The information about Harvard you received is very not true in the fields I am familiar with, and I suspect generally. The Harvard Math and CS departments never(!) enforce pre-requisites (which is not true for MIT CS). Compared to MIT, the “global” required courses will be fewer in number (even restricting to non-technical requirements) and easier/less demanding of your time. For instance, the single humanities division class you will be required to take can be satisfied by a logic course taught by a math professor, and the single social science course by a graduate-level course on game theory.
My impression is that this is also broadly true of economics at Harvard compared to economics at MIT. The Harvard econ department seems much more open to undergrads taking grad-level classes, and I have the sense that many prerequisites are not enforced. Harvard, in general, seems to do a better job of recognizing that some of its undergraduates are prepared to pursue very advanced coursework very early on in college than those of its peer schools with which I’m most familiar (which, admittedly, are not among the schools you listed). I think there are a lot of outdated, exaggerated, and not-particularly-informed claims about the Harvard undergrad experience circulating on Reddit, Quora, etc. For a more reliable picture of the opportunities that would or wouldn’t be available to you, I’d suggest reaching out to the Harvard EA student org. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to chat.
The information about Harvard you received is very not true in the fields I am familiar with, and I suspect generally. The Harvard Math and CS departments never(!) enforce pre-requisites (which is not true for MIT CS). Compared to MIT, the “global” required courses will be fewer in number (even restricting to non-technical requirements) and easier/less demanding of your time. For instance, the single humanities division class you will be required to take can be satisfied by a logic course taught by a math professor, and the single social science course by a graduate-level course on game theory.
My impression is that this is also broadly true of economics at Harvard compared to economics at MIT. The Harvard econ department seems much more open to undergrads taking grad-level classes, and I have the sense that many prerequisites are not enforced. Harvard, in general, seems to do a better job of recognizing that some of its undergraduates are prepared to pursue very advanced coursework very early on in college than those of its peer schools with which I’m most familiar (which, admittedly, are not among the schools you listed). I think there are a lot of outdated, exaggerated, and not-particularly-informed claims about the Harvard undergrad experience circulating on Reddit, Quora, etc. For a more reliable picture of the opportunities that would or wouldn’t be available to you, I’d suggest reaching out to the Harvard EA student org. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to chat.