Current Upperclassman at Carnegie Mellon: ASK ME ANYTHING!

HSquared2
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 06:06:43 +0000

penguin2:

What’s your experience as a girl in a male dominated department? A lot of engineering-heavy schools (Berkeley, Purdue, GTech) are known for sexism, so I’m curious about CMU.

@penguin2 Hello! Although it sometimes sucks to be a female in a male dominated field, CMU SCS is actively trying to change that. Our SCS class is very even: 50/50 female and male in an effort to reduce the stigma that girls can’t code (spoiler: we in fact can!). Unfortunately, industry is still lacking in this ratio, coming at < 30% females in the CS industry: [url = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_disparity_in_computing#:~:text=Numbers%20from%20the%20Bureau%20of,U.S.%20computer%20programmers%20are%20female.] Gender Disparity in CS . Additionally, grad schools are lacking even more, with only around 20% of CS PhDs being given to women: [url = https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/04/numbers#:~:text=In%20comparison%2C%20just%2020.8%20percent,from%2046.3%20percent%20in%202004). ]Grad School Stats.

I personally think that it’s amazing that CMU SCS is able to harbor a culture of 50/50 girls and guys. I’ve met so many other incredibly talented and capable females crushing it in CS and it’s really empowering and inspiring to me. We aren’t perfect, and stereotypes and micro aggressions regarding the gender gap still exist, but we are pushing to try to change this. We have some incredible female faculty: Kelly Rivers, Mor Harchol-Balter, Jessica Hodgins, Nina Balcan, Carol Frieze, etc. that show that women can code, and can be highly skilled/knowledgeable in it. As a whole, I think we’ve done an awesome job regarding the culture of inclusivity.

Do you have any essay advice?

I’m not sure what advice you’re looking for here (feel free to PM me if you have anything specific regarding essays) but I think the best advice is to think of it as a way to showcase yourself. You are in the driver’s seat, and it’s up to you to find out how to best tell your story. I really love the advice to not get so caught up in trying to figure out what colleges are specifically looking for, or trying to be so unique that the essay loses a sense of ‘self’ and ‘you’. My favorite piece of advice is if someone picks up the essay and reads it, they would know that you wrote it. Essays are a great way for colleges to get to know you outside of your numbers: grades, GPA, test scores, etc. so treat it as if you were meeting a new friend (like a pen pal!). How would you like to present who you are, and what matters to you?

Let me know if I missed anything, or if you have any more questions. Happy to help!