Berkeley MET (EECS) VS. CMU CS VS. COLUMBIA CS

NiceUnparticularMan
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:06:24 +0000

chocomochi1234:

ig why is there so much hype then…like alll my friends are like cmu is the best for cs and all

So CMU does in fact have one of the msot highly regarded research CS departments in the US, and they have a dedicated School of Computer Science, with five primary majors (CS, AI, HCI, Robotics, and Computational Biology), and some 5-year accelerated Masters programs as well. They are also one of the top CS PhD placers per capita.

I’m not an expert on this, but what I have heard is people who are super into CS like the way they do their general education requirements. A lot of their credits are actually in other Science and Engineering fields, and then for their HASS requirements, they can do some of those with business classes (which might be of interest to you, I would think), what they call Strategy and Technology (their spin on political science), and so on.

Finally, I think the branding that CMU can be a bit of a grind (even among its CS peers) is a turnoff for some, but then some employers might see that as a signal you are not afraid of work.

Does that make it the best undergrad CS program? That’s far too subjective of a question. But I do think for the right sort of kid, it could be what they are looking for.