<p>The title of the thread says most of it! I was accepted into ECE at Pitt with a 10k/year scholarship and also CIT for full sticker price. At Pitt I would be in the UHC honors program and would go for either an EE with a CS minor or a dual major in EE and CS if that’s possible. At CMU I would go for their (#2 in the country) CompE program.</p>
<p>My current plan is to try and go to grad school for a Ph.D and then work in tech research, and my parents don’t have the cash for both CMU and a top grad program but I’m worried Pitt will prevent me from entering such a program given research and a high GPA. At the same time the research opportunities at Pitt were very impressive and I’m wondering if being the bigger fish there wouldn’t offer some advantages of its own. By top grad schools I’m thinking places like CMU, Berkley, Stanford, Caltech I understand that means a lot of hard work wherever I end up to get in to any of those.</p>
<p>I visited both and while I was pleasantly surprised with Pitt, CMU clicked with me. Everyone there was shamelessly nerdy in a really good way, unlike CWRU or RPI where imho people were nerdy in the worst way possible. Pitt seemed like a place where I could have some fun in moderation but still maintain a killer GPA if I put in the work so I’m even torn on that point.</p>
<p>PS.
Pitt ~ 20K with housing CMU ~ 60K same. Also accepted CWRU, RPI, PSU, OSU (w honors) UVA and Drexel rejected Cornell and Pton</p>
<p>I would go to whichever school on your list offers you (and your parents) the lowest sticker price and then use the savings for a top notch grad school after you “maintain a killer GPA”.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I feel like it that came out arrogantly hahaha but I’d like to think I have what it takes to get a really solid grad-school worthy GPA at Pitt if I work my butt off, where from what I heard at CMU getting a 3.5+ would take some super human smarts and so much studying I’d miss out on the social growth that I think comprises an important part of college.</p>
<p>This isn’t gonna be high school either way, I’m probably not 100% ready for that but who is! I don’t think anyone picks Engineering because its easy! </p>
<p>I was always under the impression that for engineering and sciences, most grad students get funding and tuition waivers from TA and RA-ships. But ask at the forum above as aglages suggests.</p>
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<p>This is generally true, however, that debt that you rack up during your undergrad will still haunt you as you work through grad school on very very low pay (i.e. normally just enough to pay off rent/food). Do you really want to graduate with a Ph.D. at 26-27 and then realize you now have $60k+ in loans to pay off before you can enjoy the benefits of your degree? Or try to buy a house an realize you can’t because of your undergrad loans from almost 10 years ago?</p>
<p>To OP: I had the same conundrum when I went to college, I was accepted to Pitt with $12k/year and UHC for Materials Science Engineering and CIT with no money per year for the same program. I chose Pitt because I could not in any way afford CMU and didn’t want that burden for either me or my parents. The choice, for me, was excellent. SSOE is a phenomenal program with loads of great opportunities for students (co-op/internships are highly encouraged and you get a LOT of help from the school to do them, I don’t think CMU has a co-op program?). Our relationship with local industry is phenomenal, and people really recognize the quality and caliber of students at Pitt. Fun side note: since at least 2008 when I started my undergrad, Pitt’s engineering students actually had a higher SAT average than CMU’s CIT students. Why? Because smart kids go where there was money for them. Just a thought for you.</p>
<p>As for the ECE department in general, I have friends who have done all sorts of things- co-ops with local companies, my old roommate got a fantastic co-op (and now full time job offer) with the government. Another friend is in a Ph.D. program at Duke now. A friend of mine in the graduate department is going to work for the DOE in DC after he gets his degree in May. Just because it’s not CMU doesn’t mean our students don’t go on to do great things either. The important thing to do while at Pitt is to take advantage of EVERYTHING. Do co-op/internships in your free time, get to know your professors, join a research group as an undergrad to get some experience, join some clubs or professional societies so that you can try to go to a conference or two before you graduate. Expand your networking group. A Pitt student who does all of those is always going to look better than a CMU student who did nothing but study and is using the name of their school to “ride to success”</p>
<p>/endrant</p>
<p>go to Pitt. No school is worth 200K more. It’s just u/g, folks. It’s much more important to show employers what you’ve done, not where you’ve gone. </p>
<p>Thanks to all! I’m really leaning against CMU right now. Looks like either Pitt or OSU, where I’ll be visiting next week. I had also seriously looked at PSU but they are a lot more expensive and I didn’t get Schreyers there so I doubt I could get the research or connections with professors I could with honors at Pitt/OSU. </p>
<p>For the other schools I listed up there either cost way too much having gotten into CMU or for RPI and Case I didn’t like the environment. I do want to work hard but at those two it seemed like outside of studying life was pretty dismal. </p>
<p>I’m going to bump this back up with more information</p>
<p>tldr: I prefer OSU to Pitt and both are good enough colleges, but I’m tired of settling for good enough like I did in h.s. Paying is only a problem in the mind of one parent, and it would not financially burden our family (no loans, no lifestyle changes at all really). </p>
<p>I visited OSU and it felt better than Pitt and they cost the same at around 7k tuition per year but their programs are fairly similar imho. CMU would be 55K tuition. We can pay for that without taking out loans or altering our way of life in any way whatsoever (we live well below our means and that resulted in an EFC of well over 200K and we live in a low cost area)</p>
<p>My Dad has no intention of paying as he sees it as a bad investment, my mom wants me to go wherever I think will be best for me regardless of cost. I saw the programs at Pitt and OSU and I saw a massive gap between them and CMU in all honesty, yet I do think the college experience is stronger at either of them.</p>
<p>The problem there is I settled for mediocrity in H.S., I had the capablility to really stand out. Yes I arrogantly think I’m smarter than the other people who post crazy stats here because of how easy they came. I only got a 33 and a 2320, but those were single sitting having only done 5 TOTAL practice questions between the two. I got 2 800 SAT2s doing 10 practice questions each in classes I took the year before. I have 5s like many students on AP’s but I never did homework or studied for those tests AT ALL. </p>
<p>I COULD HAVE STOOD OUT AND DONE SOME AWESOME STUFF with my smarts and done competions and robotics classes and whatnot but I decided that was ok enough to get me in anywhere and I paid the price with Schreyers rejection at PSU, no Ivy’s and no money from CMU. I’m done just settling, but going to OSU would be settling for less than my absolute maximum that I can do and I’m done just getting by I’m ready to do whatever I have to to kick some serious butt I swear.</p>
<p>I guess that turned into a rant but with that in mind does the answer change? I want to enroll soon so I can get decent housing but a part of me is still not ready to accept OSU. I’m also starting to itch to visit RPI although I didn’t think I’d like it much and its too far its an easier price for my dad to stomach than CMU and still a darn good Engineering school</p>
<p>You might want to keep in mind that you can fully participate in Pitt Honors even if you weren’t admitted into Pitt honors as a freshman. You’re freshman year, you’d need special permission, but not after, and you’d still be able to participate in its programs and work towards a BPh if you wanted.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my daughter did not want to attend Pitt. She wanted to go to an Ivy, but it was not in the cards for her. So she reluctantly chose Pitt’s Honors College, with a full tuition scholarship. Today she is graduating from the Swanson school of Engineering, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with minors of Electrical Engineering and French. She had a multitude of worthwhile experiences during her four years at Pitt, which culminated in her receiving a Fulbright to earn her Master’s in Denmark.</p>
<p>When she called us to tell us she was awarded the Fulbright, I told her I was so glad she had not gone to (the competing Ivy), and she agreed. She would have never been able to compete for a Fulbright there.</p>
<p>Ohio State is another good school.</p>
<p>I would set my sites on Carnegie Mellon for grad school instead.</p>
<p>@FMTTM that’s exactly what I’m doing! I ended up liking OSU better for the same cost, but I’m gonna try and take advantage of the same types of opportunities your daughter did and then set my sights on grad school!</p>
<p>Congrats @FlyMeToTheMoon !!!</p>