Cornell versus CMU CS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMU average CS grad salary is 201K. Pretty jaw dropping. They are super into it. Doubt its fun to attend but it does not get more cutting edge. Of course my kid was WL.

Cornell though it is high ranked is going to be more preppy and honestly I still don't think of of it for CS. Im in software and have yet to see a Cornell developer. We cant afford the CMU ones. If you are vibe-ing with Cornell, by all means, you cant go wrong, its Ivy. But if your kid is a super geek gonna-make-a-billion in CS, CMU is the place.

That said, It seemed like your kid wanted a more balanced life so maybe Cornell.

Cornell ranks #6 in the country according to USNews so it is very strong for CS (though below CMU which is #2)

It's strong but not incredible, IMO very overranked on US News for CS. One of the best proxies for which schools have the best CS talent is which schools have recently produced the most early stage funded startups. According to https://news.crunchbase.com/business/stanford-harvard-mit-funded-startup-founders/:

1. Stanford
2. MIT
3. Harvard
4. Berkeley
5. Columbia
6. Cornell
7. Duke
7. USC
9. Carnegie Mellon
9. Penn
9. UT Austin
9. Yale
13. Michigan
14. UIUC
15. UCLA
16. NYU
17. Northwestern
18. Princeton
19. Brown
19. Georgia Tech

This is by raw numbers, so schools with larger populations get significantly benefitted. Cornell has 2x the undergrad population as CMU yet is only slightly better at producing startup founders. If adjusted for undergrad population CMU has nearly 2x startup founders per capita.

Are you including Cornells entire undergrad population or just CS? I hope you are not comparing the Ag School and Hotel schools!

DP

founders / approx CS undergrads per year
Cornell 92 / 300 = .31
CMU 80 / 250 = .32

Doesn’t look like a significant difference

Your numbers are off, Cornell has close to double the CS undergrads as CMU.

The two-campus department—in Ithaca and New York City—has a full-time faculty of 62 members: of these, 49 are in residence at the Ithaca campus while 13 sit at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. There are about 1,000 undergraduate CS majors (of which over 400 are women), approximately 200 resident Ph.D. students and 140 masters students. Over 300 undergraduate students graduate each year. 39.29% of majors are female; 12.78% are URM. In the incoming Ph.D. class, 45% are female and 5% are URM.

https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/about#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201%2C000%20undergraduate,D.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMU average CS grad salary is 201K. Pretty jaw dropping. They are super into it. Doubt its fun to attend but it does not get more cutting edge. Of course my kid was WL.

Cornell though it is high ranked is going to be more preppy and honestly I still don't think of of it for CS. Im in software and have yet to see a Cornell developer. We cant afford the CMU ones. If you are vibe-ing with Cornell, by all means, you cant go wrong, its Ivy. But if your kid is a super geek gonna-make-a-billion in CS, CMU is the place.

That said, It seemed like your kid wanted a more balanced life so maybe Cornell.

Cornell ranks #6 in the country according to USNews so it is very strong for CS (though below CMU which is #2)

It's strong but not incredible, IMO very overranked on US News for CS. One of the best proxies for which schools have the best CS talent is which schools have recently produced the most early stage funded startups. According to https://news.crunchbase.com/business/stanford-harvard-mit-funded-startup-founders/:

1. Stanford
2. MIT
3. Harvard
4. Berkeley
5. Columbia
6. Cornell
7. Duke
7. USC
9. Carnegie Mellon
9. Penn
9. UT Austin
9. Yale
13. Michigan
14. UIUC
15. UCLA
16. NYU
17. Northwestern
18. Princeton
19. Brown
19. Georgia Tech

This is by raw numbers, so schools with larger populations get significantly benefitted. Cornell has 2x the undergrad population as CMU yet is only slightly better at producing startup founders. If adjusted for undergrad population CMU has nearly 2x startup founders per capita.

Are you including Cornells entire undergrad population or just CS? I hope you are not comparing the Ag School and Hotel schools!

DP

founders / approx CS undergrads per year
Cornell 92 / 300 = .31
CMU 80 / 250 = .32

Doesn’t look like a significant difference

Your numbers are off, Cornell has close to double the CS undergrads as CMU.

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMU average CS grad salary is 201K. Pretty jaw dropping. They are super into it. Doubt its fun to attend but it does not get more cutting edge. Of course my kid was WL.

Cornell though it is high ranked is going to be more preppy and honestly I still don't think of of it for CS. Im in software and have yet to see a Cornell developer. We cant afford the CMU ones. If you are vibe-ing with Cornell, by all means, you cant go wrong, its Ivy. But if your kid is a super geek gonna-make-a-billion in CS, CMU is the place.

That said, It seemed like your kid wanted a more balanced life so maybe Cornell.

Cornell ranks #6 in the country according to USNews so it is very strong for CS (though below CMU which is #2)

It's strong but not incredible, IMO very overranked on US News for CS. One of the best proxies for which schools have the best CS talent is which schools have recently produced the most early stage funded startups. According to https://news.crunchbase.com/business/stanford-harvard-mit-funded-startup-founders/:

1. Stanford
2. MIT
3. Harvard
4. Berkeley
5. Columbia
6. Cornell
7. Duke
7. USC
9. Carnegie Mellon
9. Penn
9. UT Austin
9. Yale
13. Michigan
14. UIUC
15. UCLA
16. NYU
17. Northwestern
18. Princeton
19. Brown
19. Georgia Tech

This is by raw numbers, so schools with larger populations get significantly benefitted. Cornell has 2x the undergrad population as CMU yet is only slightly better at producing startup founders. If adjusted for undergrad population CMU has nearly 2x startup founders per capita.

Are you including Cornells entire undergrad population or just CS? I hope you are not comparing the Ag School and Hotel schools!

DP

founders / approx CS undergrads per year
Cornell 92 / 300 = .31
CMU 80 / 250 = .32

Doesn’t look like a significant difference

Your numbers are off, Cornell has close to double the CS undergrads as CMU.

The two-campus department—in Ithaca and New York City—has a full-time faculty of 62 members: of these, 49 are in residence at the Ithaca campus while 13 sit at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. There are about 1,000 undergraduate CS majors (of which over 400 are women), approximately 200 resident Ph.D. students and 140 masters students. Over 300 undergraduate students graduate each year. 39.29% of majors are female; 12.78% are URM. In the incoming Ph.D. class, 45% are female and 5% are URM.

https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/about#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201%2C000%20undergraduate,D.

"Over 300 undergraduate students graduate each year. "

269 from CMU CS in 2022:
https://www.cmu.edu/ira/degrees-granted/pdf/ay2021-22-pdfs/scs-degrees-granted_ay21-22_2.10.2023.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into both CMU and Cornell for CS, and if it was only between those two, would have gone to CMU. He ended up choosing a different option altogether but was extremely impressed by the caliber of the faculty and other students at CMU CS. Cornell was more of a mixed bag. My son preferred a more well-rounded experience than both those schools could offer though.

Thanks for the insight! Where did your DS choose instead, MIT or something?

No he chose Duke. Having a great time there and is very impressed by his classmates, and still has time for fun. Was the right choice for him but for others CMU CS is hard to beat.

Thanks - this is helpful. My DD was wondering how the CS experience is at Duke as she’s investigating a lot of these same schools.

DD studies CS at Duke. It’s been easy thus far compared to her ex-classmates’ experience at CMU because they made her take classes where she already knows the material. She enjoys her well-balanced life so much that she tells us she is living in paradise.

[Anonymous]

Cornell for sure. Tons of amazing opptys for CS majors. Majors come from arts and sciences or from engineering, so differing perspectives enhance the environment. CMU is more cutthroat. City more fun, but Cornell has gorges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into both CMU and Cornell for CS, and if it was only between those two, would have gone to CMU. He ended up choosing a different option altogether but was extremely impressed by the caliber of the faculty and other students at CMU CS. Cornell was more of a mixed bag. My son preferred a more well-rounded experience than both those schools could offer though.

Thanks for the insight! Where did your DS choose instead, MIT or something?

No he chose Duke. Having a great time there and is very impressed by his classmates, and still has time for fun. Was the right choice for him but for others CMU CS is hard to beat.

Thanks - this is helpful. My DD was wondering how the CS experience is at Duke as she’s investigating a lot of these same schools.

DD studies CS at Duke. It’s been easy thus far compared to her ex-classmates’ experience at CMU because they made her take classes where she already knows the material. She enjoys her well-balanced life so much that she tells us she is living in paradise.

I think CMU is a lot harder than most schools for CS, and I think most employers who hire in CS know that.

That's not to say Duke is bad or that wanting a balanced college life is bad. My DC decided against CMU due to the no social life issue. DC has high stats, but they also want a life outside of studying, which I can understand.

[Anonymous]

Cornell over CMU for undergrad, hands down. While good for CS, CMU is ultimately a one-trick pony and its CS program will turn your DC into nothing but a machine. Frankly, among the big four, I would even pick Berkeley CS/EECS over CMU because Berkeley is also a target school for finance and consulting.

[Anonymous]

Cornell. Ivy League. Nuff said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cornell. Ivy League. Nuff said

For a group that dislikes recruited athletes, people on DCUM sure care about athletic conferences

[Anonymous]

For all that's said about CMU being tough, Cornell CS isn't easy. Grading is tough, there is not much hand-holding, advisors not great, lots of psets etc.

[Anonymous]

OP, CMU CS is not for the faint of heart. If your DC is not a rockstar in CS, go to Cornell. So much easier to make it through the degree and sounds better if he/she transfers out.

[Anonymous]

I have a son that is a CS major at CMU. It is a tough program, but the kids have social lives. I'm not really sure where this idea that it is all work is coming from, there isn't a huge party culture, maybe that is it?
Also, a lot of kids are double majors - pretty much every non-arts major at CMU has to take some coding classes.
The thing about CMU CS is, you have to intellectually gifted, you can't just be a hard worker. -- I think that is different at Cornell, which tends to have a lot of strivers -- nothing wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a son that is a CS major at CMU. It is a tough program, but the kids have social lives. I'm not really sure where this idea that it is all work is coming from, there isn't a huge party culture, maybe that is it?
Also, a lot of kids are double majors - pretty much every non-arts major at CMU has to take some coding classes.
The thing about CMU CS is, you have to intellectually gifted, you can't just be a hard worker. -- I think that is different at Cornell, which tends to have a lot of strivers -- nothing wrong with that.

Go to Cornell if location and feel are not pushing you one way or the other. Go with the better overall school over department when both departments are good. Not to be too mean but for the most part, CMU (ED excluded) has a lot of really bright kids who didn't get into Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Cornell CS is like #7 verses Berkeley #4 or so. So go with Cornell for the overall undergrad experience. Numbers 7, 4 don't mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a son that is a CS major at CMU. It is a tough program, but the kids have social lives. I'm not really sure where this idea that it is all work is coming from, there isn't a huge party culture, maybe that is it?
Also, a lot of kids are double majors - pretty much every non-arts major at CMU has to take some coding classes.
The thing about CMU CS is, you have to intellectually gifted, you can't just be a hard worker. -- I think that is different at Cornell, which tends to have a lot of strivers -- nothing wrong with that.

Go to Cornell if location and feel are not pushing you one way or the other. Go with the better overall school over department when both departments are good. Not to be too mean but for the most part, CMU (ED excluded) has a lot of really bright kids who didn't get into Cornell.

I don't think that's a thing.