#MIT vs Stanford

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dry zenith
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Tbh I'm strongly leaning MIT right now but I just want some reassurance
😭

Schools: MIT and Stanford
Intended Major(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering, or Economics (Ngl the academic difference is negligible here)

MIT Pros:

  • When I visited for CPW, I really just felt right at home.
  • I think the Economics program is more robust at MIT, or at least the MIT econ courses focus more on my interests (e.g. Development Economics)
  • I love the Urban environment of MIT and the greater Boston Area; I like how you can easily get off campus and explore the city.
  • Access to the social scenes of the other Universities in the area (e.g. people visit MIT frat parties from all over the area)
  • I'm not really that much of a partier, but the Greek life/frat parties were really cool.
  • Collaborative/quirky culture that just really appeals to me
  • The academic rigor (also a con).
  • The resources, especially for research and study abroad programs, are insane.
  • MIT gave me a finaid package that's slightly more generous than Stanford's, and I can play around with expenses to get quite a bit more in refunds.
  • Hacking culture is much funnier.

MIT Cons:

  • The weather was so ass that it delayed my flight to CPW 💀
  • The Campus is mid af in comparison to Stanford
  • The academic rigor
  • The lack of a culture for the humanities that, despite the strength of MIT's humanities programs, makes the experience of studying humanities courses at MIT a lot less rich
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Stanford Pros:

  • The campus was ridiculously good, tons of facilities and amenities.
  • The food was way better.
  • The weather.
  • There's a bigger Filipino community at Stanford.
  • The humanities culture is way stronger and more engaging at Stanford.
  • The Civil & Environmental engineering students there were really cool, and the department in general has a neat partnership between the schools of engineering and sustainability.
  • They have a medical school and a neat student health insurance plan.
  • Much easier if you're going for a double major.
  • Quarter system (also a con) allows me to take a lot of classes outside my main interests.
  • Way stronger sports and sports culture (the marching band was cool)

Stanford Cons:

  • When I visited, I thought the people there were nice but I didn't really feel like spending four years in an environment like that.
  • The startup culture is unironically super neurotic, like, my host was talking about how many people aimed to make a startup and grow it just to end up selling out 😭
  • A lot more genuine weirdos on campus (the bad kind); my hosts also talked about how some people on campus were literally kleptomaniacs/actual thieves 😭
  • The campus, while beautiful, is so huge that it's legitimately difficult to get off campus, and it's super far from urban areas worth visiting (e.g. San Francisco); I also hate Palo Alto.
  • Some of the majors in the Civil & Environmental engineering department aren't ABET accredited, so you need to do a masters to actually get accreditation 💀
  • The Economics department was legit depressing
  • I asked the Econ kids what would be a good pair for a double major/minor, and they said CS and data science, but MIT offers that as a single major (6-14, CS, Econ, and Data Science)
  • Stanford gave me less money (I could technically cover the student contribution with outside scholarships, but I didn't bother applying to them lmao)
eternal warren
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does the fin aid package from MIT cover flights

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any tiebreakers

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but honestly i think MIT will be better ngl

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double major means more requirements to complete no?

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whenever you talked abt MIT it sounded like you genuinely liked it imo

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but with stanford it was a little meh

tiny snow
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Your stanford cons sound a lot worse

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Tbh

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But weather is huge and I’d be much happier in Californias climate than Bostons

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So I’d choose stanford personally

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Can’t go wrong tho

royal kindle
fiery geyser
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your mit cons don’t sound like major issues

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sounds like you’ll be happier at mit

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and also addressing the campus issue, the mit campus may not be as nice as stanford, but

a) there are so so many colleges in boston/that area that you will never be bored or feel like you aren’t in a college area

and

b) boston is a beautiful city and a place that you will truly make your home, there’s so much to do

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those two points are kinda the same but you will certainly feel at college if you want to, but you can also feel in the city if you want to

dry zenith
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About $990

dry zenith
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The speeches the Stanford dean of admissions made ☠️

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I swear I was legit falling asleep listening to him

dry zenith
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Ngl I might regret saying that in the winter tho

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💀

robust mortar
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Weather and campus are stuff you can learn to live with

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Harder to learn to live w a vibe

dry zenith
fiery geyser
dry zenith
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Boston feels like a lively city, Palo Alto feels like a strange suburb filled with 50 year old tech billionaires

robust mortar
fiery geyser
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winters are honestly not as BAD outside of a few big snowstorms here

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and boston has a lot of fun stuff to do in winter

robust mortar
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Cant u cross classes w harvard or smth for humanities?

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Probably not wellesley but

fiery geyser
dry zenith
robust mortar
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I say mit seems better for u

tiny snow
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Only 1 of them is good and it’s the one California gets

sturdy zinc
royal kindle
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We envy the intense coldness

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😂

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I realize that sounds sarcastic but it’s true

tepid quartz
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stanford mog

charred stump
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mit

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just look at the number of cons and their severity

vagrant rivet
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mit seems like the better fit for you but I will say

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despite admissions advertising hacking, admin has definitely cracked down on it in recent years

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CPW is also not representative of student life as a whole, lol -- it's ton of unpaid and unrecognized labor on the part of current students who run events, which is why some dorms have few to no events, and the people who run events often crash for like a week afterwards and scramble to not die in classes

dry zenith
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I really just didn't like Stanford people 😭

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Or maybe I was just unlucky

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A lot of the people I met were friendly enough but felt insincere, at least from the current students and prefrosh

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Even one professor

tiny snow
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You chose MIT?

dry zenith
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Probably gonna decline Stanford in a few hours tbh since it's the due date

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There are some aspects of Stanford that are really nice but just overall my pros for Stanford just felt way more shallow/materialistic than my pros for MIT

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I even listened in on a conversation about that from my own host at Stanford meltingsob

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They were talking with their friend about how they felt that Stanford provided a lot of material things but not a lot of the more spiritual? (I forgor the word they used 💀) deeper? things

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I'm thinking of maybe trying to go to Stanford for grad school (if I do go to grad school) but at this rate I really don't think I'd enjoy four years at Stanford for undergrad

vagrant rivet
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yeah, I think the financial aid is also important

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I would not be paying for college if you have the option not to

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there's a pretty strong mit -> stanford grad pipeline as well if that's something you're interested in

dry zenith
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Welp I decided

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Declined Stanford 🦀