Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

In a nutshell, CMU is a great place to go to school. It's located in Pittsburgh's Oakland region which is not-to-far but not-to-close to Downtown Pittsburgh. Oakland is also home to the University of Pittsburgh, among other colleges/universities, so it is in a pretty college-age friendly area. Oakland is also home to the Carnegie Musuem of Natural History, which is a fun place to visit from time-to-time since it is constantly changing -- and FREE for all CMU students. In addition to all the great aspects of Oakland, it is possible to explore the City of Pittsburgh (and its surroundings) with your CMU ID card since it grants you free and unlimited access to the region's public transportation system. So, you can head over to one of Pittsburgh's great sporting arenas/parks and see the local team play or to the Carnegie Science Center for a more casual outing. As for CMU itself, I cannot express how wonderful the atmosphere of the campus is. There are going-ons all the time -- all you have to do is find them. The size of the school is one of its best features. The smaller university setting gives you a chance to develop relationships with other students, as well as faculty and staff on campus. When people are told I'm a CMU student (at the risk of sounding egocentric and snobbish here) the reaction is usually along the lines of admiration. This is due to CMU's reputation of providing a quality education which helps to produce modivated students who are considered above average, in terms of quality. As for an unusual niche that CMU has, well it's just too hard to explain in words -- but at CMU we call it Carnival -- which comprises (mainly) of two things -- booth and buggy. Booth allows organizations/groups of students to literally construct massive carnival booths that are meant to inspire and impress (which they most certainly do). Buggy on the other hand is a racing competition that is truly one-of-a-kind, from what I can gather. Students build these "buggies" and race against one another in a soapbox-like, but oh-so-much-better manner. Young women are literally encapsulated in the buggy and pushed up and down hills; it sounds crazy, I know, but you'd have to see it to believe it and truly understand it.

People are often very impressed when you tell them you are a student at CMU. Of all the students I know that graduated this past year, not one of them does not have a great job offer or plans to attend graduate school after graduation. Fortune 500 companies and other hugely successful firms are not only visiting our campus, they are hiring our students. Pittsburgh, as a city, is a great place to go to school. The cost of living is affordable (while our tuition may not be) and the city has a lot to offer. Your CMU ID card gives you unlimited access to public transportation, making it easier to get around. There are reduced or free student tickets to museums and other attractions, beautiful local parks and a great feeling of pride for Pittsburgh's three professional sports teams. Sports at Carnegie Mellon are not the focal point so school pride isn't ovewhelming, but Carnegie Mellon has extremely supportive administration that never stands in the way of students and faculty pursuing opportunities, giving students a great appreciation for their experiences at CMU.

I think the size is just right. the classes are small enough so that you can be noticed if you want to be an over-achiever, yet big enough to fall asleep in the corner w.o anyone caring. I spend most of my time with my fraternity brothers, with my girlfriend, or doing work. i do A LOT of work. The administration wants to make sure bright, smart kids graduate and in the process the fraternities and people just trying to have a good time get shafted. There is not a lot of school pride, we are bad at sports. we have a new mascot though, which is muchhh better than a piece of cloth. Everyone complains about the workload.

the best thing about cmu is that it embraces intelligence--you can be exactly who you want to be because there is really a huge variety of people. its a little small so a lot of people know each other or at least know of each other--sometimes i wish it was a little bigger. i think the contrast between our engineering and computer science schools and our theatre and arts programs provides a nice variety of both students and values/points of view.

Good things: urban area with a lot of relatively close activities and things to do, both in daytime and night; the student body has diverse interests and talents; lots of international students; CARNIVAL; greek life; food is improving a LOT; good student body size Bad things: hard to get around Pittsburgh quickly without a car; administration is kind of detached from the student body (though this seems to be changing); not a lot of school pride (though this has significantly improved); not a ethnically or socioeconomically diverse student body; the different majors tend to break off into cliques

Best thing about CMU - The people. Everyone is really nice, and you'll have no problems going up to someone and asking what they're interested in and making friends. Also the quality of academics is really good here. Worst Thing about CMU - Tie between workload and food. With just 5 classes, I'm usually pretty busy, spending a significant amount of time on school work /every day/ of the week. Note I'm an electrical and computer engineering and computer science major, so if you are a different major then this may be different. Also the food sucks. It's unhealthy and it tastes terrible to boot. You really have to try hard to eat healthy on campus. Is your school too large, too small, or just right? - I think it's just right for me, there are like ~7000 undergrads perhaps and it takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end of the campus to the other, so everything is close by and a reasonable walking distance away. How do people react when you tell them you go to CMU? - Some people haven't heard of it, but the people who have are almost always impressed. Where do you spend most of your time on campus? - Wherever other people are doing homework, or if I'm working alone in my dorm. College town, or "what college town?" - Uh Not really sure what you mean by this. CMU is right in the middle of the city of Pittsburgh but at the same time, when you are on campus it's not much like a city. What's your opinion of CMU's administration? - Don't really know, I haven't encountered them before. What was the biggest recent controversy on campus? - Maybe the TBA events where they show pornography to the public for a small fee. Most people don't attend. Is there a lot of school pride? - Maybe not as much as a college like Penn State but sure, there is school pride. Is there anything unusual about CMU? - Each individual college is pretty stereotypical. It's funny to see at orientation because the new students are grouped sometimes by college (like computer science, engineering, humanities, drama, etc) What's one experience you'll always remember? - Playing piano at the freshman talent show. It was a lot of fun and met a lot of people because of it. What are the most frequent student complaints? - Probably what I already said, workload and food.

Pittsburgh is a great college town- there is always plenty to do with bars, restaurants, sports teams. CMU is a little bit of a bubble, but you have to break out of that bubble and explore Pittsburgh. CMU is also a very good school that is not as recognized as it should be, especially outside of Pittsburgh.

When I tell people I go to CMU, they are very impressed because the school is held in high esteem.

Carnival is amazing. Being in a sorority, i love building the booth and watching the buggy races. I love the academics. It's challenging, but I truly learn alot. It's just the right size. When people here i go here, they either have no idea what it is, or they think its one of the best schools in the country. I picked this school because of its intense academics, but also because of its quirks (carnival, buggy, the fence, etc).

Pittsburgh is a good place to go to school. The atmosphere at Carnegie Mellon is nice - informal, but scholarly. There are a couple of nice places to hang out and meet with friends on campus if you have a quick break in the middle of the day, and oddly enough the library is often a social hot spot.