Alright guys, I need some serious advice because my parents are currently threatening to have me committed.
My stats: 1600 SAT, 36 ACT, 4.0 UW, founded a startup that uses AI to automate touching grass.
Here's the situation. I got a full-ride to MIT. Completely paid for. Room, board, tuition. My mom is crying tears of joy, my high school is practically building a statue of me, whatever.
But I’ve been lurking on this subreddit for the last month, and honestly? MIT is starting to look like a glorified daycare. I visited Cambridge last week, and the CS students there were... smiling. One of them was outside. In the sun. Eating a sandwich. I asked an MIT senior about his hardest class, and he started whining about "imposter syndrome" and "work-life balance." Bro, that’s so weak.
Then I looked into Purdue. You guys have CS 240.
MIT is offering me prestige, networking, and zero debt. But Purdue is offering me Valgrind. You just can’t put a price tag on raw, unadulterated suffering.
I made a quick pros list to help me decide, but my dad says it proves I'm having a psychotic break:
| MIT | Purdue |
|---|---|
| Full-ride scholarship (approx. US$250,000) | CS 240 |
| Massive venture capital network | |
| Direct pipeline to FAANG/OpenAI | |
| World-renowned faculty & Nobel laureates | |
| State-of-the-art research labs | |
| Free catering at networking events | |
| #1 engineering school on the planet |
Has anyone else here turned down MIT or Stanford because their curriculum lacked the sheer abusive power of CS 240? If I commit to Purdue and pay out-of-state tuition, will this class actually destroy my will to live, or is that just marketing hype?
Need to know ASAP before I decline MIT.
EDIT: I figured I would update, since this post is being talked about across campus.
Well, I did it, I rejected MIT. I wanted to thank everyone for their guidance. Particularly the top comment around how well known Lafayette is as a city compared to Boston. Outside of CS240, the main deciding factor was this 160 foot flagpole. See y’all in the fall of ‘26.
Boiler up!