In 1976 I applied to the 4 of the 5 top grad schools in math (I let my mother decree that Berkeley was too far away from where she lived -- if that sounds weird

In 1976 I applied to the 4 of the 5 top grad schools in math (I let my mother decree that Berkeley was too far away from where she lived -- if that sounds weird, please realize I was 16 years old at the time). Those were Harvard, MIT, Chicago and Princeton. I was accepted at all except Princeton, and visited the other 3. There was no apparent academic difference between the Harvard and MIT departments, because both schools said one could study interchangeably at either of them. Harvard easily beat MIT on other criteria. As for Chicago -- well, when I asked Irving Kaplansky to volunteer something I might not yet know, he told me the history of the department. That didn't impress me. I eventually picked Harvard over Chicago for several reasons: -- Chicago had a fixed course curriculum. Harvard had zero actual course requirements. -- Harvard's faculty seemed more approachable by and engaged with the students. -- I was more attracted to Harvard's resources in other departments. (And in fact, I wound up post-doccing at Harvard in public policy.) -- Cambridge was a lot nicer area to live in than the area around University of Chicago. I made the right choice. But I surely would have been happy with Chicago as well.