<p>I am an art major who is planning on picking up a second in CMU’s or BU’s dual/interdisciplanry program. I thought CMU was my top choice until I visited BU just recently. I realize the rankings of these two colleges in some areas are very different. I was wondering if anyone could make a suggestion as what to pick?
Also, I was wondering what are the differences between the quality of life at BU and CMU?</p>
<p>The second major I pick up will be in the humanities, probably literature, German, or history. Is is difficult to maintain a second major at CMU?
Also, I heard about what a great community the CMU student body is, but I did not get this vibe when I visited last weeked. Just a bad first impression?</p>
<p>A lot of how you like CMU depends on how your personality is. A lot of weeks are “bad” weeks to visit campus since people are inundated with work and are frantically trying to get something done. However, if you’re someone that likes tons of work then it’s a great place to be (since you’ll be surrounded by other people that love to work). If you don’t like doing lots of work, then you’ll be miserable.</p>
<p>Picking up an extra major in the humanities isn’t terribly difficult, though it might be a better use of your time to only go for a minor. For example, I was a Materials Science & Engineering major and got a minor in physics. I had enough room in my schedule to get a double major, but I would have had to do a lot of overloading, take a lot of classes that weren’t about what I wanted to do, and, in general, just be stretched a bit too thin. By taking a minor I took the four classes in physics I really wanted with only taking one “extra” course for the minor.</p>
<p>I have friends who double majored in engineering/CS in the humanities and fine arts with considerable more ease than I had with my minor in physics. I imagine it was because I had a few semesters with all technical/math-oriented classes and they were pretty draining.</p>
<p>I highly recommend Carnegie Mellon, and don’t think a second major will be too difficult. </p>
<p>You may have gotten a bad impression because of your timing visiting Carnegie Mellon. Not sure if your visit overlapped with Carnival, which took place from April 15th-17th this year. The students tend to be VERY busy during this, because they are working on booth and buggy for their organizations. And then, during Carnival, there’s a lot more drinking and partying than normal. If your visit didn’t overlap with Carnival, it’s likely people were either swamped working on that, or really busy with work to make up for devoting so much time to something else.</p>