flexibility, and the proximity to internship opportunities, I would lean Stanford. It strikes me as the best-of-all-worlds choice for what you want, of those four.
But obviously there’s no wrong choice here - it’s all about what fits you.
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All of these schools are excellent. All will be academically demanding. All will require a lot of hard work and a desire to put in the effort. It is best if the desire to do this comes from inside yourself. The fact that you have been accepted to four universities at this level makes me think that you are indeed very well qualified to succeed at any of them. You will find a lot of very strong students, a lot of very good professors, and a small number of bad professors at any of these schools.
I do not think that any of us can tell you where you should go. Perhaps you should listen to whatever we say and just think about whether it makes sense to you, then go wherever feels right to you.
Given this choice, for either ME or computer science, I would probably pick Stanford. However, I am trying to figure out why (other than overall reputation and reputation in ME and CS).
As others have said Harvard is not particularly known for engineering or CS. My understanding is that they have made some effort to fix this. I do not know how successful they have been. Perhaps one concern that I have is that working in high tech I still have not been seeing the great job candidates coming out of Harvard. Perhaps they are going somewhere else where I am not looking (investment banking?).
Caltech is small and very intense. I might personally be concerned about both how intense it is, and whether it is large enough to have a wide range of classes to choose from in any one specific major.
Cornell is a very good university with a beautiful campus. It will have the most intense winters and the most snow of the schools on your shortlist. Expect winters to be dark, snowy, and cold. However, it might be my second choice if I were trying to decide between these four excellent universities.
Stanford has a beautiful large campus. I happened to be there during a drought which meant that the weather was nice every day year round. They are on the quarter system which means that the end of the quarter comes up more quickly than you might expect. However, classes do not drag on for too long and you also get to take more classes during an academic year. I liked the quarter system. Stanford is large enough to have a wide range of available majors and many classes to choose from in each major. At least in my experience the professors are in most cases excellent (including a few famous ones, and a few that were not famous at all but were still excellent). Perhaps the biggest issue that would draw me to Stanford is just that it is well known and excellent for engineering, and also for computer science, and also for math (which to me is a major foundation for both ME and CS).
And yes, there are no bad choices here, and no mediocre choices. Congratulations on even having this choice to make. Best wishes.
Plan to work hard in September wherever you end up. Also plan to find yourself surrounded by a lot of very strong students.
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Have you been to each ? If the goal is to get a masters, all will get you there.
Congrats. That’s impressive.
Interesting two are in Cal and two in the East. Maybe that’s a way to cut first based on location preference ??
Any interest in JPL ? Could lean toward Cal Tech.
Good luck.
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Thank you! I haven’t had the chance to visit each yet, but I’m planning to before I decide. I think I would be happy with the weather in California and the east coast because I’m used to both cold and warm climates! I was more concerned about which school would be best in terms of academic opportunities and student life. JPL is something that really draws me to Caltech because Astronomy is very interesting, but I was worried about the lack of industry opportunities at Caltech as opposed to the other schools.
Have you looked up what each school requires for non-English humanities general education courses for mechanical engineering majors?
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I think you needn’t worry about any of the four, including Harvard - which yes doesn’t carry Cornell’s heft but it’s still going to get you anywhere. All will get you to a Masters or industry.
Find the right fit. Sounds like you will over the next two months.
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Congratulations! Impressive list of schools! Six questions for you: 1) how likely will you actually go into a career in engineering? 2) what coast fits you best? 3) which school fits you best? 4) which school would meet and fulfill your ideal college life? 5) weather matter? Environment? Size of the school? Finally, 6) cost or nearness to home a factor including travel, food, housing, etc?
Sure Harvard may not be known for engineering or CS, but what happens if you decide to change majors or fields? What if you feel like you want to go into Economics or eventually enter into consulting, law school or business? Harvard’s name has a lot of cache. Moreover, I know many students enjoy the social scene in Cambridge/Boston.
But so does Stanford which does have a top notch CS and engineering school. Moreover, the weather is great and the campus is nice and the extra curricular activities seem plentiful.
Cornell has wonderful programs as well in engineering and even other areas such as business, but although Ithaca is a quaint town, it does get cold and I have heard people are not that fond of the fact there’s not as much to do. It’s 4-5 hours away from Boston or NYC.
Cal Tech, on the other hand not only has a world class engineering and physics program, Pasadena is a nice city within LA only an hour from the beach, Disneyland, and a couple hours to the mountains and skiing. Downtown is 30 minutes away and there’s plenty of places to visit and eat. But the school is small, has no sports programs worth mentioning if that’s important to you, and is very niche and has a special kind of student. It’s not for the faint of heart. Brother had a couple friends who attended and both dropped out with only one actually graduating.
If you were my child and I had to recommend a college, I would highly suggest Stanford which seems to have everything in spades and then some! Then Cornell or Harvard depending on whether there’s any chance for a change in heart as to major. I’d probably recommend Cal Tech only if my child actually visits and is a fit for the school and has a connection with his or her fellow students.
Good luck and congratulations again!
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I will make this painless. Go to Stanford. It’s an elite top program and you will have the pick of the litter for job offers. You might decide that you don’t even need /want the masters. You have plenty of time to factor that in.
Good Luck.
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If you aren’t already totally, absolutely sure that Caltech is for you, then I’d say it probably isn’t.
Personally, I’d pick between Stanford and Cornell if you truly want to pursue an engineering/tech career (vs going into investment banking or consulting, in which case you might want to go to Harvard).
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Thank you so much for your advice!
- I’m pretty sure I will be getting a career in engineering. The only other career I could picture myself having is one that integrates engineering with another scientific field or one in software development.
- I like the weather at both coasts, but I don’t have a good idea of what else would differentiate them.
- I’m not sure. I want an academically rigorous environment, but I still wish to have time to conduct research and pursue my own projects alongside my coursework.
- I want a school with a collaborative environment. I’m not a big fan of parties or sports, but I still would like to go out and do things with my friends. I would love to go to a school that prioritizes academics.
- Weather doesn’t matter. I don’t want to go to a school with a very cutthroat environment. The size doesn’t matter too much either, but I like to run and go on walks, so a big campus might be better for that purpose.
- The cost was very similar between each school and proximity to home isn’t a priority for me.
So sounds like most everyone is on the same page. Top choice- Stanford. Ticks all the boxes.
2- If engineering AND intensity are for you- Cal Tech (when we visited, my son, who is a mech E, said he could rise to the intensity but knew it wasn’t healthy for him, so didn’t apply)
3-if there’s a good chance you might change majors after starting in engineering and don’t want Stanford, then Cornell
4- funny to put it at the bottom, but if engineering is a clear first choice, Harvard is last
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Caltech is generally considered a step above in rigor compared to the others (and almost anywhere else). For example, Ma 1a “calculus” at Caltech is heavy on theory and proofs that would ordinarily be found in upper level real analysis for math majors.
However, any engineering major anywhere is generally considered to be rigorous, even if not Caltech-level rigorous.
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In this respect, Caltech’s requirements line up with your preferences
Research is extremely common at Caltech as it is highly theoretical and excellent prep for grad school. It might be more common percentagewise than at any other school, especially in preprofessional majors like engineering and CS. I suggest you ask current students regarding internships, but my gut says it should have good placements.
The students at Caltech are very collaborative by necessity (the work is too hard for any individual to do by themselves) while the curriculum is very demanding, and can arguably be seen as being cutthroat. Think 60-80 hours a week on just classes.
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Perhaps because they want to combine engineering with a strong liberal arts culture? Or because they want to be in Boston, the biggest “college town” in the country (and yes, I know most of Harvard is across the river in Cambridge)?
On paper, Stanford sounds like the #1 college in the USA, combining the strengths of both Harvard and MIT. But in practice, the CS startup culture there overshadows everything else there. For some, that’s a plus. For others, it isn’t.
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Maybe so, but the OP hasn’t given us any information on their priorities, Other than wanting engineering/CS. And if that’s the major focus, Harvard doesn’t rise to the top of this list. Unless things have changed a lot recently, companies looking for engineers don’t come running to Harvard first.
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