<p>I’d pick MIT. In reality, you are not going to be hired as a manager in an engineering firm right after college even if you’ve majored in both business and engineering. If you want to work as an engineer, MIT definitely gives you the edge. Now what if you want to go into business/finance?? That may be a tie. Tepper is no Wharton and engineers do get hired by business consulting firms. I know quite a few engineers at Northwestern that got jobs in business consulting/finance. If Northwestern grads can do that, you can definitely get that as MIT grad since MIT is even more well-known. MIT also may have some kind of business cert/mini-program you can pursue. Northwestern has a business certificate program also.</p>
<p>Now the question is will you feel comfortable competing with bunch of brightest nerds in the country (since you said luck got you in)? The GPA can be brutal and a bad one can backfire in job hunting and even the brand name of MIT may not save you in that case. Northwestern has very nice grade inflation.</p>