Are students unhappy at CMU?

[Anonymous]

I just ran into a third freshman from CMU home for fall break and each one separately said it’s okay/meh/so-so. This really surprised me. One turned 3 ivies down for cmu’s CS program, one is a recruited athlete who really wanted to go there, and one had it as her first choice.

Is this typical or atypical and just a coincidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just ran into a third freshman from CMU home for fall break and each one separately said it’s okay/meh/so-so. This really surprised me. One turned 3 ivies down for cmu’s CS program, one is a recruited athlete who really wanted to go there, and one had it as her first choice.

Is this typical or atypical and just a coincidence?

The CS program at CMU is hard. Kids who use test prep or consultants to get in are setting themselves up for misery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just ran into a third freshman from CMU home for fall break and each one separately said it’s okay/meh/so-so. This really surprised me. One turned 3 ivies down for cmu’s CS program, one is a recruited athlete who really wanted to go there, and one had it as her first choice.

Is this typical or atypical and just a coincidence?

It’s known to be a pressure cooker and not a very happy place.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about this also. Why would CMU be more of a pressure cooker than any other selective college. Aren't all of the top schools hard, particularly for STEM majors?

[Anonymous]

DD suffered through 4 years. She did not enjoy college and was happy to graduate. With that said, she got a job and is excelling. Most of her friends felt similarly. It’s just a really hard school and the location isn’t great. She will not make the same mistake for grad school.

[Anonymous]

What the hell is CMU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the hell is CMU?

Carnegie Mellon

[Anonymous]

It’s where the fruits and nuts go.

[Anonymous]

Nephew went there - Econ major - pegged undergrad as very difficult but not unreasonable.

Grad school in Econ another story. Just brutal. My brother a very well known economist with colleagues who went to CMU told him that it is the most rigorous grad program in the country. By this he meant that no other program valued the production aspect of research and publication like CMU. He told him to sustain lots of ego damage and he did.

My nephew is very successful today but he would caution to go there with eyes wide open.

[Anonymous]

Oh - good school obviously, but I’ve never heard anyone rave about their experience there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about this also. Why would CMU be more of a pressure cooker than any other selective college. Aren't all of the top schools hard, particularly for STEM majors?

They are all hard. Engineering in particular is going to be a grind everywhere. But CMU is notorious for being a miserable pressure cooker for CS and engineering. The school seems to revel in the misery. DS looked at it for engineering and noped out from applying after talking to some students. It's not a happy school - at least not for those majors. As far as we could tell, the more sane and collaberative good engineering schools are - Rice, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Olin, and Cal Poly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just ran into a third freshman from CMU home for fall break and each one separately said it’s okay/meh/so-so. This really surprised me. One turned 3 ivies down for cmu’s CS program, one is a recruited athlete who really wanted to go there, and one had it as her first choice.

Is this typical or atypical and just a coincidence?

It’s known to be a pressure cooker and not a very happy place.

this. its like 1000x worse than Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about this also. Why would CMU be more of a pressure cooker than any other selective college. Aren't all of the top schools hard, particularly for STEM majors?

its worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD suffered through 4 years. She did not enjoy college and was happy to graduate. With that said, she got a job and is excelling. Most of her friends felt similarly. It’s just a really hard school and the location isn’t great. She will not make the same mistake for grad school.

I thought people live Pittsburgh? Is it CMU’s particular neighborhood that is bad?

[Anonymous]

* love (not live)