Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

People both outside and inside the University hold a common stereotype - that we're all a bunch of eggheads. I think this is absolutely true if you define a nerd as "an intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession" instead of "a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious". Yes, everyone here is incredibly invested in their work, whether it's engineering, music, or writing. But there is a thriving social community if you choose to look for it outside of the computer clusters and office hours.

When one thinks of Carnegie Mellon University students, one likely imagines a scrawny computer science major hunched over with a huge backpack, programming 24/7 and forgetting to shower. Or perhaps one imagines an unhealthily pale engineering student with dark circles under his/her eyes and barely any social skills. And while these stereotypes may be true in some aspects for a fair amount of Carnegie Mellon students, these extreme perceptions don't apply to the entire student body. We have jocks (who discuss physics once they're off the field). We have Greeks (who still achieve 4.0's). We have liberal arts students (who work just as hard as the engineers). We have a diverse student population with a multitude of personalities, which makes it impossible to just assign one stereotype to every student. So yes, there are students who fit stereotypes - but not all of them forget to shower.

I'm in the drama school so I can say that our stereotype is very talented, very attractive, and stupid. The first two stereotypes are 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} true, the last is only true in a handful of cases.