<p>Does anyone else think CMU is a bit underrated at the moment?</p>
<p>Sure its endowment isn't as high and it doesn't have the greatest yield or most scholarships, but its strategy of comparative advantage allows it to excel in what it does offer. For a school with a Top 10 Business, Engineering, Architecture, Fine Arts, Public Policy, Pyschology, Design, and Top 3 in Computer Science, Creative Writing, Musical Theatre, and a great job network to be ranked only #22 seems to be a bit underrated to me.</p>
<p>Sure it's liberal arts aren't as strong but the majors that are offered are highly marketable and the school has an extension center in Wall St. as well as an unmatched reputation with the top blue chip technology companies. </p>
<p>For the rankings, the stats are usually lower than it should be due to its fine arts background. CFA is the 2nd largest college at Carnegie Mellon and HSS is the 3rd largest. These two colleges have relatively low average GPAs and SATs compared to the other colleges such as Computer Science and Tepper School of Business (which had a 13% acceptance rate). CFA for example, focuses on the portfolios and auditions of applicants, especially for musical theatre and design. </p>
<p>Finally, Carnegie Mellon's peer assessment rating is higher than its ranking and also if its data were focused more on the selective colleges, its ranking would probably rise as well. Furthermore, I found this interesting fact on the peer institutions which are mostly in the Top 10 or 15. </p>
<p>"For the class of 2010, Carnegie Mellon had the highest overlap in applications with Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania. The class of 2010 had the highest overlap in acceptances with the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, and Washington University in St. Louis.[14]
"</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is a great school, one of my top choices too. I think all of its departments and programs are incredible its just that the school itself isn't as famous. I think it usually takes decades of constant success to finally achieve a level of fame in society's eyes. Carnegie Mellon is still working to get up there.</p>
<p>It's certainly an excellent school. But when rating colleges, you can't ignore the quality of the student body as well as the general "prestige", FWIW. Not that CMU lacks significantly in this respect, but I simply do not see CMU beating out any of the schools that are considered "better". Does it deserve to be considered a great school? Yes. Top 20? Not so much, I think. Only school I'd see CMU beating out is Emory, while Georgetown, UVA, UCLA, UMich and Tufts could arguably ranked ahead of CMU. Same with a lot of other schools, though. Rice is great, but it's not leapfrogging Brown and JHU anytime soon. For all the praise NU gets, it's certainly not on the same level as the schools considered "in the top 10".</p>
<p>We will see though. CMU still has a lot of numbers going against it, and it will certainly improve greatly in this regard. Perhaps US News will change its methodology.</p>
<p>But also remember that "prestige" and rep is not determned by 18 year olds who live and die by the USNews. To a lot of people in the world, especially people that matter, Penn is not a top 10 school <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>
[quote]
only #22 seems to be a bit underrated to me.
[/quote]
When I see posts like this, its prompts the question- which of the higher ranked 21 schools do you think should be lower than CMU? I can't think of one.</p>
<p>CMU is ranked higher in the international [Times THES/QS ranking <a href="actually%20#14%20in%20the%20United%20States%20overall%20and%20#5%20in%20engineering/IT%20only">/url</a>.</p>
<p>"When I see posts like this, its prompts the question- which of the higher ranked 21 schools do you think should be lower than CMU? I can't think of one."</p>
<p>It definitely depends on the program but I would CMU along the likes of JHU/Northwestern/Rice/WUSTL overall. For specific programs, I see its business school on par with Ross/Stern and its Engineering on par with Cornell/Berkeley. SCS is obviously up there with MIT/Stanford and its Drama/Musical Theatre competes with the likes of Tisch/Northwestern and its Design/Architecture are also in the top ranks. </p>
<p>IMO, some of the overrated overall schools would be Emory/Vanderbilt/Notre Dame that CMU would be ahead of.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon's job networking is absolutely unmatched (especially now that I've experienced it). Even in the economic downturn, salary medians remained tied (Tepper is 2nd tied with Wharton/Ross/Stern at 60k not including bonuses). The same goes for Engineering/SCS salaries. Tepper's extension program in Wall St. for example, not only make it a core recruit school but also gives its small classes (only 77 freshmen for 2012) a huge advantage when it comes to finding internships and jobs. Almost everyone gets multiple offers and Newsweek repeatedly ranked CMU as the "Hottest School for A Job" when they had their "Hottest Schools For..." ranking.</p>
<p>The link the OP found doesn't surprise me at all. The "acceptances shared" schools are more closely "peers" of CMU whereas the "applications shared" schools may share applications because of the nature of CMU applicants to also apply to Ivies and Top Tech schools. CMU is definitely underranked (we even have articles on them) due to things like the endowment ranking and the including of the lesser selective schools of HSS/CFA, with respect to GPA/SAT.</p>
<p>Imagine if you combine 8 schools with different acceptance criteria (half basing off GPA/SAT and the other half basing off auditions and portfolios and work experience) and combine them all together and average the data. Of course it will give a very "flat" view of the overall university when really each separate COLLEGE should have its own ranking. This is especially true as CMU is very "trade-school like" as the programs it is very strong in are extremely marketable and career-oriented.</p>
<p>[km7hill] On quality of student body, just out of curiosity, as of 2008, what are CMU's acceptance rate and average SAT scores for admitted students compared to, let's say, UMich, UCLA or Tufts , which you claim to be more selective ?</p>
<p>Hate to say it, but get used to people either thinking CMU is Central Michigan University or a small liberal arts school they've never heard of. The people that matter (such as hiring managers, other scientists, and people within all of the fields that CMU is known for) will be fully aware of CMU's reputation and the quality of education you'll get there, but, sadly, it doesn't seem like it's going to get the name recognition that many of the higher-ranked schools somehow manage to maintain.</p>
<p>Yes, CMU is very highly regarded in the professional and academic circles of engineering, science and arts. But high schoolers and their moms don't know it or understand it. If CMU wants to make itself more attractive to them, they need to invest more in liberal arts, but they probably don't have the money.</p>
<p>I personally would put CMU in the top 15 or top 20 and Us news actually confirms it with their world ranking which is based off different factors such as academic peer review and employer review (<--- probably helped a lot). Whenever a ranking considers employer surveys/review/opinion, CMU places very highly (such as 3rd for business on Wall St. Journal, Hottest College for a Job by Newsweek, and Us News World ranking). </p>
<p>This shows what happens if you focus more on the job networking/career outlook and academics rather than endowment/alumni/yield/etc.</p>
<p>short answer...endowment, acceptance, and yield. Endowment is not as good as the other top schools, their acceptance numbers are really high because they know that a large number of kids won't be able to hack it which is why their yield is so low. Also, the kids who get accepted to CMU usually get accepted to other, supposedly better universities (MIT, Stanford etc.) and so they pick those schools. As a current student, the rankings are obviously off because the job fairs are standing room only (for the employers) and recruiters have told me that, for computer engineering at least, they take a look at our gpas and add 1 to it because CMU doesn't inflate grades like other schools</p>
<p>i'd say it's a little overrated. It has some good programs beyond engineering and the like, but nothing in the major sectors of the liberal arts.</p>
<p>+, the student body REALLY DOES impact how good a school does. If average joe shmoes all went to harvard, do you think it would be as highly ranked? lol</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is probably pretty happy with its rank. #22 is nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>Dang Carnegie Mellon sent me a lot of e-mails and I ignored them all. Lol maybe I should reconsider. But it's on the east coast..... Darn it why can't there be more non-UC schools from the west coast that are top 25.</p>
<p>The odd name of the college is going to always make it less popular than it deserves to be, just like Washingto U in st. louis is always going to be a bit hampered by the fact that it's in neither the state of Washington nor Wash. DC, resulting in a lifetime of explanations for alumni. If it were Carnegie University it would be better. The word "Mellon" has too many alternate meanings for it to be helpful. Might as well be Carnegie Rack U., or Carnegie Gazongas U.</p>
<p>If you are not a pure tech school a la MIT/Caltech, there is no way to lay claim to a topmost ranking unless you cover all bases. </p>
<p>CMU grads in CS can run circles around Ivy League rivals for jobs and in grad school applications. Their engineers, business, and arts/music majors can compete head to head with almost anyone. But the school still has huge, gaping holes in their humanities and social science cores when compared side to side with most top 20 schools. Even their core science departments, though solid, are generally not noteworthy. Until this changes, CMU will retain its "niche" greatness.</p>
<p>HopetoRice: That comment makes no sense. CMU students are known to be hard working and highly intelligent. Not to mention they are talented holistically and across a broad spectrum, from the artsy geniuses to the tech nerds to the finance wizards and the drama stars.</p>