James
ASA is a huge club on campus, so is Mayur SASA. Dorms vary by people, and there is a great amount of people that are nerdy CS majors.
Freshman year-most boys stay in the frat quad. So, do the girls. Eventually, they will get ballsy enough to grab a fake and head down to PHI. Unfortunately, most bars card, so the chance of leaving the greek quad is iffy.
Mike
Greek life is the main drive of events at CMU. Also, groups of students such as design majors or drama majors will have somewhat exclusive parties as well. CMU gets some great speakers to come and awesome live musical acts (such as Andrew W.K., MSTRKRFT, Broken Social Scene, and Whirlwind Heat to name a few) so live performances come by and kick some ass. There are also a ton of bars in Oakland and the Southside so you can go out anytime you want. Meeting a girlfriend/boyfriend is not hard as long as you are attractive. If you are good looking at CMU and were popular prior to attending, you will find it very easy to make friends and meet women/men. If not, it may be hard and you may be forced to settle for less than you normally would.
Sharon
There are more activities to get involved with on campus than I could probably even make up. One of my favorite activities that I am involved with is the Women's Club soccer team which isn't as competitive as varsity, but we still compete against other schools. It is so much fun and the girls are super chill: we just get together and play soccer!
Social life on campus is alright. Most weeknights you will be up late doing homework or studying. On the weekend there is always something going on. It's just about whether you know about it and whether you have the time. For example, last weekend I went to a 21st birthday party for my friend, a fashion show put on by students and an after party at a club downtown.
At least one fraternity is having a party every weekend it seems but people also party off campus and go to the many bars in the south side or clubs in the strip. If you dont drink there are plenty of things to do in downtown pittsburgh or the surrounding neighborhoods.
Andrew
There really isn't a popular sect, if I had to pick a group it would be the men's basketball team, but they certainly don't own the campus. Athletics events are getting more popular and now you can get a really good crowd at a lot of games. The big thing though is intramural sports. Everybody plays and it is the talk of campus, especially flag football and basketball. People love it. There are lots of great speakers but they are not well-attended. It's not if you're awake at 2AM on a Tuesday, but when you're awake on a Tues. at 2AM and you are STUDYING!!. People party every weekend and it's mostly drinking and hanging out -- frat parties aren't so big these days since the school has really cracked down on them for serving alcohol to minors. If you don't drink, there are free movies, cheap shows and lots of other kids like you too hang out with. I think there are also a lot of kids that don't socialize, don't date etc. They hang out in their rooms doing work or playing computer games, and many of them have never been to a party or kissed a girl. I'm friends with a lot of these people and they are not embarassed about it, it's just who they are.