Ask HN: Am I Making a Mistake in Choosing Harvard over Stanford?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3899005

by got2surf • 14 years ago

1 9 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I know I asked essentially this question a couple of weeks ago, but now I've visited Harvard, and I'm pretty close to making a decision.

I like Harvard because: - Smaller CS department is relatively intimate, good connections with professors - Good economics and cognitive sci (mind/brain/behavior) departments, which I'm almost as interested in as CS - Stronger ties to finance industry if I decide not to go straight into CS or change career paths - I've never lived in a big city, so being in Boston is pretty cool - Stronger exposure to non-tech areas and cofounders - Cross registering at MIT if I need to

However, I keep wondering if I'm making a mistake... Will I have any drop in starting salary by going to Harvard instead of Stanford (assuming I work/research equally hard)?

Thanks!

Edit: I should've been clearer: it's not all about the starting salary, but I loved the atmosphere/people/campus of both schools so much that I couldn't really decide based on that :P in a way, I'm really just looking for differences to make the decision easier haha

tonyjwang3• 14 years ago

Depends on what you want to do. Other factors might rebut the presumptions below, but I would offer the general piece of advice:

Go to Stanford if you want to be an engineer or would like to do a startup someday - your peers and the culture at Stanford will help you learn more.

Go to Harvard if you want to be a banker or go into finance. Plenty of folks from Stanford go into the financial industry, but again, your peers and the culture at Harvard will probably help you more.

Obviously, you have two great choices, so no matter which school you choose, you'll have plenty of opportunity to learn.

There's also a great Quora post that analogizes Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Caltech to the Hogwarts houses:

<a href="http://www.quora.com/Choosing-Colleges/How-does-a-star-engin...;

Disclaimer: I went to Stanford and majored in a non-engineering discipline.

tonyjwang3• 14 years ago

Sorry, still figuring out the details of HN. Clickable?

http://www.quora.com/Choosing-Colleges/How-does-a-star-engin...

got2surf3• 14 years ago

Yep, works now. Haha I may be reading into the Harry Potter metaphor a bit too much, but I've always thought about myself as a Slytherin. Sure, I wanted to be Gryffindor, but I always felt like more of an impostor within Gryffindor than anything else

got2surf3• 14 years ago

Thanks for the reply! I do want to do a startup eventually, but I may also want to go into banking or finance (I've been working at a hedge fund locally and like the types of problems they can solve algorithmically).

And thanks for the Quora post, that analogizes it pretty damn well

byoung2• 14 years ago

I think you can't go wrong with either choice, but I wouldn't make the decision based on potential starting salary. Choosing a college is about more than just what classes you'll take or you get when you graduate...remember you're also choosing your home for the next 4 years or potentially longer. I would look at the culture at the school and town more than anything else. Your major and career goals can change, but the fact that you still have to live there won't. A good test for picking a school is asking yourself: "would I move to this city just to live if I weren't picking a college?"

got2surf3• 14 years ago

Very good point, and I actually should have thought about that a little more. I loved the culture and town of both - Stanford's campus is just amazing, but I could also see myself fitting in really well at Harvard, especially with all the stuff to do in Boston. Thanks!

tonyjwang3• 14 years ago

p.s. I imagine any difference in salary will be negligible, especially at big companies. However, you will have different career opportunities depending on which school you attend, especially when it comes to startups and finding a co-founder among your peers.

kfcm• 14 years ago

Here's the dirty little secret: A sheepskin from either place will work.

The magic ingredient is you--what are your interests, goals? What is your personal culture like (SysV vs BSD)? Do you like snow, cold and nor'easters; or, warm, sunny and quakes?

Figure out yourself, and the school you want will be obvious.

castillo157• 14 years ago

Yes. But you are interested in banking so maybe not.

Ask HN: Am I Making a Mistake in Choosing Harvard over Stanford?

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