Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

Here is CMU's selling point. Academics. They are great. You can learn as much as you want, almost any professor is willing to meet with you and discuss anything. You will learn useful skills that will help you get a job. They tend to focus on getting all students the hands on experience you would need to get "paid" as they say. If you want to really grow academically, this is the place to do it. The professors you will have are teaching because they want to prepare you for the real world. They have worked for Google, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, etc. These guys know whats up.

So most people wouldn't think of CMU as a place that would have a strong writing program. This simply isn't true. One of my professors last semester is an editor who pretty much discovered pulitzer prize winners. By the time you get to advanced writing workshops you're expected to have a large amount of high quality work and depending on the genre it may even be expected that you'll be sending some of that work to literary journals.

I am very close with a few professors, and have felt comfortable with attending office hours with about 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the professors that I've had. Some professors do seem more interested in their research at times. My favorite classes have been my upper economic electives, while my least favorite was 1st year World History. Group work is HUGE, atleast for the program that I'm in. You can learn so much from the people in your groups, but it's always important to set a standard of expectations for participation at the first group meeting. Students are competitive, but not in a cut-throat way. I've never felt uncomfortable about studying with my classmates (often, group work is encouraged), because there's always something I understand and they don't, and vice versa. We're all trying to do well here and get the best grades that we can in order to get that job that we want. I do feel that most of us are here to get a job, but I've found that I end up learning things outside of the classroom accidentally. Academic work is what I do to gain the expertise and knowledge to get a good job, but everything else (especially being an RA) is where I get to practice those skills.

Academics at CMU do not just simply take place in the class room. CMU is a university that strives to be the best at whatever it does. Both student and faculty take their time here very seriously. Students will often times be forced into late night study/work sessions that seem to happen at least every other day. The work load is not to be taken lightly and the course work is meant to bring out the best in every individual. However this does not mean Professors give the assignment and then disappear for the rest of the week. I have had many Professors that have set up study groups, had teaching assistants have extra hours and have had the Professors offer up their own time in order to make sure you got the help required. I've even had Professors hold study sessions in their own houses if they felt there was a need for it. This kind of hard working atmosphere is what makes CMU such a well respected school, but it also causes students to be thinking about new challenging ideas all the time. Often, you will find yourself and you classmates talking about the newest technologies or solutions to the complex problems that plague our world today.

nope don't really want to write about it

In most classes, the professors do know your name. Most classes are small, approx. 30 students. Some are larger, between 60-100 and only very large introduction classes or widely taken classes are lecture sizes, 300-350 students. There are a hand full of classes that are required by each department and many of those liberal arts requriements over lap. Students are semi competitive but it varies from school to school. We currently have a grading system in which only a flat letter grade can be received (A, B, C, etc.).

Tough work, but those who complain about it truly enjoy the dedication and learning experience.

The academics are definitely challenging. Professors give a lot of work and think nothing of it. Sometimes it seems they think you only take their class. But they are all very knowledgeable and generally good at conveying the information. Its not unusual to have classes that seem half full except on test day when it seems every seat is full. CMU students are very driven, mostly towards getting the best job possible. There are definitely a lot of people with a lot of experience in their subject outside of college, science fair geek types.

I think my favorite part of freshman orientation was meeting my calculus professor. I thought he was another student because he was so personable. In fact, this past orientation he crowd-surfed his way down to the front of the auditorium. Shockingly, he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and he ran one of the hardest classes. CMU professors are of different breeds. I have had friendly adn absentminded professors and cold and impersonable professors. There are those I will never forget and those that I wished would lose their tenure. It's really luck of the draw. fortunately, we do have FCEs (faculty Course Evaluations) so that you can check which professors grade easy, teach well, have good course materials, actually use their textbook, etc. Upperclassmen are pretty much always up for giving advice to underclassmen. Students are competitive but not ruthless. They will never turn off your alarm clock so that you miss your exam, but they will push themselves to do better. A few of our classes are curved but not that many that it makes a considerable difference. Also, as you get older and your classes get smaller, you have more power to talk to the professor and figure out how to ace the class. I'd say that CMU prepares you for the working world, but there are so many classes where the professor teaches something that he/she is passionate about that you will probably just want to take. for instance, I took Holocaust in Historical perspective for fun. It was the most amazing class I have had thus far. I am also planning to take Roots of Rock and Roll next year. Our acadmic requirements, depending on major, allow you to fulfill electives with classes like these and I highly suggest you take advantage of it.

Try to get a rockin' class for Interp/Arg. It can be a miserable class for writers (like World History can be for History majors). HSP is a great opportunity--you get your own fabulous Dean. You need to be active if you are getting a bad grade--most staff figure you can handle it yourself. I really enjoyed my HSP classes.