Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

I love being in the drama school but it kicks your ass. It's as prestigious a program as it is because the teachers work us to the bone, run our lives, and expect 24 hours a day of complete excellence and commitment. But we all love what we do so much it doesn't matter. Drama is NOT for the faint of heart. In terms of the larger university? Tons of science people and nerds. Everyone here knows what they want to do with their life, and for that I have tons of respect.

The Big Picture Some suggested topics: What's the best thing about Carnegie? · Name one thing you'd change. · Is your school too large, too small, or just right? · How do people react when you tell them you go to Carnegie? · Where do you spend most of your time on campus? · College town, or "what college town?" · What's your opinion of Carnegie's administration? · What was the biggest recent controversy on campus? · Is there a lot of school pride? · Is there anything unusual about Carnegie? · What's one experience you'll always remember? · What are the most frequent student complaints?

There are places for everyone at CMU. The really nerdy people have tons of friends and the really social people have a lot of friends. Design kids, greeks, and cultural groups are all places for people to get together. People are either really impressed that I go to CMU or just smile and say "oh that's good" but they really don't know that it is a really good school. The people are really good. Everyone is driven and smart. You can learn from everyone around you since everyone is working on such great things.

The best thing is the academics. The faculty is near or at the top of their field in so many areas: computer science, drama, engineering, robotics, design, music, decision science, and cognitive psychology, to name a few. The character and achievements of the faculty draw similarly brilliant and committed students. There is also the possibility to develop very different skills to a very high level. Students frequently double major or major and minor across schools within the university or create self-defined majors which bridge disciplines. The diversity in backgrounds and in interests is a huge strength as students are constantly surrounded by different viewpoints. The administration is helpful and treats students like adults. They take safety very seriously and everyone in the campus community receives emails when an incident occurs. I will always remember walking out of Newell-Simon hall at sunset after the final exam of the hardest course of my undergraduate career to the sound of bagpipes in the distance.

Not a super-well known school by the general public, but it's really great academically. Sports are D3. Campus pride is relatively not that big, but even though I don't wear plaid everywhere, I love CMU and so do most students. When we're pulling all-nighters (fairly often), we hate it, but when we're staying on top of the workload, classes are great.

Carnegie Mellon's awesome power is the intellectual environment fostered by the faculty and sustained by the diversely talented students. On campus, a common thread of comment is that we are undervalued as a school; we're the campus tomorrow's leaders are going to come from, but no one knows us yet. Engineering and CS are major powerhouses in their own right, but MCS (the science college) commonly garners excellence in research. Additionally, MCS prides itself in undergraduate education. We are the school of socially competent geeks; we know how to walk the walk and talk the talk, but at heart each and everyone of us is a big, huge, obsessed nerd about our subjects of interest (and this isn't just limited to our majors).

The best thing about CMU is the amazing variety of hard drives. Yes, you can tell the average guy's major by the size of his ... hard drive. Externals of over a terabyte would be your drama majors. The business majors need nothing more than their professional overpriced laptops. The IS majors pretend to be CS with large externals. Jocks of course stick to ... yes sticks, tiny tiny flash drives. The true CS major should not flaunt his hard drive, but instead hide it from the world. Our school is very focused on hardware. Walking to the sky is not artwork, its actually the antenna to a massive spaceship built under the campus (the steam tunnels are actually passageways). With all the memory at school, its no wonder that the average person downloads on average 5 terabytes per weekday, and 15 on weekends on our speedy campus connection.

The best thing about CMU is the academics, particularly in fields that heavily deal with math and science, such as engineering. Expectations are high; in order to get a good grade in a challenging class, one needs to not only be intelligent, but also a hard worker. One thing I would change about CMU is the social atmosphere; people are unfriendly or just plain wierd. CMU is a little too small; though Univ. of Pitt (down the street) isn't academically as rigorous, I would imagine that people there have more fun and are socially more clued in. When I tell people I go to CMU, they say, "Oh! That's a good school." There is schoold pride in certain aspects; people are proud that they got into CMU and respect what the school has to offer to them academically. However, very few people attend sporting events, but that's probably because we're a division three school...

The best thing about CMU is diversity in the college. CMU is not too large so I can go anywhere on foot. I spend most of my time at the gym to play sports with friends.

CMU is the perfect size. It's small enough to make it easy to get to know many people on a personal level. Whether they are in your major, live in your building, or just go to the same parties as you, seeing people frequently and not getting lost in the crowd allows making friends with similar interests easy. At the same time, it's big enough that it doesn't get boring. There are always new people to meet, various clubs, organizations, and events to participate in, and is located in the middle of a huge college town.