MIT vs. Carnegie Mellon

collegealum314
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:34:24 +0000

I’ve heard from several sources, including a Carnegie Mellon grad, that people at Carnegie Mellon have a huge inferiority complex about MIT. It is very rare to turn down MIT for Carnegie Mellon. Obviously you wouldn’t feel this way since you got in, but it may be annoying.

Carnegie Mellon has a great comp sci. department; it’s up there with MIT and Stanford. Still, MIT is a bigger name. And it’s easier to stay in the department once you get in. If you think there is a chance that you might not want to stay in software, then you should definitely choose MIT.

You won’t have a problem getting a high-paying comp sci. job with either degree. Frankly, if you are competent you don’t need a school like MIT or Carnegie Mellon to get a high-paying job in this area.

At MIT, courses can be fairly hands-off, especially project courses. A prevalent idea at MIT is that you work in groups and learn from your peers, most of which are brilliant. However, they have started a new thing were experts from industry come in to teach. I think the comp sci major has improved in terms of actually teaching the last few years.
Course selection is likely to be great at either place.