I’m a current undergraduate in Dietrich College. I’m also a caucasian female. According to CollegeData.com, the percentage of students who are caucasian is more like 45%. Yes, this percentage will be lower in the Computer Science school, as will be true for the number of women. People in the Computer Science school are quite nerdy. A good example of this is what I’d refer to as the “free t-shirt culture”— Within CS, a lot of students frequently wear t-shirts given to them for free by tech companies or the school. I’d definitely consider it an indicator on the types of people they are: Not lazy by any stretch of the word, since they got into the school in the first place, but there are definitely a lot of CS students who don’t necessarily value their appearance or social cues/norms. I’m not very involved with this portion of the school, so I can’t speak in great depth about it.
In terms of cultural differences/respect during projects and the likes, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of girls getting treated badly to that extent. While I understand that this is a concern, I can’t imagine that your daughter would be treated any worse at CMU than in her professional life. When I took an intro CS course, I did usually have better luck with the female TAs. I generally found them to be more patient and understanding with me, which was helpful since I had no idea what I was doing. Sure, some gender bias may exist but I don’t think it would be anything outrageous.
Yes, CMU is an intense school. There are a lot of people here who get very little sleep and work 24/7. But you don’t have to do that. If you take a manageable course load, have good work habits, and don’t overcommit in terms of extracurriculars, you will have enough time to get adequate sleep and to have a social life. It’s possible. CMU is, to a great extent, what you make of it.
I’m friends with a lot of art students. They are of a completely different ilk, but they aren’t the only ones who aren’t completely nerdy and socially inept. A lot of Dietrich students have social skills, as do Tepper students and a fair chunk of STEM students. I think that if your daughter has the credentials to get into CMU for CS and has social skills, can present herself well to others, etc. she could have a lot of prospects in terms of employment.
I’m not saying that CMU is perfect, since it definitely isn’t, but there are nice, cool people here and not everyone has their face buried in their laptop well into the night.