[gsivil]

I do not know what he is about to study but for example in CS there are very very good places on the east besides MIT.

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...

The OP does not want to get details info in rankings and at such a top level I think being in Berkeley or Stanford or Cornell or Princeton is not so different.

[bugsy]

Cornell and Princeton have very poor engineering schools compared to Stanford. Princeton's physics and sciences are great, but not engineering is not comparable at all.

[_delirium]

From the perspective of CS academia, I don't think of Stanford and Cornell as having particularly noticeable prestige differences. Stanford is considerably larger, so is better-known in more areas, while Cornell specializes in a few, with a math-heavy, formal focus. Stanford's business/VC connections are definitely better known, though.