Sorry to hear, good luck with whatever you choose.
My daughter was recently accepted to the ECE program at CMU. She is concerned about the reported “stress culture” and workload at CMU. She also wants to get involved with clubs and other extracurricular activities on campus. Also, she is not entirely sure ECE is her preferred major (she might actually like CS more). Between the workload and difficulty switching majors, she is considering her 2nd choice of Northeastern (9,000 less and they have a combined ECE/CS program). She is not sure not sure what to do and any input on the two schools would be appreciated (especially the workload as a ECE major at CMU).
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Hi @seniorparent2021! First of all, huge congratulations to your daughter! Welcome to CMU! To be honest, there’s a stress culture at every university, not just CMU, and it’s really up to your daughter how much she lets it affect her. Since CMU is such a top school for ECE and CS, she’ll be with the top and brightest students in the country and it’s ever so important that she is able to really focus on her, what she wants, and to not compare herself to others.
I will not sugarcoat the fact that both ECE and CS are a very large amount of work, but I absolutely think it’s worth it. There is a software track in ECE that would allow her to explore more CS topics within ECE, but it is true that transferring into CS is incredibly difficult. Would you mind telling more in what your daughter is looking for in a university/post college plans?
Thank you for your honesty about CMU. My daughter would probably be more interested in the software side of ECE (I’m guessing). She has really only been involved in CS, not engineering, but THINKS that ECE might be a good mix. She has taken AP computer science and has an internship in data science (which she got through a coding camp). She has started her own company teaching technology and coding classes to kids. However, I’m not sure she really knows what she wants to do after graduation. She also takes voice lessons and is involved in drama. She is very musical and I can see her wanting to integrate music in some capacity into her life. She is not looking to party all the time but would like to go to the occasional weekend get-together. I like the fact that CMU encourages the integration of the colleges with minors from other disciplines but I just hope it doesn’t add too much stress. I agree that her chosen major will be challenging everywhere, even at Northeastern, I’m just concerned she will be “stuck” if she doesn’t like ECE.
Ah this is helpful! So ECE would definitely be more systems stuff (assembly, circuits, etc.) than CS and less theoretical. Is she into CS theory (think discrete math, proofs, algorithms, etc.) at all? CMU SCS is the most theory heavy university - more than MIT, more than Berkeley, more than Stanford, etc. You could double major in CS, but that’s also quite a workload, although I know quite a few people who have at least minored in CS/double majored. (So I suggest she try the minor first to feel it out before going for the major). There is some wiggle room for most other majors (transfer wise) if she decides that ECE isn’t for her, but CS is very very difficult to transfer into.
As for future job prospects, I know that Apple really likes CMU ECEs and scoops them right up for internships and jobs (arguably more than SCS?) haha.
CMU definitely encourages their students to branch out and do other things! I’ve taken ballet classes at the amazing school of drama, and used music rooms to practice piano - it all honestly comes down to time management which I think being at CMU teaches you really really well. If your daughter wants to take voice classes, or join our scotch and soda (theatre club), that’s absolutely something she can do!
Yeah in my opinion looking back, I wish I had prepared a bit more mentally for college because it’s nothing like high school, and that failing is totally okay! Classes here are quite hard and you just really need to put blinders on and focus on yourself and your passions.
Hopefully that was all helpful! Let me know if you have specific questions (like classes, internships, etc.) and I can help out, or ask a current ECE student! 
Thank you so much for giving us such detailed information. It is very encouraging to hear there will be opportunities for her to get involved in music and drama if she desires. By any chance, would be be willing to chat briefly with my daughter at any point in the next week or two? If so, she can give you her number. If not, no worries!
Thank you!
Yeah I would love to! Let me know when or if she’d like to do Zoom - my DMs are open.
She would love to be able to do a Zoom. What is the best way for her to reach you or should I give you her info?
Thanks!