Stanford vs MIT vs Harvard vs Penn Jerome Fisher Program in M&T

phantasmagoric
Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:17:05 +0000

As you said, Stanford has management science and engineering (MS&E), which just got a brand-new home in the awesome Huang engineering building (part of the science and engineering quad):

[Stanford School of Engineering - Building for the future](http://soe.stanford.edu/giving/building.html)

The MS&E program is well-regarded (tied for first with MIT for quality, but indisputably #1 in reputation):

[NRC Rankings Overview: Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124751/)

These are obviously grad program rankings, but the point is that Stanford MS&E is top-notch and well-regarded.

MIT and Stanford are equal in STEM, but Stanford also has the intellectual breadth that you mentioned you like in Harvard. IMO Stanford has the most intellectual breadth and depth: the highest # top programs in NRC, US News, etc., and in the THE world rankings, it’s the only university in the world to be ranked in the top 5 in all the main areas–engineering/tech, life sciences, health sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, and arts/humanities: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/engineering-and-IT.html

All this obviously should not be the basis of your decision–program (not overall) rankings can be useful but only to an extent. My point is that if some criteria important to you include a top management/engineering program + intellectual breadth/depth, Stanford is equal to or at times better than your other options. (Actually, it’s the only one of your options that fits both those criteria.) Also, if you want to stay away from overt pre-professionalism, you should definitely think hard about Harvard, which I’ve heard a lot complain has an extremely pre-professional feel–as in, a ridiculous number of students obsessed with going into finance, business, law, etc. Take this with a grain of salt, because it’s only what I understood when I was considering H, but obv. I’ve never attended.

Like you said, it’ll come down to fit, visiting, where you can see yourself for 4 years, etc.

So here’s some other advice: since you seem to have your interests well-defined, you’ll likely want to take a lot of classes in areas you’re interested in (more so than the average person). While core curricula and general ed requirements don’t seem like a big deal, they are–they really do affect the classes you have room to take, not to mention your happiness with the courses in your schedule (sucks when nearly half the classes you take in college are general reqs). I’m a STEM major but back when I was a senior, one of the reasons I personally decided against MIT was its GIRs; Stanford’s quarter system also allowed me to take more classes anyway. So unless you really don’t care about whatever the required curriculum is, it’d be useful to figure out which ones appeal to you the most/least. Some, even non-hard science people, love the GIRs at MIT.

Most everything else I can think of has been said a million times in Stanford vs. X threads, so I’ll trust that you can find them.

Good luck deciding–no way to go wrong, so many ways to go right. :)