Why would someone choose Brown over MIT?

I myself personally have a friend at Brown who chose Brown over MIT - he only applied early to these 2 schools, and got into both and chose Brown. In his specific case, it was because his parents studied and met each other at Brown and they had the best time of their lives at Brown (I'm fairly certain they both did the MD/PhD program at Harvard and MIT - so they have experienced education at 3 of the best places in the world). So I guess one situation would be when you speak to Alumni who have attended both schools and then choose but again no one person can attend college at both places and there is a significant difference between college and grad school.

I will say that the biggest argument one could have against MIT is that it may be a very STEM specific school, that most students' interest will be STEM focused and may be narrow, however I do feel like that is a fairly weak argument independently and furthermore if you do manage to get into MIT it almost certainly means that you have some interest/strength in STEM and just because you are at MIT does not mean that is all you need to do - my Math professor at Brown went to MIT for college where he received a BS in Math and a BS in theatre (Yes, it is possible), and he really does one theatre - it shows during lecture.

So in essence I would say that in terms of opportunities, quality of education etc. - the 2 will be the same. Just pick whichever school you like more based on things like - location (not that different in this case), dorms, dining halls, campus vibe etc.