

How MIT Became the Most Important University in the World - martincmartin
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/10/mit-important-university-world-harvard/

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Osmium
Speaking as someone who went to a university that could also claim this title,
I think there's a tendency to overstate these things because it makes a good
story (case in point with this article). The difference between top-tier and
mid-level universities seems a lot bigger from the outside. The truth is,
there are smart people _everywhere_ (and, conversely, dumb people too).
Someone with a game-changing idea is almost as likely to come from somewhere
completely "random" as to come from MIT.

I'm not saying there isn't a difference. The difference is definitely there.
MIT is great, and is a pioneer in many respects (to pick just one example,
their OpenCourseWare initiative is wonderful, and MIT's entrepreneurship drive
is good too). It's just that the difference isn't as great as articles like
this will claim, and it does a disservice to the people doing great work at
other universities to say things like this.

~~~
freyfogle
"it does a disservice to the people doing great work at other universities to
say things like this."

Totally agree, and I write that as an MIT alum.

This is just Boston Magazine link baiting targeting the MIT and Harvard
communities.

------
igul222
This article was something of a joke between me and my friends here at MIT-
while parts of it are true, parts of it are also patently false ("MIT kids are
[...] covered in tattoos—they’re cool and hip and very different. Their
clothes are edgy.")

The types of people described in the article definitely exist here. They're
also definitely a lot less common then the article suggests.

------
rm999
My theory is MIT has really good PR (in addition to a lot of really smart
people). Over many years I've noticed when research comes out of MIT headlines
almost always state "MIT does X". I haven't noticed this pattern as much with
other Universities.

Here's a test, go to google news, and search for '<university> researchers'
and look for articles about research results/breakthroughs from that
University. I tried it with MIT and Harvard, here are the top three results
about research for each:

* MIT figures out how to power tiny devices with... the ear

* MIT Breakthrough Could Lead To New Military Body Armor Only...

* New MIT Method Could Help Communities Plan For Climate Risk

and for Harvard:

* Tiny, Artificial Lung On Microchip Used To Test Drugs

* Harvard Research Finds New Ways to Change Coating Colors

* Bio-battery could power medical implants

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yumraj
Can "any" University claim to be the "most important" ? One of the most
important, yes, but "most" .. I doubt it.

~~~
paulgb
Somewhat related:

"As of this writing, Cambridge seems to be the intellectual capital of the
world. I realize that seems a preposterous claim. What makes it true is that
it's more preposterous to claim about anywhere else." -- Paul Graham
(<http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html>)

~~~
alecbenzer
I always thought this was really silly of PG to say. If you had some
"intellectuality index" of cities and Cambridge _just_ inched out other
cities, it'd be true that it'd be more preposterous to call any other city the
intellectual capital of the world -- but it doesn't mean it's still not
preposterous to say it about Cambridge.

------
mtp
This article reads like an advertising pamphlet. It also awkwardly avoids
mentioning that the university most often described as the center of tech
entrepreneurship is Stanford. Boston seems to be developing an inferiority
complex regarding Silicon Valley.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
Boston has an inferiority complex about everything.

Admittedly, it's entirely justified in seeing how much-loved New York City's
"entrepreneurial scene" has become, when NYC has maybe _half_ the
concentration of serious technology companies, universities and talent
available in Boston... but has several times the _money_.

------
Leszek
This reads more like "Why MIT is better than Harvard and Harvard can suck it
and how MIT's dad could beat up Harvard's dad" than MIT becoming the most
important university in the world...

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northisup
Is it because people from MIT go around saying it is the most important
university in the world?

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pav3l
Just curious, are there people here who went through or are going through the
MIT Tech Entrepreneurship program? Or maybe just took some courses from them?
What are your thoughts?

------
jere
_Sincerely, Boston Magazine_

------
pkmiec
I'm still on the election. It took me a while to realize the title if
referring to the university and not the presidential candidate.

------
timeshifter
Can we please stop using "sexy" to describe tech work? It isn't sexy, it
requires a LOT of knowledge and a LOT of critical thinking. That it gets
called "sexy" and is "the thing that teens and twenty-somethings flock to"
just shows the culture we have here. "Oh that's cool, I wanna try it!" 90% of
the people who ever start in "tech entrepreneurship" are going to fail,
because they have absolutely no idea what they're doing, other than following
the trendy train. Drives me nuts.

~~~
walshemj
Sorry if you don't think that say a Spitfire isn't sexy and should make any
engineers heart sing just to see it fly and to hear the sound of the merlin or
griffin you have no soul.

And the sad grandeur of the last TSR2 (look it up) all alone at the back of a
hanger with its wings off at Cranfield doesn’t make you sad you should not be
working in technology not even on some little iphone fart app.

~~~
timeshifter
The Spitfire is sexy. The work that went in to producing it? Not so much.
That's the issue: the people who are being attracted by the "sexy" tag are
people who actually don't want to do any of that work.

~~~
potatolicious
I dont' see the problem. People are already attracted to engineering for the
"wrong" reasons - most of them dig deep enough to discover just how much work
it is, and run screaming in the other direction.

And that's fine, now we have someone who's doing something else and better
informed to boot.

I'd venture this "problem" is neither a problem nor is it unique to our field.
People think making video games is sexy until they see the innards of a game
studio. People think making movies is sexy until they actually start doing it.
People think being a musician is sexy until they've dealt with labels,
marketing, and the royalty system.

So on and so forth.

Nothing executed at a high level is actually that sexy, but that's okay,
because _it's still sexy to the people who are doing it_. Tons of rocket
scientists, software engineers, automotive engineers, movie directors, and
musicians wake up every day and can't wait to do the myriad of supposedly
boring things they find sexy.

------
rayiner
Sorry that would be Harvard.

~~~
objclxt
Different folks, different strokes.

I think everyone should realise going into this that the entire premise of the
article is ridiculous. I think very few people in academia would disagree with
this. MIT may be the most important university in the world for _technology_
or _entrepreneurship_.

But if you're a arts student is MIT 'the most important university in the
world'? No, probably not. It is extremely easy to myopically focus on the
fields that are relevant to your own interests, and prioritise accordingly.

Of course, it's a magazine article, not a paper. People shouldn't take it too
seriously - I went to Harvard, I also cross-registered at MIT. I enjoyed my
time at both places. I now interview and help recruit international students
in the UK. If your primary readon for choosing a university is a magazine
article, or a ranking, or anything other than your own personal feeling you're
doing something wrong.

~~~
rayiner
I agree the premise of the article is ridiculous. I was taking a tongue-in-
cheek jab at the self-importance exhibited in the article... Harvard
absolutely dominates MIT in finance, business, politics, law, medicine, and
all the fields of the humanities. I wouldn't be surprised if a higher
proportion of Harvard graduates started their own companies, considering
Harvard's massive MBA program.

~~~
_pius
_Harvard absolutely dominates MIT in finance, business, politics, law,
medicine, and all the fields of the humanities. I wouldn't be surprised if a
higher proportion of Harvard graduates started their own companies,
considering Harvard's massive MBA program._

You're very confused. Related: MIT does not have a law school or medical
school.

~~~
rayiner
What relevance does that have?

Would you consider a university the greatest in the world if it didn't have
any engineering or science programs?

~~~
_pius
I'm already regretting replying to you, but in for a penny, in for a pound, I
guess.

 _What relevance does that have?_

Should be obvious. You've claimed that Harvard "absolutely dominates" MIT in
law, but MIT doesn't have a law school.

 _Would you consider a university the greatest in the world if it didn't have
any engineering or science programs?_

Not sure the relevance here, as MIT has a full complement of humanities
programs.

 _I wouldn't be surprised if a higher proportion of Harvard graduates started
their own companies, considering Harvard's massive MBA program._

Doubt it. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Sloan_School_of_Management>

_Harvard absolutely dominates MIT in finance [and] business_

No. [http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-
gradu...](http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-
schools/top-business-schools/finance-rankings)

 _... [and] all the fields of the humanities._

No. [http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-
gradu...](http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-
schools/top-humanities-schools/economics-rankings)

If you actually _do_ want to see domination, though, feel free to check this
out. [http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-
schools/articl...](http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-
schools/articles/2011/03/15/mit-dominates-rankings-of-best-engineering-
programs)

~~~
tedunangst
_You've claimed that Harvard "absolutely dominates" MIT in law, but MIT
doesn't have a law school._

If the other team doesn't even show up, the team that does gets the W.

~~~
geebee
While I don't mean to discount the importance of a law school, from a
_research_ perspective I think there is a massive order of magnitude
difference between lacking an engineering or med school vs lacking a law
school.

In short, I don't think a law school matters enough _from a research
perspective_ to factor here. The med school thing does, though.

The only university with top research programs in essentially everything is
Stanford. If you allow UCSF to stand in for Berkeley's med school (which you
can't really), then UCB/UCSF would be the other one.

While Harvard is an exceptional research institution, I think it falls just a
little too far short of Stanford and Berkeley in engineering and applied
science to qualify as the top research institution.

~~~
_pius
_While I don't mean to discount the importance of a law school, from a
research perspective I think there is a massive order of magnitude difference
between lacking an engineering or med school vs lacking a law school._

MIT and Harvard solve this by partnering together for HST.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93MIT_Division_of...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93MIT_Division_of_Health_Sciences_and_Technology)

 _While Harvard is an exceptional research institution, I think it falls just
a little too far short of Stanford and Berkeley in engineering and applied
science to qualify as the top research institution._

... all of which would be hard-pressed to try to claim that they deserve that
title more than MIT.

