Hi. I’m trying to come up with a list of pros and cons for Carnegie Mellon (mellon college of science) vs case western because I’m torn between those two. Cost is not an issue right now. I’m planning on majoring in chemistry but that might change who knows. Please help!
What are the main things you like about each school?
The two schools are quite comparable. Have you visited? What do you perceive as the pros and cons of each?
@singermom4 @xraymancs I like case western’s SAGES program and how easy it is to take courses from different schools and research opportunities since UH and Cleveland clinic are right there. For Carnegie Mellon, I guess it’s the higher ranking and research opportunities since their faculty members are like really top in their field? But since I only applied to mellon college of science, if I end up not liking chemistry, then I would either have to transfer to other schools, or stick with biology or physics(i would not survive either as my major). And yes, I have visited both.
I think you have answered your own question then. It sounds like Case is a better fit for you. Don’t get hung up on rankings.
Agreed with @xraymancs. Don’t tie yourselves up with what school sounds more prestigious. Case is a fine school and it sounds like you like it better.
If you’re not sure what you want to do then you need to go with the most flexible program - one of the reasons CWRU is high on our list. We visited Carnegie Mellon but S did not apply due to the difficulty of double majoring in his fields of current interest (economics and CS).
We visited both Carnegie Mellon and Case. We really felt like Carnegie Mellon was very cold. I agree that Carnegie Mellon is highly ranked but we were not impressed with our visit. In fact my daughter did not apply to Carnegie Mellon based on the visit. It was one of the few schools that turned the whole family off. On the other hand my daughter thought the students at Case were much more connected. We have visited Case twice and the students and faculty have always been very open, honest and welcoming. Our vote would be Case.
@NYUndecided - I didn’t include in my prior comments but I have to agree that the CMU tour was the least impressive of the dozen colleges we visited. Perhaps they get enough students so they don’t need to try hard to impress during the information tours - at least, that’s the impression we got. We had just also come off a U Pitt tour - fantastic and much more personalized. At CMU they had 50 of us with two guides whereas at Pitt we were 6-8 with an enthusiastic and informed student guide. Ratio was similar at CWRU plus they went to some effort to ensure S had the opportunity to meet with a department head. We asked for this with every school we visited but it was pretty hit or miss with being able to talk with a professor or head at any school.