as430

While many of CMU’s students gripe and moan about the workload and the social life, or lack thereof, at the university, they always put up with it because of the good education that they are getting from it, and honestly, it's what you make of it. If you're complaining about a lack in the social scene, start something yourself.

Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie, the university has really come a long way, ranking 22nd in the nation amongst national research universities in the 2009 edition of U.S. New & World Report for its undergraduate program. And in the most recent release of the Top 200 World Universities by Times Higher Education, Carnegie Mellon was ranked 20th overall and 7th in technology.

Compared to many state universities, it is not a very large university, with an undergraduate student population of about 6,000, which is a good size that students won’t get too lost in, but does not have to get tired of seeing the same people day in and day out. The university also has a number of student organizations on campus which provide students the opportunity to find peers with the same or similar interests as themselves, and at some point, saying that “I’m going home,” is referring to ones dorm room instead of just their home with their parents. Another perk about CMU’s population being smaller is that the campus isn’t too big—taking perhaps 15 minutes at most to get from one side of campus to another, and with ones student ID, it’s pretty easy to get around Pittsburgh as well using public transportation. The extra technology benefits like having wireless everywhere on campus are pretty nice too, with CMU being such a technology oriented school and all. With that, I'm in H&SS, which doesn't get as much attention as CIT and Tepper, but I still enjoy it, and have had some really good professors.

Basically, I strongly suggest you all to come and visit and hopefully find what I've found here.

swamyismyguru

i like the small atmosphere of cmu. you run into your friends or people you know very frequently. sure there are a lot of people here who love to study but hey its a good school for a reason.

bruno123

CMU was actually ranked 6th worldwide in the latest Times Higher engineering/IT ranking. . CMU placed 7th in the Chinese ARWU engineering ranking.

mathmom

Hey and it jostles with MIT, Stanford and Berkeley for first place in computer science.

ricegal

My son is not having any trouble with the workload so far as a freshman. He knows he is there to study and he works hard, but he also has plenty of time to do other things. He joined a frat and is very busy with the frat social life which includes things like poker night and watching the Steelers in the Super Bowl together. He has also enjoyed activities in the city of Pittsburgh like fireworks displays during one of the city's celebrations. The school is large enough that there are people who enjoy a variety of activities from intramural soccer to Magic Card games.

ricosuave413

does Carnegie Mellon suffer from the lack of having a more diverse student population because they don't have as many schools/ departments as say an Ivy? I mean its known for the nerdier stuff and whay I'm trying to ask is does it feel more like a nerd school or just a regular college?

RacinReaver

It feels like a nerd school, but the nerds have lots of interests outside of just their school work.

mathmom

I think it's a rather strange marriage between a nerd school and an art school - but RacinReaver could say better than I how much the two halves interesect. (Mathson did have a sleeping bag weekend with three drama majors and one comp sci major, however I'm pretty sure all his current friends are in comp sci or engineering - and they all hang out in the Linux cluster.)

RacinReaver

Well, even the art/music/drama people are nerds of their own kind. I had an art friend and an architecture friend, but that was mostly because they lived on my hall freshman year so I hung out with them a lot then. In later years they tended to stick a lot more with their own class group (mostly due to all the time they spend on projects).

I wouldn't worry about the lack of diversity of majors a whole lot. I mean, are you more likely to find an engineering major that likes Shakespeare or an English Lit major that likes thermodynamics?

mathmom

Well count me as an art/history and lit type who spent my college years hanging with scientist. I've always really liked science, I just didn't want to do it myself. I ended up marrying a guy who does cancer research and I still find what he does endlessly fascinating. Architecture for me was a nice combination of art and math and physics.

Byrdman

What I see as a parent who's son attend the SCS program is the really fantastic internship opportunies that he is able to obtain. While my student is a good students all his SCS student friends are also getting great internships. Companies know that CMU students are smart, work hard and learn what is necessary to be in the workplace. When my son was looking at schools this was one of this school's selling points. It is not media hype, many of their programs are highly respected and their students find great internships and employment opportunties upon graduation.

iworry4you

why cmu is awesome

a current math major here laying it down for the folks at home. cmu has excellent academics. you will learn a lot, and probably be more familiar with computers than you want to be. in fact, there is such an emphasis on technology that scs students are considered better than other students. the heirarchy follows more or less like this: scs, cit/cfa, mcs/tepper, hss. students and teachers alike secretly acknowledge this ranking, which leads to segregation. but maybe that's ok since it makes things more competitive amongst students. and cmu is a very competitive school. maybe not to the point of stealing notes or sabotaging tests, but definitely to the point where students refuse to help one another in order to keep their respective average higher. awesome! that being said, internship opportunities are great. but be forewarned they are hard to get, b/c again, you're competing against everyone else at cmu, and they are very very smart.

but quite possibly the worst thing about cmu is the food. pittsburgh has little variety to offer in terms of food (almost all things are fried to death before served), and the campus food doesn't help. there are only 1-2 campus eateries that i would go to, and that gets old quite quickly.

last note, pittsburgh's winter lasts forever, so bring a coat.

RacinReaver

I'd say this is about as far from the truth as possible. Almost all of my homeworks, labs, and projects were collaborative with friends and the general feeling was we were there to learn, and not to compete. I only remember one person that actively tried to sabotage other people in homework and such, but after sophomore year everyone had caught on and nobody would work with her after that.

One of the things I loved about CMU was the belief that everyone there was smart enough to land a great job, get into the grad school they wanted, or whatever, so instead of fighting amongst each other, we should try to make all of us as good of candidates as possible.

archermom

Agree with RacinReaver... D2 is in CIT and immediately found classmates to form study groups. Students study hard...but they also know when/how to play. Lately, she has been spending many hours at the library in order to keep on top of her classes...so she can enjoy herself on Fridays and Saturdays. D2 is a city dweller...and is loving CMU. She has also been in contact with one of her professors and will be working in the lab shortly. Can't complain...

FT Lex

Any comments on the hss? I am interested in the global politics, economics & statistics, and the policy & management majors.