DS intends to major in MechE plus maybe CS or Robotics, but he prefers hands-on work over pure CS/programming. He attended a large public high school (4500+) in the midwest. While he really enjoyed his high school experience and had a close group of friends, he wishes to branch out a little bit in college and expand his circle of friends.
Side note: Cost is not a factor. We’re grateful to have saved a college fund that can easily pay for any of these schools. DS knows he’s been fortunate to get into these top schools.
Below are pros/cons for each school from DS.
What school would you recommend?
UIUC:
Pros:
Instate
Large base of HS classmates (200+) attending
Cons:
Limited opportunity to get out of department CS/Robotics classes
Didn’t really like it during a dorm overnight stay, felt like culture was too alcohol/substance oriented
5/10 campus
University of Michigan:
Pros:
Love school spirit and social scene (Brother attended Umich for CS)
Good school even outside of engineering
7.5/10 campus
Cons:
Limited opportunity to get out of department CS/Robotics classes
North campus for engineering is far from the main campus
Carnegie Mellon:
Pros:
Research opportunities
Inter-disciplinary focus: relatively easy to take CS/Robotics classes
It seems like it’s the only one (based on your review) with the flexibility to study what he wants.
You say limited social life - but that will be different for each kid and at each school. Your kid might find his bffs so it’s hard to say that - or he might take a class at neighboring Pitt in something of interest - and find friends there. Or he might become a Pitt fan.
I just think your pros far outweigh the cons, which I believe in reality are unknown.
Seems to me that your child.needs to prioritize what is most important for their college years. CMU sounds like it wins for academics, UM may be the better social fit, and UIUC has the best price point. Congrats on the great acceptances!
Thank you. Often times writing down your thoughts helps see things clearly. He wrote pros and cons himself and it was apparent to me that he was leaning CMU but he wanted to hear perspectives from others. You make a good point about Pitt being another avenue for social life as they’re in the close vicinity of cmu.
One thing is clear to him that he doesn’t want excessive alcohol/substance oriented partying culture. His older brother was different as that is all he wanted and he chose Michigan.
Not promoting anything here…Life anecdote…
We were visiting Pittsburgh for DD’s competition this March. We were looking around. Visited Pitt. Entered one of beautiful Pitt buildings and spotted students there. I assumed they were from Pitt. So we asked something. Wrong. Guy said they are from CMU and that it is their first time on Pitt campus… I was, how is that possible? It was end of March. Guy was a freshman. He said they study all time and almost never leave campus or dorm… That sounded ridiculous to me…
I expect there are enough differences between the schools that the revisits will help to make the choice clear. Please come back and let us know the choice as it may help others down the road.