I really liked the Tartan Day, CoE presentation, tours. I got all my questions answered. The sticker price is still high, but I see what I am paying for.
Any input about cmu Econ pgm ? Thx
Wasnāt on our radar so canāt say, sorry.
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Iām a Pittsburgh native, lived my whole adult life in NYC, and now my son is a sophomore at CMU. My two cents:
- Pittsburgh is a great college town and there are plenty of places off-campus to eat and hang out within a mile of the school. I consider the area safe but students of course need to use basic common sense and consider safety when making choices (such as donāt walk around by yourself at 3 am - I think thatās true anywhere).
- The food on campus is not good (separate from it being small eateries instead of dining halls which I actually like). The only college Iām aware of that has universally agreed upon amazing on campus food is Duke. Kids complain about the food at every other school I know of. I want my kid to eat well and be healthy. There are lots of off campus options (we completely ditched the dining plan sophomore year even though he is still in campus housing) and many upperclass housing options have private kitchens. We live in NYC. If food were a top priority, heād be staying home.
- Humanities do take a backseat at CMU to some of the more well-known (and larger?) departments in the STEM+Arts areas. Case and point: My son really wanted to continue with the study of the classics which he did in high school (latin and greek) but they arenāt even offered at CMU. He is allowed to take them through Pitt if he wants to but scheduling has been a challenge as they always seem to conflict with his labs.
- Iām sure every parent on this board takes mental health and suicide incredibly seriously, as do I. Iām sorry to hear about the exchange at student day. When learning about CMU when my son was making his decision, we had the opposite experience and felt they were taking it very seriously with some real and tangible changes (for example, the trial full week of fall break is now permanent to give kids a true break in the middle of the first semester, as well as lots of campus support options). For us, the answers we got felt like a real response compared to some other schools also known for similar issues (such as Cornell and the so-called suicide bridges where the universityās response seemed to be limited to putting nets below the bridges. Iām sure thereās more to it but thatās what it sounded like).
- I see CMU as a niche school. It is not for everyone. It would likely not have been for me at age 18, when I wanted to double major, have a part-time job, get deeply involved in activities, go out every single night until 2 am, and still graduate summa cum laude. However, it is a great match for my son, who is more academically focused in terms of knowing what he wants to do, and was interested in diving deeply into his major. He is also a very low anxiety person and āpressureā doesnāt really ever seem to get him. He has worked much harder at CMU than he did in high school even though he attended a rigorous high school ranked top 10 in the state/top 100 nationally. He has still found time to make friends, get involved in clubs, train for a half marathon, amp up his cooking skills, and spend some time just hanging out. And most importantly, he is happy.
- There have been complaints on this board about the lack of merit aid at CMU. As you likely know, CMU is among of growing cohort of āhighly rankedā schools that do not offer merit aid. This is now a transparent policy and no one needs to wait to get a letter about it expecting something else. There are many wonderful schools that do offer merit aid and there are plenty of free lists of those schools available. If one is looking for merit aid, students can focus their college search on the many great schools that offer it. Whether CMU is worth the sticker price is a very individual decision for a student and their family.
Good luck making the decision! We are very happy with the choice our son made and hope you and your family are happy with yours no matter where they end up.
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Also a note related to course load: There is some sort of internal message board (Iām sure itās called something else!) where students post how much time a class really takes. My son has used this board to figure out how to sequence some of his classes. While I think the formula you lay out is likely true for many (most?) classes, there are some courses that are known to be time killers (like, for example, CompSci 122). Kids can make sure they donāt have too many classes known to take far more time than average each semester to make sure they donāt get overwhelmed.
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Thanks @wilsonsl1! I will share this with my DS.
We went to CMU this past weekend and the school is really really nice.
We flew into PIT and took a bus from the airport to CMU campus. The 28X costs $2.75 a person and drops you off right in front of campus. It did take about an hour and bus runs every 30 min. A Uber would have costed over $50.
We got there late, it was already dark. The campus was empty on the Saturday night. Our hotel was one mile away, so we decided to walk. The houses near campus are really pretty and expensive. Several streets had houses that looked like mansions. Streets are quite and felt very safe. There were not many cars on this side of downtown Pittsburgh.
We did Uber the next morning and the mile ride costed about $13. The nice thing about a small school is everything was accessible. The Tepper Building is right off the street with clearly posted signs.
The free t shirts. bags, stickers and pin were a nice touch. Everyone was so nice there. There was confusion with some of the event scheduling which was not terrible.
S24 was really impressed with what he saw. Compared to Big Cal where thousands of people roamed around, CMU had a nice feel. Because students were not around (sleeping in?) the campus felt huge with a lot of empty space.
S24 thought CMU Engineering kids looked ānormalā and not at all weird and nerdy like some we met did at Big Cal.
Our student reps were nice and personable. They seem happy to be there.
One striking thing that hit S24 was internship and job prospects: All the panel students at CMU has research and/or internships lined up whereas big Cal had students on panel who seem to have some difficulties getting them which left a negative impression.
Every one of the 4 engineering students take over 57 units. Freshmen are capped at 57. The 3 other students are taking 64-68 units, which they all say was very doable. One was a double engineering major (Chem E and BioMed E).
Overall, it was great to see a small private school and be able to compare to big public. I enjoyed the experience.
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Did yours make a decision yet? Mine is on the waitlist but got into Berkeley as well. Just wondering. Thx
CMU is in the lead as of right now. He likely will not commit until 5/15.
is the CMU commitment deadline for accepted students may 1st or may 15th?
15th