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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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?"

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!

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.

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