Neil_Peart

I plan on majoring in aerospace or civil engineering, and i think i would fit in well at both schools. I am from boston and would like to go somewhere else for college, so CMU would be a good change. however, i have read that it is very difficult to change majors at CMU, where as it is extremely easy at MIT. I am not completely sure of what I want to do, so this might be a problem. Academics aside, could anyone comment on pittsburgh vs. boston? boston is probably one of the best college towns, but is pittsburgh close? Finally, is there a social scene at carnegie? both schools are very intense places and have the work hard, play hard philosophy, but mit seems to have a friendlier and more collaborative atmosphere. also, carnegie has fewer girls (im a guy). I know I would get an amazing education at both schools, so now I'm just trying to figure out where I would have a better experience.

cmonyuk

It's easy to change majors at CMU. People in Pittsburgh seem to be more laid-back than people on the east coast, from what I've gathered, but that's a sweeping generalization. Pittsburgh is way cheaper than Boston. I can't speak to MIT's atmosphere or Boston's social scene, but people here are pretty friendly, and collaboration is however you want it to be. If you never try to collaborate with others, nobody's going to force you to, but there is plenty of teamwork at CMU.

Fewer girls is probably not even true... or at least it's a negligible factor. Don't come here with the mindset that the girls are no good - I made that mistake, and I soon realized that the selection of females is about the same as other places per capita. There are simply very few girls in engineering, so you get fewer attractive girls - it's simple statistics. There are plenty of girls in other majors at CMU, so just get to know people from different majors. I went to a public high school, and I'll just say if you're looking for more... common girls, you might want to check out neighboring University of Pittsburgh or Duquesne. Long story short, girls aren't really a deciding factor here, especially when comparing with MIT.

Pittsburgh isn't really a college town... at all. Pittsburgh is just a rust-belt city with several universities/colleges, so it probably won't come close to Boston in that light. It's a very interesting city with lots going on, but a lot of people never leave campus enough to take advantage of the city. (Shame on them.) Simply because of its size, Boston would have more going on any given night, but Pittsburgh has more than you'd expect for a city this size.

I heard MIT has crazy parties, but that could be urban legend. CMU has parties, but nothing like INSANE. The first weeks of school and the first weeks after winter break are the peak partying seasons (also spring carnival ~April 20). People get bogged down with finals towards the end of each semester. I have more fun with like 15 friends than 200 strangers, so I don't mind the lack of large parties at CMU.

It seems like you know a lot about MIT but not much about CMU... visit? Also, it's pretty nice to live FAR away from your parents sometimes.

Finally, CMU doesn't really have aerospace, so... yeah.

AlbertCollege

Honestly, CMU is great with computer science, MIT is great with engineering in general. MIT is more well known yet they compete in the engineering fields. They are fantastic schools and for your majors, either school would really be great. Visit the schools to see, also keep in mind the financial information. I would slightly say MIT is a little better and would provide more opportunities so I would lean a little toward MIT but if CMU gives you like 10k more than MIT a year or you really like CMU's location, it's up to you.

bruno123

CMU doesn't offer aerospace engineering as a major. CMU is reasonably good in civil engineering, though not quite as strong as MIT. Environmental engineering in particular, which is normally offered as a civil engineering specialty, is one of CMU's strongest areas. CMU also probably matches MIT in computer engineering.

busdriver11

This thread is four years old. He'd better have made up his mind by now.