conqueringlion

Although I realize that both of the Cambridge schools are excellent, I have been unable to find many direct comparisons of the two on this forum. I have seen the general assertion that MIT nurtures and trains its graduate students better than Harvard, but I have not found and specific examples or statistics to back this up. I would welcome any thoughts on this particular matter, as well as any other insights into the relative merits of the two schools.

Big tuna-- I did apply for an NSF. My letter from MIT said that should I win an NSF, the department would request that I decline the MIT fellowship to accept the NSF grant. I hope this helps...

I just got an e-mail from James Poterba, with a letter from Ellison attached as a PDF; I've been admitted to MIT with funding. For those keeping track, I am American (but living overseas). My surname starts with a "C." I have not posted this acceptance on Gradcafe yet. Best of luck to everyone.

I second bgg's view; he didn't explicitly say "XID," but Laibson mentioned something about this when he called. Also, to address wheeler's concern (although I suppose knotty already touched on it), when I registered on the XID site, I received a confirmation e-mail from a "harvard.edu" address.

FYI: David Laibson called me at 21:45 GMT to share the good news about Harvard. Evidently, I'll get an e-mail in a few days, then a letter soon after that. If anyone is still keeping track, I'm a "C."