Pros
There are very few places where you’ll learn as much from your peers. Everyone got in for a reason; they’re smart and excited about something. If you’re used to being a big fish in a small pond, you’re in for a treat - having real peers will push you to do things you didn’t even know were possible. There are more resources than you could possibly take advantage of, and nobody to tell you no. Want to take grad classes in your first semester? (I did, it was fine.) Want to take ten classes this semester? (I did not, but you can.) This is a double-edged sword, btw. There’s a strong culture of getting undergrads involved in research. Real research too, not just washing dishes and doing gruntwork. If science is something that interests you, that’s a big leg up for grad school. The alumni network is the real deal. I got my first job out of college because my boss was an alum; he knew exactly what my training was and what I was capable of, so he hired me on the spot. Connections I made on that job are probably getting me my first job out of grad school too. What you know is important, but who you know matters an awful lot too. Also, “nobody gets fired for buying IBM”…or hiring MIT alums. It’s a name brand, and that counts.
Cons
There are more resources than you could possibly take advantage of, and nobody to tell you no. MIT students tend towards the overambitious and excitable - they take on too much, and then burn out. I did too, it happens. The above is exacerbated by the “hardcore” culture of MIT. I think it comes from most of us having an easy ride through school - there’s no honor in getting an A on a test when you’ve got a pack of morons setting the curve. The honor comes from doing it with style. So there’s an idolization of truly awful work habits. The person who plays Warcraft for 20 hours/day while taking a full courseload is far more elite than someone who has the life management skills to finish their work and then go to bed at a civilized hour. It took me entirely too long to realize just how wrongheaded this is. The damage is compounded by MIT’s terrible handling of mental health issues. If they suspect you’re depressed, they will find a way to kick you out of school. (They’ve lost several multi-million dollar lawsuits over people killing themselves on campus. If they kick you out, your suicide costs them nothing.) This is true of many elite schools, but MIT is notorious, and a pioneer of the practice. For grad school, it’s worth noting that MIT professors are…perhaps not ideal for beginners. They can recruit anyone they want, so the full professors tend to be stars who run mega-labs. That’s not the worst, but it’s easy to slip through the cracks. Also, some of them have gigantic egos, and if they don’t think you’re good enough…I have stories, trust me. One professor, among other things, came up to my parents at graduation and expressed surprise at my having gotten a job. (Bless my mother, the insult went right over her head, and she happily chirped away about my new job until the professor stomped off. It was beautiful.) I’d gotten a B in this person’s class - no excuses, I’d badly overloaded myself that semester - and they’d been out to get me ever since. Wasn’t just me, either; as I said, I have stories. The junior professors are, if anything, more dangerous for naive and unwary grad students. As I said, MIT can recruit anyone; they don’t really hire junior profs because they plan to keep them. Instead, they hire for what amounts to a seven-year fellowship, where MIT gets its name in press releases about bleeding-edge science (read: stuff that probably won’t be reduced to practice in the course of a normal-length PhD), and the professor gets top-notch resources and talent, such that in seven years’ time (with good luck) they might have proof-of-concept data that would interest a good school (maybe UMich or Cornell, but not MIT) in hiring this person for a real job. If you don’t know what you’re getting into, and don’t have the skills and experience to carve out a “bread and butter” project in addition to the crazy moon-shot stuff…there are a lot of long PhDs, given the quality of the entering students. This is by no means specific to MIT, but if you can get into MIT, you can probably get a large scholarship at a very solid school. Going six figures in debt is life-altering, so it’s worth thinking about your options.