<p>Both are fine schools and you can be congratulated in being accepted to both. You are looking for reasons to disqualify or to qualify your decision but sometimes there really isn’t a good reason. You got this far in the process, make one more decision and then own up to it. </p>
<p>So if you want a reason, a name on a building or the lack of, is as good as a reason as anything else.</p>
<p>fyi
the categorization of schools by CC and for the most part by USNWR is taken from the categorizations by The Carnegie Foundation.</p>
<p>Which, again, has to do with Andrew Carnegie and not Carnegie Mellon. Andrew Carnegie had quite a bit of money (as we all know), and wanted to build his legacy in education. As a result, he created a number of organizations dedicated to higher education, all of which are independent but have his name. </p>
<p>It’s almost like attending Nobel University in LA because you respect the Nobel Prize.</p>
<p>GPB.
OP inquired how rankings worked in q1. and I replied.
</p>
<p>I believe that the history of institutions are interesting. Stanford, Caltech, Georgia Inst of Tech, CMU have interesting histories. I give homage to those who helped develop USA and to those who helped our DS. </p>
<p>Like I said in #21. Both fine schools. If you need a reason a name on a building could be that reason.
Perhaps, Atlanta is nice and warm as compared to cooler Pittsburgh?</p>
<p>Tombor here’s last question you need to consider before you decide between Georgia Tech and CMU: (I am giving you advise as unbiased as I can be even though I graduated from Georgia Tech)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you truly want to be an Electrical Engineer, There’s no doubt you will have great education in both colleges. In CMU, there are only handful of engineer program that are in top 10 list in the nation. Some engineer catagory ranking in Georgia Tech is in top in the nation where as CMU, computer science and ECE department ONLY. So if you plan on Electrical Engineer in software side or Computer Engineer, I strongly suggest you go CMU but remember, you won’t be able to change to other engineer major within CMU that offer better programs than Georgia Tech. So make sure ECE or CS is your major when you plan on going to CMU. </p></li>
<li><p>Georgia Tech gives low GPA standard. I think that hurted me when I applied to Berkeley and Stanford for graduate school. This is something you should consider if you are planning on going to graduate school. I don’t know how CMU GPA standard is but being private school, I bet it is high like Stanford. In Georgia Tech, here’s requirement for honors(I am comparing top public engineer schools just to tell you how unfairly Georgia Tech gives out GPA):</p></li>
</ol>
<p>3.15 Honor
3.35 High Honor
3.55 Highest Honor</p>
<p>Honors at Berkeley:
College of Engineering
Highest Honors 3.927<br>
High Honors 3.811
Honors 3.672<br>
Minimum for Semester Honors 3.672</p>
<p>Although graduate school knows the name of Georgia Tech, 3.927 GPA highest honor from Berkeley vs 3.55 Highest honor from Georgia Tech … top of the class and number gap is THAT HUGE… Is it wrong assumption to think that graduate admission tend to see higher number in GPA for higher chance for admission? So in short, ask yourself this question: will you have better GPA coming out of CMU which will help you get a better chance at going to top graduate school?</p>
<p>gtgblows, very interesting points!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I do want to be an electrical/computer engineer. I assume that the other types of engineering you mean things like Mechanical, Industrial, etc. Am I right? Just trying to clarify.</p></li>
<li><p>This is also very important to me. Do you know where I could view CMU’s GPA standard and honors?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Industrial, Biomedical, Aerospace, Mechanical, civil etc</li>
<li>I am sure you can find online or ask CMU forum for that answer. I can’t seem to find it online for some reason…</li>
</ol>
<p>CMU only offers honors on degrees if you do a honors thesis you senior year. In the college of engineering you need to get a 3.75 GPA in order to get on Dean’s List for the semester. Though that seems high, the average GPA within the college of engineering is around a 3.1. It’s a 3.75 because there’s more students in CIT than any of the other colleges at CMU and they don’t want the majority of dean’s list to be engineering students.</p>
<p>Also, not sure if I said it earlier, but the only degrees CMU offers in engineering are Chemical, Civil, ECE, Materials, and Mechanical. There are specializations available within many of those degrees (I think IE is within MechE, for example), as well as the option of double majoring in Biomedical Engineering or Engineering & Public Policy.</p>
<p>One of my labmates here went to GT for his undergrad and said he had a pretty good time there. I also really enjoyed my time at CMU (both of us were materials majors). Either school you pick will give you a great education. I think your decision should really come down to fit and money.</p>