I would also just point out that there is probably a little bias going on here, at least speaking for myself. Since I graduated undergrad, I've always played for Team Illinois (see username). I got into arguments with HR and MDs about why we weren't recruiting programmers from #5 UIUC when we were perfectly happy to recruit from #30 Harvard. Today, I also play for Team Princeton in addition to Team Illinois.
My hope is that we keep the discussion respectful. There are good reasons to go to MIT and there are good reasons to go to Princeton. For me to make any claim other than Princeton might be *marginally* better would be disrespectful to all of the MIT students who will go on to have better careers in finance than I will. (One of these people may be my younger brother, whom I'm certain will be more successful than me.) My prior view is that Princeton is the stronger school based on selectivity, publications, and placements, but this is very subjective. And people who've survived 2008 and have spent 5 years as a non-target on Wall Street understand that life is better and it's easier for everyone to stay civil when winners are gracious and people speak with nuance about schools (or other aspects of peoples' histories).
My advice to Pat is to visit both campuses. I would specifically advise Pat to hang out with grad students when visiting Princeton, because that's the culture of the MFin program. Princeton's grad students are a bit lower key than the undergrads. The elite ivy league culture, for better or for worse, is a little more moderate with us than with the undergrads. Get perspectives on placements from Princeton MFins and MIT MFins. At Princeton, make sure you focus on placement for people with no prior work experience- 30-40% of the people in my year have a few years of work experience, and to be fair, they will get a better placement on average than an undergrad.
Try not to ask people to compare themselves against the other school. Just ask them what they think a good but not amazing (top 50% but not top 15%) placement or outcome out of their program looks like and then quietly compare those, yourself. Both of us will bias a little better (Team Princeton/Team MIT), but the biases will roughly be the same and you can expect us to be reasonably honest. Especially if you ask two or three of us at the same time.
By the end of both visits, your brain and your heart will have had a chance to start moving in certain directions about their decision. Placement isn't everything; the kind of person that you want to become and the campus that you want to spend 1-2% of your life on also matters a great deal, and that comes down to your heart. If your brain's view is a little bit nuanced about the situation (as I suspect it will be), it's OK to listen to your heart, and see if its views are a lot stronger.
If any admits want to set up a campus visit at Princeton, feel free to PM me. We are on spring break for the next week, but I may be able to scrounge up a few MFins to grab coffee and/or beer with you.
