[dshanahan]

Went to undergrad at Stanford, and spent a few years editing admissions essays to grad programs at the top tier schools as a side gig.

Admissions are extremely (mindblowingly) competitive, and without a stellar GPA I would suggest you're on the right track in focusing on high quality real world experience. Obviously if you don't end up in grad school, the experience will benefit you either way.

As to the atmosphere, I think you'll find Stanford and MIT, and the others, are very different from one another.