<p>I’ve narrowed my decision down to Rice and Carnegie Mellon, but I’m not sure which would be better, and I’m also not completely certain on my major; as a side interest, music is also important. Finances aside, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?</p>
<p>I was accepted to CMU and waitlisted at Rice, so I know a lot about both. And I’m also going to major in ChemE and am interested in music. 
The problem with Rice is that it’s really hard to take music lessons if you’re not a music major. My alumni interviewer said that one of his best friends was an excellent musician, but wasn’t allowed to take lessons at Rice.
In terms of weather, Pennsylvania is going to be really, really cold, and Houston will be really, really hot. So I still have decided which one of those is better.
CMU is ranked slightly better for engineering, but is less personal than Rice. They both have good research opportunties, but you’ll have to work harder to get them at Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Texas my whole life, so the heat doesn’t bother me so much; in any case, it isn’t generally ridiculously hot except in the summer, otherwise it’s just unseasonal. That is good to know about the lessons, though; I’m generally more interested in just playing in an orchestra than getting lessons, but to have the ability to without actually having to become part of the music school would be nice.</p>
<p>CMU has the Kiltie Band which is comprised almost entirely of non-music majors. There’s also a decent number of non-major music groups you can get involved with if you’d like. Alternatively, you can always take classes in CFA. It might be hard to sign up for classes the first year or two, but as a junior or senior you shouldn’t have problems. Also, if you want to double major or minor, you’ll get preference registering for classes in that department.</p>
<p>Also, ChemE is a pretty small department at CMU, so you should have pretty good individual attention (I think it’s roughly the size of Materials Science now, which is the department I was in while at CMU). Also, if you think you want to do ChemE, be sure to also take Intro MSE, since about half of the MSE people came to CMU thinking them wanted to do ChemE. :)</p>
<p>Same choice for my D - Rice or CMU. Is it true that CMU is better if you definitely know what type of engineering you plan to major in? That’s it’s hard to change? Also, how bad is the weather in the winter? Cold or down-right miserable? What’s the social climate like for a girl that is not necessarily interested in the frat/sorority scene?</p>
<p>Rice has a lot of opportunities for research starting in the freshman year - does CMU offer something comparable and, more importantly, how much does that matter in the long run? </p>
<p>This is a really tough decision. It’s fantastic that she has the ability to choose between two exceptional schools, but it’s still a tough choice! Help!!</p>
<p>CMU requires all freshmen engineering majors to take two intro to engineering courses. So, while it is good to come in knowing what you want to do, I’d say about 1/2 of my classmates in Materials Engineering came in thinking they were going to do Chemical. Since you’re considered Undeclared until around April of your sophomore year, it’s not that hard to change up until you start taking sophomore classes. At that point, it’s not so much the school that makes it difficult to change majors as the curriculum required of all of the engineering majors (I’m sure you’d find similar issues at Rice).</p>
<p>Weather in the winter totally depends on where you’re from. I was originally from Philadelphia and didn’t mind the winters much. My friend from Michigan thought the winters were mild, and my friend from San Diego swore he’d never live anywhere with worse weather than Pittsburgh (he’s currently at grad school in Chicago).</p>
<p>Social climate is fine for anyone not interested in frats/sororities since they’re not too overwhelmingly powerful at the school. There’s tons of clubs outside of greek life, as well as parties and really great people.</p>
<p>CMU offers lots of research opportunities freshman year. I know for my department I just went to one of the professors in the department, asked him for a list of ongoing projects, and e-mailed a few professors whose work I thought looked interesting. About a week later I had started in a lab doing a project aimed at understanding the behavior of steel slag when exposed to a strong electric field during solidification.</p>
<p>My nephew is at Rice, my son is at CMU and both love their schools. I don’t think you can go wrong. My son refused to apply to Rice because he hates hot weather and said he wouldn’t go to a red state, my nephew was a little more open minded. I think the house system tipped him in favor of Rice. (He’s doing biomed engineering and was also looking at Cornell, CMU and Johns Hopkins) My son is in Computer Science and for him CMU had by far the best program of the places he was accepted. My nephew has been part of the team that has been trying to put resveratrol in beer and his work has been featured on NPR.</p>
<p>If he could figure out a way to put resveratrol in pizza and doughnuts too, he would make us all very happy.</p>
<p>@marnimom
reply Freshman engineering is undeclared. If you look at the institutional data, they don’t list majors for freshman, only the college. How hard it is to change majors is dependent on how different the majors are. If a change as a 2nd term sophomore who wants to go from Music Theater to Chem E, I imagine that there would be considerable difficulty. ChemE to Environmental Science, probably there wouldn’t be much difficulty. </p>
<p>*Also, how bad is the weather in the winter? *
We found that Maryland’s weather unbearable. Too hot, wet, and humid in the summer. Too many mosquitos, Too cold, dry, and dusty in the winters. Fall and Spring practically nonexistent. But we are from the western part of Oregon. DS while he was in Pittsburgh, wore moderate weight jackets and clothing during the winters, and shorts and T’s in the
fall/spring & fall. This is more clothing for him in the winter and less clothing in the other seasons that he is used to. He did not find Pittsburgh much different than western Oregon or Seattle. I think that Maryland’s weather has more swings.</p>
<p>The social scene. To each his own. The greeks is about 20% of residence living in university housing. While DS was there, a couple of greeks had their charter pulled because of excessive and obvious alcohol. DS doesn’t drink (much) and his friends are similar. There are a lot of clubs and activities which you are very strongly urged to join, at least one. </p>
<p>Music. There are groups. A nonmajor all-university orchestra and a professional orchestra. DS participated in the nonmajor group only as freshman but brought his instrument to school every year. His roommate of 3 years was an accomplished violinist and was concertmaster for the professional orchestra even though he was a nonmusic major, his major was mechanical eng like DS. </p>
<p>As for work with professors, DS would echo RacinReaver experience. Some students got positions in workstudy, some just asked professors. DS, asked and got a position for his sophomore year, 1 credit per term, no pay, ~ 10 hours per week, mechanical engineering stuff. I’d suggest that kids pay attention to their studies and social affairs as a freshman. This is not an easy university especially if you are not organized and cannot budget your time wisely.</p>
<p>Good luck. </p>
<p>PS. Take what you hear when as hearsay. Notice that I do not make a comparison between the schools, because I don’t have simultaneous knowledge</p>
<p>after DS matriculated to Carnegie Mellon, I thought to read up on Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. </p>
<p>For fun, enter, Carnegie, in Rice.edu, homepage search. See how many hits do you get for Carnegie Mellon, Andrew Carnegie. </p>
<p>Do the same for, *Rice *, in CMU.edu, homepage search. See how many hits do you get for Rice.</p>