<p>How much harder is it to be admitted to Computer Science over the other colleges?</p>
<p>From the numbers, it seems SCS is harder than MIT.</p>
<p>But I'm pretty sure that's not the reality...</p>
<p>Random sample of one - my son was deferred then rejected at MIT but got into SCS. :)</p>
<p>I *think<a href="and%20this%20is%20really%20mostly%20speculation">/I</a> that MIT is a little less numbers driven. I believe they were looking for more women and more well-roundedness as well as what they call the "match". Which seems to be mostly about kids who work well in groups.</p>
<p>I know its really selective, maybe even pretty close to MIT but I dont think more than them. SCS is around 20% acceptance, isnt it?</p>
<p>Getting admission in SCS is very challenging. The program is excellent and encourages team work. Faculty is brilliant and the facilities in SCS are very good and student body is hard working and very friendly. </p>
<p>I would recomend SCS at CMU if offered admission.( I have my bias: I am in SCS)</p>
<p>Hope these statistics help in answering some questions about freshman admission data:
Admission</a> Statistics</p>
<p>Scs 18.7%
Mit 13%</p>
<p>The scores for admitted students both schools are quite similar</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning Test - Critical Reading [670, 770] MIT - [650-750] SCS
SAT Reasoning Test - Math [720, 800] MIT - [740-800] SCS
SAT Reasoning Test - Writing [670, 760] MIT - [640-740] SCS</p>
<p>For MIT
in Top 5% 4,025 (applied) 825 (admitted) 21%
in Top 5-10% 778 (applied) 70 (admitted) 9%
in Top 10-20% 573 (applied) 20 (admitted) 4%
below top 20% 368 (applied) 1 (admitted) 0%</p>
<p>CMU just says SCS rank of 5% "Represents the top percentage in the class" Haven't a clue what they mean by that.</p>
<p>Conclusion is that MIT is more selective because more kids apply and yield is probably greater.</p>
<p>"CMU just says SCS rank of 5% "Represents the top percentage in the class" Haven't a clue what they mean by that."</p>
<p>That is referring to the student's class rank. Your son was probably in the top 10 to 5% of his school (GPA and course difficulty-wise). Some schools do not class rank so this number does not apply to those students.</p>
<p>There are probably far more rejected-from-MIT students in CS at CMU than rejected-from-CMU in EE/CS at MIT.</p>
<p>But it's more than just figuring out which program is more selective/prestigious - the programs have very different requirements. Look at the course catalogs and requirements - CMU is more mathy, while MIT is more EEy and has a stronger science core. I think CMU admission is more predictable than MIT; students with great stats are rejected from MIT all the time; this is far more unlikely with CMU (with SCS/CIT, not Tepper) - look at past admit threads.</p>
<p>I wouldn't call the student body in CS at CMU friendly... but I wouldn't call it unfriendly. A bit apathetic, not particularly outgoing... (and I'm in SCS, too)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't call the student body in CS at CMU friendly... but I wouldn't call it unfriendly. A bit apathetic, not particularly outgoing... (and I'm in SCS, too)
[/quote]
Sounds like my son. I've been threatening to get him the computergear t-shirt that says "I'm not anti-social, I'm just not user friendly."</p>
<p>I agree, that CMU admissions appears to be more numbers driven than MIT.</p>
<p>"represents top percentage of the class" could mean anything. 100% of those admitted were in the top 5% of their high school class? 95% were in the top 5% or something less?</p>
<p>Not sure why, but I take it to mean the average hs class rank of SCS students is 5th percentile. Don't know why the word "top" is used; doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Avg SAT is around 700v, 770 math.</p>
<p>I'd put SCS admission difficulty somewhere along the lines of (nearly) getting into Penn or maybe Brown (and at least as difficult as getting into Cornell in general, just my overall feel) without as much unpredictability and drama.</p>