<p>Looking at CS major.</p>
<p>Differences in research opportunities, course difficulty, course diversity, amount of electives, professor involvement?</p>
<p>Also, how is the support system different, social scene, college city, weather?</p>
<p>Reputation of CS major? Likelihood of finding fairly good paying jobs? Which would look better to a grad school?</p>
<p>I was offered a lot more in aid at Carnegie Mellon than at MIT but in the end money really doesn't matter.</p>
<p>I can’t really comment on MIT’s program. Boston is bigger than Pittsburgh, but both have about the same weather, and both are definitely college towns. I fell like CMU is much more diverse in terms of the kinds of people you’ll meet and what they’re studying (great academic diversity at CMU), but I could be wrong there.</p>
<p>As for reputation, it doesn’t get any better than CMU. Tech companies fall head over heals to get CMU interns and employees. At CMU’s career fairs, the CS majors wear jeans and T-shirts because they don’t have to impress the companies there; it’s more about the companies impressing them.</p>
<p>No. CS majors wear jeans and t-shirts because that’s what the culture is like (company representatives wear similar attire). It’s not some weird respect power struggle.</p>
<p>With regards to CMU vs MIT, you really can’t go wrong with either. They’re both so good that there is little to no difference in the number of opportunities.</p>
<p>Have you visited both? If so, what were your impressions?</p>
<p>lxs - why is money not an issue - are you a full pay kid and what you received was a Carnegie Scholarship. If not, money is always an issue. CMU has the best CS department and has given you way more money than MIT. Seems like a clear choice.</p>
<p>Does anyone really choose CMU over MIT???</p>
<p>Yes ^ I know 2. Look around this forum and you’ll find more</p>
<p>CMU and MIT both have nothing short of fantastic reputations; they only have minuscule differences related to computer science specialties, which don’t apply as much until graduate school, so consider them equal in computer science. MIT is a little stronger for overall reputation of the university. </p>
<p>You had mentioned research opportunities, related to that is the variety of research opportunities. CMU has the largest computer science program, period. The assumption is that the larger a program is, the more choice of research and applications of the research that exists. </p>
<p>CMU’s CS department is really huge. From one study they concluded that CMU’s CS department was about three times the size of MIT. This is based on only data I can find to compare such a topic is a bit old and measures the number of faculty teaching, link [url=<a href=“http://3dpancakes.typepad.com/ernie/2004/12/where_cs_facult.html]here[/url”>Ernie's 3D Pancakes: Where CS faculty got their degrees]here[/url</a>]. I appreciate that this suffers from defining what is computer science and that it is a few years old, but I would guess that all of the big four CS schools tend to grow similarly as the field of CS grows.</p>
<p>As far as weather though, I think Boston has a little better weather. Temperatures are slightly warmer in Boston because of the Ocean, and there is more sun because Boston has less hills, see wikipedia for the cities to get more detail. Personally, I choose Pittsburgh over Boston because it is large enough to have good resources(parks/greenery, sports teams) but small enough to not have many big city problems like crime. Full disclosure: I am CMU affiliated but I get up to MIT/Boston somewhat regularly.</p>
<p>As far as aid goes: CMU will match aid offers, which is unusual for a university. If MIT gave you X thousand per year, let your CMU admissions officer know and they will match it… or you could let the other people who can’t afford tuition appreciate that same financial aid.</p>
<p>Regarding graduate schools and jobs: don’t worry, you’ll get whatever you want as long as you graduate. The placement of both of these schools is fantastic. I’ve seen more from CMU and there is an auditorium full of employers lined up that would love to hire CS majors, you can write your own ticket. If you care about grad school, you’d be better off spending less time researching the schools and more time researching areas that interest you. Undergraduate academic research matters a lot for graduate school.</p>
<p>No CMU will not match aid offers. They may bridge the gap in aid offers, but nothing more than a few thousand dollars is usually offered.</p>
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<p>I had mine matched. It all depends on how much CMU wants you.</p>
<p>That is a decision you have to make yourself. One point you should consider though is that the CS programs at MIT and CMU actually have slightly different emphases. CMU’s course is more like a “pure CS” degree, whereas CS at MIT is actually offered as a concentration within the broader EECS degree. As a result, compared to CMU, MIT generally requires that you take many more basic general education (math/science) and engineering classes. </p>
<p>Theoretically for example, it is possible to graduate from CMU’s SCS without ever taking a class in, let’s say, multivariable calculus or modern chemistry. That would be impossible at MIT. On the other hand, the typical CS student at CMU normally takes a broader range of advanced CS-specific classes than the typical MIT student.</p>
<p>The OP was offered MORE aid from Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>“I was offered a lot more in aid at Carnegie Mellon than at MIT”</p>