Elloraa - I’m an alumnus and I certainly recognize most of your characterizations. About the only thing I don’t really agree with is the CMU environment / physical setting. I actually liked it. But I’m a Pittsburgh native so maybe that explains it, haha.
I was wondering, were there things you liked about the place and / or look back on fondly?
Thanks.
kaukauna- Yes, certainly not everything is bad. I appreciated the convenient transportation. There’s also benefits of living in a city for college students, like groceries, entertainment, places to eat. The environment’s definitely unique- hills, small streets, old architecture. To an extent, I feel as though attitudes of people contributed to the gloom. Pitt, for instance, has a whole different atmosphere.
Sorry for the five months late response, but yes, I do go to CMU, I’m a class of 2021 creative writing major. I am discussing my negative experiences because I don’t want people to only base their decision on “oh, but the academics are amazing!” I have no ulterior motive.
@ellie1965 Thank you for writing back. I am trying to understand, not negate your feelings. Clearly you are distressed. You are a Dietrich college sophomore, correct? If so you, you probably spent your Freshman year taking some classes in your major (writing), and some classes that are part of the Dietrich distribution requirements (such as Freshman seminar). From what I could tell from my son and his peers last year, the Dietrich distributions really don’t seem more stressful than what one would find at other top colleges.
Yet, for students majoring in creative writing, there is a sense that they dive right into heavy writing courses: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/current-students/documents/cw-major.pdf Possibly you are finding that constant writing is not consistent with your hopes and expectations? Or, you may find it difficult to be creative while punching a clock? If so, would you consider switching to another major that would not be as demanding? I understand you can even make up your own major, and you could still minor in creative writing.
I think you DO bring up an important point – which is that students at CMU should be passionate about their major. The departmental curricula I have reviewed from CMU tend to go into depth relatively quickly, with few basic survey courses.
With an artistic endeavor such as writing, I can imagine having to concentrate so rapidly in one area could be daunting. However, I have observed it is similar in other colleges’ artistically oriented programs. For example, I worked with a team of senior animators at a college where I was faculty, I was astonished at what was expected of them! They worked more, in my opinion, than any of the other majors, and this was at an engineering oriented college.
I hope you can find a way to make it work, or, alternatively, transfer to someplace that you would prefer.
which of the top university is Not going to be rigorous? Penn Face at UPenn or Duckfeet at Stanford (not sure if got the term right?), MIT Engineering, etc.
Let me be honest, not trying to put down anyone if you take it that way, it is your problem, most of the high schools just inflate grades and there are so many schools that hand out 4.0 GPA - with a liberal curves! These kids end up going to a top school and realize how difficult and stressful etc - because many of these kids do NOT read every day!
Another word of advice: if you think, this is stressful, try going to MIT or Berkeley Graduate programs in Eng. or Comp Science - many of the kids who go to even good US undergrad schools (Not MIT or CMU or Berkeley) find it extremely stressful because Outstanding kids from around the world who are used to hard work really breeze through the subjects while many domestic kids complain about not having enough time to enjoy!
Late to the party here. My son recently decided to apply RD precisely BECAUSE of the “stress culture” LOL. He looks forward to doing seriously hard work in college. Wants a serious education, not something a tad fluffy. Definitely has better things to do with his time than drink and skip class, although he would hope to be in a couple of key EC’s. He is applying to Dietrich, but very likely wouldn’t be one of the Econ or stats kids. BTW, there is a critical mass of those kids at DC and so it’s pretty stressful there too. Econ is a top program and who wouldn’t be attracted to CMU for stats or decision sciences?
We have some tangential experience with CMU as my daughter was attracted to the place a couple of years ago for the same reason my son is now - she’s currently in her 2nd year at UChicago reveling in the “stress culture” there.
There are a few intense schools that are simply not for everyone. They attract kids who are very devoted to an accelerated learning process - bookish, nerdy kids who love learning for the sake of learning, who aren’t in school for the social life or the clubs or the parties and who certainly aren’t there in order to do the minimum amount of work for the degree. CMU is one of those schools. That doesn’t mean these kids are anti-social or unable to enjoy time with friends or participate in a key activity. But it does mean they are taking their college experience seriously and using their time wisely. THAT is the atmosphere that attracted my daughter two years ago and attracts my son currently.
“I think you DO bring up an important point – which is that students at CMU should be passionate about their major. The departmental curricula I have reviewed from CMU tend to go into depth relatively quickly, with few basic survey courses.”
-Agree. When my daughter was applying, we looked up the curriculum for the History major since that was one of her areas of interest. They jump in immediately with a Historical Research and Writing course. You don’t even get to choose your area of interest until they know you can analyze it properly. And - she could have opted for a BS in History by taking some extra quantitative courses. Only at CMU can you get a Bachelors of Science in HISTORY.
“With an artistic endeavor such as writing, I can imagine having to concentrate so rapidly in one area could be daunting. However, I have observed it is similar in other colleges’ artistically oriented programs. For example, I worked with a team of senior animators at a college where I was faculty, I was astonished at what was expected of them! They worked more, in my opinion, than any of the other majors, and this was at an engineering oriented college.”