| The CS program at CMU is superb, but the program at Rice is not far behind. The level of academics at both schools are so close, that it really should come down to finances and fit. As a CMU alum and the parent of a Rice freshman (who will be double majoring in ECE and CS and who was accepted at CMU in both these programs), Rice is far superior to CMU when it comes to social life. Both schools involve a lot of hard work, but Rice is just plain more fun. And the weather in Pittsburgh is very gray and gloomy and rainy/snowy most of the year. (This is a fact - Pittsburgh is rated #4 in the list of US cities with the least number of sunny days.) One other main difference is that the students at CMU are very self-segregating. Rice is completely the opposite -- it's the most integrated campus I've ever seen, due in large part to the residential colleges.
And the reason CMU is so expensive is not because it thinks it's like Harvard; it's because it has a much smaller endowment than Rice. |