Caltech vs. Carnegie Mellon CIT

devdoshi
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:53:38 +0000

I was essentially following Metaldragon2400’s reasoning, but as of late, everyone (people I value the opinions of) has been asking me, “Why aren’t you going to Caltech?” so I’ve been second-guessing myself.

I didn’t expect to get into Caltech, so I didn’t research it thoroughly before I applied. (I applied to MIT, Caltech, and Stanford assuming somewhat vainly that I would get in one of the three, knowing they are all excellent schools but with chancy admissions. I was hoping for Stanford or MIT EECS, but I got into Caltech instead.) I applied to RPI as a safety and CMU as my second choice, but after some soul-searching I feel that CMU is better for me than any of the three “name schools,” particularly for ECE and robotics.

After I got into Caltech I began reading up on it and such, but I haven’t found much about the theoretical vs. practical issue or how its EE/CS programs compare to CMU. From what I do know about the two, CMU does have much more to offer for undergrad, at the very least.