<p>Hey guys; just wanted to know what kind of prestige and reputation Carnegie Mellon holds. Ive heard a lot about it being a place for MIT/Stanford rejects and generally a "second choice" school. Honestly it was second choice for me too but Ive always loved CMU. Im an international and the prestige attached to the university IS a criterion for me to make a choice so I just wanted some inputs; is it a top-notch institution? (Im in for engineering)</p>
<p>well its ranked like number 6 on world rankings for technology schools and number 21 i think overall by QS?</p>
<p>speaking as someone who applied for both mit and stanford and got rejected, i would say that it is a “second choice” school. but that’s only because MIT and Stanford are so good. tbh, i was rather disappointed when i found out that the best school that accepted me was CMU, but only because I believed I really had a realistic chance for Stanford and some Ivies.</p>
<p>to sum it up, CMU engineering sounds pretty great, just…overshadowed by MIT, Stanford, but take comfort in the fact that CMU’s software engineering is ranked higher even than MIT or Stanford. :P</p>
<p>@popking:still no fat latter??</p>
<p>I was in the same situation; rejected by MIT and Stanford. I have other options so im just tryiing to figure out whether its worth paying a helluvalot of $ to go to Carnegie Mellon and the reputation is a very important factor in my view.</p>
<p>@sang10158: yep…still no fat letter…******* ***** ******* post</p>
<p>well what choices do you have atm, besides CMU?</p>
<p>harvey mudd, purdue (my ultimate last resort) and im waitlisted at northwestern and upenn. Ive got a few in the UK as well</p>
<p>i’ve got northwestern…and UCL, King’s College and Imperial College (all 3 of them in the UK)</p>
<p>I wonder if you applied for Imperial as well? Cos I’m really torn between the two atm…</p>
<p>I didnt apply to imperial…but from what ive heard the UK univs arent doing anything great when it comes to engineering. i applied for science courses in the UK and a relative told me that Imperial isnt really that great. I think i would pick CMU (im trying to justify the cost so i dont feel guilty about making my parents pay so much for my college education). This is just what ive heard. You must have gotten conditional admission at Imperial and i think you should seriously consider it, just on a personal note i didnt like it too much (and its pretty expensive)…cant really help you pick :s</p>
<p>ok! thanx, and let’s just wait for that friggin FAT LETTER!!!lol</p>
<p>US News & World Report</p>
<h1>1 in Computer Science</h1>
<h1>3 in Computer engineering</h1>
<h1>3 in Management Information Systems</h1>
<p>Wall Street Journal- Business school rankings</p>
<h1>3 in business</h1>
<p>Thanks guys but I think i have been a little misunderstood. Im aware of all the rankings and I know that CMU places really well in them. What Im asking about is what people associate the name ‘Carnegie Mellon’ with you know; is it an 'oh my god! that friggin awesome" place or a “oh ive heard of it” kind of place…I hope you get my point…</p>
<p>theres not much in the fat letter anyway :]</p>
<p>From where I come from, either people regard it highly, or don’t know about it at all and think, “oh it’s probably a good school being ranked 22nd in the country…” For example, in school, my peers either never heard of it, or think there are several other better schools out there. One of my teachers asked me where I was going and I said either carnegie mellon or cornell, and she said, “oh cornell is an excellent school!” And I was thinking, well I’d really rather go to carnegie mellon… But in general, other teachers/students tend to think of it as either a business school or an art school because the few students who have applied in the past, went into those fields at carnegie mellon. Also, the students who went from my school were not the most stellar students. There are a couple teachers who know kind of what cmu is and know that it is 1). a school that can get you a very high-paying job and 2). Is a great research institute and kids coming from there are very successful. So, in my school/neighborhood among my peers mainly, not adults, it doesn’t hold that great a reputation/doesn’t really have a reputation.</p>
<p>However, with those that my parents/relatives work with, it is highly regarded. They know it to produce leaders in technology/business. They know what it means to graduate with a cmu degree. Those people are also those who come from various elite schools in the country.</p>
<p>Basically, Jane Doe sitting next to me in the cafeteria may not have a clue about cmu but be awe-struck by an MIT or Ivy League future student. CMU usually is the second choice for everybody. However, I console myself for loving cmu by the fact that I only care what my future employer thinks. Honestly, peers ask me “why?” with a disgusted look for picking cmu when their only dream is an ivy league school. </p>
<p>It has a good reputation, but only among a particular group of people. HYPSM + other ivies are known by the vast majority of the people and therefore are exalted much higher than cmu and schools of similar yet still elite caliber. Students coming from cmu, however, I think fare just as well as students coming from other great institutions. </p>
<p>The average person walking down the street would know what MIT or Harvard is, but not carnegie mellon. Actually, I bet that person will definitely not know what carnegie mellon is. It is more well-known, IMO, amongst high-achieving people (I do not mean that in an arrogant sense btw). CMU tends to have a high acceptance rate because it is self-selecting. Maybe if they drew away from such a tech-oriented reputation, it would attract a wider range of applicants.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’m a future cmu hopeful student for this fall, so I am a bit biased/ I have been looking around to see what others do think of the school and learned the above.</p>
<p>Does anyone else experience the same thing? Why aren’t there many cmu posters on cc by the way? I only know of one poster who attended carnegie mellon, Racinreaver. So, yeah, I am a bit disappointed 
I’m going to be a frequent poster for carnegie mellon if/when I attend. I hope lol.</p>
<p>Most people out there will have never heard of CMU. When I told people I was going there, they’d say, “Oh, that must be a really good small liberal arts college, right?” You get used to it, though. It’s also a great way to find out which people are technically oriented, as most engineers and scientists know of the school and are well aware of its reputation.</p>
<p>So, yeah, CMU might not impress your neighbors, but it’ll have a strong impact on people in the right fields.</p>
<p>(Also, to be fair, I’m at Caltech now for grad school and I’ve met a fair number of people here in Los Angeles that think I’m at a Cal Poly or a community college.)</p>
<p>well, that pretty much answers my question; it doesnt really matter what every johnny thinks but what my future employers or grad schools think; i guess i was a little unclear.Im pretty keen on CMU myself and it is actually one of my top choices (its also my dads dream school). Thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>@AnnaSmith: That was a very impressive post; it was really powerful…:)</p>
<p>Another reason that Stanford is much more well known ‘on the street’ is that they have D1 athletic teams. In the US, at least, having that kind of TV/media coverage increases the exposure greatly. CMU, not having these D1 teams (they are D3) means that the average joe doesnt see their name on ESPN every morning.</p>
<p>AnnaSmith, the reason why we don’t post on CC is because we’re too busy coding, writing essays, engaging in full-contact origami folding, curing cancer, doing differential equations homework and saving the world.</p>
<p>Well, one thing about CMU is that it doesn’t have the long-standing national reputation that the Ivies, MIT, and Stanford do. Only in the last decade or so has it started to shift from regional to national. Before, most of its students were from PA. And it takes a while for that national reputation to get rooted.</p>
<p>I’m from the west coast, so many people were unfamiliar with it, but the ones that were were always extremely impressed. My favorite example: a coworker asked my mom at work where I’d decided to go to college, and my mom answered Carnegie Mellon, and this lady got all wide eyed, ‘Wow!! Carnegie Mellon! I thought only geniuses went there!’. For those who know what it is, mainly in academia and tech-related fields, it’s most definitely something to brag about.</p>
<p>Another other issue I think might play a part in turning people off is that it’s in Pittsburgh. If you haven’t spent any time in Pittsburgh, you’d most likely imagine it as a bleak dirty post-industrial steel town, I sure did, but then once you arrive, you’re met with a beautiful, clean, thriving city with booming industries, great atmosphere, and pretty much the lowest unemployment rate in the county. CMU and Pittsburgh are both well-kept secrets in the realms of amazing universities and amazing cities.</p>
<p>As for Ivies, don’t listen to the people who only recognize Ivies as the best schools or thing they’re the way to go. Ivies tend to be overrated (‘The hardest part about Harvard is getting in’ - true fact) and build their reputations up on name. CMU builds its reputation of its programs, which is why the circles that know CMU well tend to be the industries that those programs serve. I’ve also heard a high school admissions person mention that if you add .8 to your CMU GPA, you’ll get your equivalent Harvard GPA. CMU actually works you and doesn’t grade-inflate, and pushes you out with a very practical, career-oriented education, which is why everyone likes hiring from CMU. And if you want to go Ivy, do their graduate programs. Because they focus more on their grad programs than undergrad anyway.</p>
<p>ctks22, lol yeah I realized that, I was just on a roll and got really into carnegie mellon and it’s reputation and people around me not knowing what it is haha.</p>
<p>@sang, I got an offer from Imperial too and I realllyy like it. Imperial definitely is extremely prestigious, Its on par with Cambridge in engineering in Europe. I am torn between WashU for CAS and CMU for CIT. Leaning towards WashU because of the campus and the kind of college life it can provide but CMU seems to have more name recognition and is definitely better for engineering.</p>