Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

There are never racial problems because we have such a diversified campus, it's not really an issue, at least what I know of. The people who I would say have the most trouble fitting in are the shy ones... you have to get out there and make friends. Once you do, you will find a group... mostly everybody does. There's not a crazy social scene, but it is a lot of fun, if you make it fun for yourself. It's a pretty casual campus, mostly sweat pants and sweatshirts... the College of Fine Arts is definitely dressier because there are music majors and designers. It's definitely a richer school... tuition is so high, a lot of people have a lot of money, and if not it's the complete opposite- people who aren't so rich are putting everything they have into their education to make tuition, so it's pretty much split half and half. While most colleges are extremely liberal because younger students tend to be more to the left. CMU has it's balance, though. With the presidential campaign coming, we got both Obama and McCain to come and speak, so it's not like we're supporting one more over the other.

CMU is so diverse. You can find almost every race, religion, sexual orientation, ect. on campus. I don't believe that many people feel out of place at CMU because it is so diverse. There are religious groups on campus for Jews, Christians, Muslims and racial groups such as a Greek group and an African American group as well. There is also a very active Gay-Straight Aliance on campus. If you are looking for a certain group you will find it at CMU.

Everyone and everything, and that's cool. No "boundaries" per se, but like tends to congregate with like at least some of the time. Politically, only the student left is both energized and organized. The student right exists, but does not organize politically. Counting social and fiscal conservatives both as "right," then the left-right ratio is about 7:3. The university itself and non-political student organizations have a strong non-partisan obligation. In Spring 2008, Carnegie Mellon hosted Michelle Obama, Chelsea Clinton, and John McCain's big speech revealing his economic plan.

There is every kind of group you could imagine on campus. The LGBT group, Allies is very active and I don't think I've ever heard about any racial, religious etc. kinds of prejudice. Everyone has an outlet for them to connect with people of similar interests to themselves. A lot of Christian organizations can help students keep going to Church etc. Students wear comfortable clothing to class. Sometimes you'll see someone in a suit because they have an interview that day, but students can be seen wearing sweatpants after coming from the gym, etc. I believe all students interact, but they may not always see each other. I have friends in every major thanks mostly to my freshmen orientation, but since each major is in a different building almost, and they each have their own times of day for classes, it might be rare to see the art majors unless you're in an extracurricular group with them. There are a lot of CMU students from areas in Pittsburgh, but I know people from all over as well (including many international students). Financially I'd say some people are lower-middle class and are here on scholarship, a lot of people are upper middle class and a few are rich. Students this year became very politically aware with the presidential elections so many groups rallied for Clinton and Obama and they were seen at every public event before the Pennsylvania primary.

Coming from a very preppy and somewhat snobby area, I originally felt CMU and Pittsburgh in general to be very blue collar and very down to earth. For the most part, this is true. With time though you start realizing that the kid next to you in Bio class owns half of Samsung, and the prince of some obscure country in Africa lives down the hall from you. You'll start to notice that every international student is essentially loaded, and theres no shortage of nice cars driving around campus. This doesn't give a feeling of arrogance at all though. People have the money, but don't flaunt it in your face. At the same time though, everyone is clearly working hard here so they can be rolling in the money in the future. No one even tries to hide it, especially not the Tepper kids. For the most part the campus is apathetic to politics, and really to most issues in general. It seems everyone is always drowning in their work to care too much about the world outside of CMU. People generally don't dress up for class. IN the first year, it feels like the campus is really divided based on the colleges people are in (art, science, engineering, humanities). While this is true, you dont spend much time outside of your college during the week, over time its not hard to branch out and itneract with all sorts of people. Other than the drama kids- they stick to themselves and thats probably a good thing for all of us. This is where the stereoypes come into play. Yes, theres no shortage of ugly, fat, computer loving kids here. They mostly congregate in Wean Hall though, and are easy to avoid. The percentage of normal, attractive people is small, its true, but they ARE there and increasing in numbers each year.

CMU's student body is a rather unique student body. As far as race goes, CMU has just about every hue in the color spectrum colored (well naturally occurring skin tone colors, that is). As mentioned before, all of CMU students are intelligent -- in one area or another. Don't expect to be the know-it-all here, because someone else will surely know more than you on one topic, but you may know more than them on another. And CMU's student body is pretty diverse about everything...from race, gender, and sexuality to political opinions and finanical backgrounds.

CMU is a very accepting environment. Students come from all over the world and therefore race, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status are basically a non-issue. There are social organizations for all types of people and interests, and if you happen to think of a group that doesn't exist, student senate will allocate money for the group to be created. I don't think any type of student would feel out of place at CMU, except maybe someone who doesn't care much about their school work. As far as what students wear to class, the range of clothing styles is wide. You will find some kids who just rolled out of bed in their sweatpants and others who are business students dressed in a suit and anywhere in between. CMU has a huge variety of people, from athletes to theater majors, from artists to computer scientists, engineers, writers, business majors, musicians and much more. While there is a tendancy for unity within the different colleges, students from across the disciplines interact in interdisciplinary programs and classes, as well as in extracurricular activities. Students at CMU are predominanty driven, and students do talk about how much they'll earn one day.

There seems to be a lot of diversity on campus, ive run into all sorts of these groups and they all convey their ideas in a polite way. They do not force anything on you. For example, I am an atheist and every day in the winter I go to the young christians table and get free hot chocolate. its a bond we share. So money... some kids have a lot of it and the other kids are on some kind of scholarship. There does not seem to be many people in between. Students are aware about politics and current events. If something is happening, you will see someone talking about it.

i dont feel that cmu is a particularly diverse student body. it has a huge number of international students, although the majority of them seem to be from the same few countries. there is a large number of students that do not wish to interact with people different from themselves, but there is also a good proportion who are open to everyone--you just need to find your niche. the great thing about cmu is that its easy to find all sorts of people to hang out with--even though there may be some people who arent necessarily open to everyone, you can always find someone else who is.

There isn't a lot of socio-economic diversity; most kids come from wealthy backgrounds and are from the suburbs. However, there are a lot of different religions and ethnicities (other than American minorities), and everyone seems to not only tolerate these differences, but to enjoy them. Some international students do tend to isolate themselves, however. Most students dress down for class, though some majors seem to have unwritten dress codes. Students are definitely not politically active, unfortunately. The discussions that I've had with people, however, reveal that students at CMU have lots of different political views (if they aren't apathetic). Students definitely discuss their salaries, especially business majors.