Worth going to MIT, Stanford or Harvard for undergrad?

gadad
Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:03:13 +0000

Well going to Harvard for CS when UIUC, Carnegie and UMD are above it or right next to it is like flying to Italy to get a good hamburger… it may be great, excellent even, but there are easier and less expensive ways to get something just as good or better.



That may be true if your goal for college is to simply take CS courses. But if you’re in college for the full scope of personal and career development, there is a qualitative difference with Harvard.

Harvard, occupying the top of the applicant food chain, gets something close to right of first refusal on the most talented, motivated, and interesting applicants from around the globe. They handpick a class that is multinational, ethnically diverse, brilliant, breathtakingly talented, engaging, etc. Then they set resources in front of them (world-famous speakers, faculty who are leaders in their fields, well-connected advisors, live-in faculty House masters and tutors), turn them loose, and offer stipends and subsidies to help make things like travel, programmatic ideas, and outside lessons easily affordable. As a result, you have the most spectacular extracurricular culture imaginable, all run by students. Students pull together professional touring-quality performing arts, run the only student-sponsored homeless shelter in the country, get funds to put on summer high school enrichment programs in China, operate a Model Congress program that draws high school teams from around the U.S. and the world etc. It’s a campus-wide culture of accomplishment that goes far beyond degrees offered or the quality of instruction. And then for many students, its financial aid program makes it far cheaper than other private schools, and often cheaper than in-state publics.