<p>I don't know which to choose. I just visited both of them, and I loved them both. I thought after visiting Cornell it was going to be an easy decision, but then Carnegie's campus and placement in a city really attracted me. My biggest cons for both: Cornell- not in a city and it's really big; Carnegie- I don't know about the students there. Are they nice? I talked to many people at Cornell because I was there 3 days, and they were all really kind. Are the people at CMU the same way? Also, do any of the students leave you wondering why they were accepted, or do they all perform at a very high level?</p>
<p>Also: my major will be ECE (very strongly believe this).
Thanks for your help. Please don't just leave me biased or unfounded opinions.</p>
<p>I have spent time at both schools and they are very different - campus-wise and student body-wise. I recommend that you spend quality time at CMU, just as you have at Cornell, to help with your decision. I do not think anyone can make this decision but you.</p>
<p>I know, I want to spend more time at CMU, but it’s getting down to the wire and I don’t have opportunities to without missing things at school. I have all my senior events coming up… prom, grad night, etc, and it’s only 10-11 days until I have to decide.</p>
<p>If I had an offer to Cornell, I’ll choose it over CMU.
A few things people “hate” about cornell：
Too big: well, in your case, if you only count the engineering department, it’s really not that different. So you’ll receive roughly the same attention from professors.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Rural: I can’t argue with that, it’s only up to you.</p></li>
<li><p>Low Ivy: when everybody is telling you that Ivy really is just a useless name, that means tons of people out there have the idea that Ivy actually means something. It does, you probably won’t feel it when you’re in it, but when you are job hunting, it might help.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You said that you strongly believe that you’re gonna do ECE, so did a lot of people. But things change all the time, so do people. In cornell, you have so much more options if you have doubts. </p>
<p>I would definitely not choose CMU site unseen. The reason I say that is that it was my son’s first choice until he visited - he realized, while it is perfect fit for some, it would have been a bad decision for him to attend. He would not have known that unless he went there and spent time. Others have had the opposite happen - weren’t sure about it and it felt right while there and they put down their deposit on the spot. You really need to go.</p>
<p>I would pick Carnegie because it has a really strong ECE program. And if you do decide Cornell please don’t pick it just because it is an “Ivy”.</p>
<p>I doubt engineering would be much worse either way.
Cornell IS in a city- a small city, but it hits above its size, Swelled with an equal # students, I was never bored there.
I loved Ithaca.
YMMV.</p>
<p>My impression is Pittsbugh is one of those “family” cities where a car is pretty important, You may investigate and find otherwise. But in my experience non-college town cities are optimized for working people who are making money. as opposed to college students who have little of same.</p>
<p>In my day I did not apply to CMU because I wanted great liberal arts programs as well as sciences, and also socially I wanted a better M-F ratio. I don’t know where these things stand now.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s naive of me to have to ask this, but do any of the students leave you wondering why they were accepted, or do they all perform at a very high level?</p>
<p>Pittsburgh is actually one of the biggest college cities in the USA! We have Pitt, Carlow, Chatham, Duquesne, CMU, the AIP, and Point Park all within about a 20 mile radius of each other. The bus system has really flourished in the last few years, and you can take buses pretty much anywhere - with a CMU ID you have an instant bus pass and the buses tend to be pretty reliable. (Except the 59U, which is a soulless demon from hell that is supposed to come on time and never does. Sighting the 59U is like spotting a unicorn.)</p>
<p>@profase: Sometimes I’ll run into someone who is a little bit… not up to standards, like one of those stereotypical dumb blonde chicks you tried to get away from in high school. But then I’ll find out that she’s one of the best painters/photographers on campus, or writes beautifully, is a top-notch swimmer, etc, etc. </p>
<p>I feel like there’s a lot of “idiot syndrome” on campus where freshmen pretended to be dumber than they really were so that they could fit in and be cool. But the more I talk to people, the more I realize that everyone at CMU tends to be an intellectual underneath, no matter what the ‘front’ they put up is. Even the people who come off as vapid and shallow have incredible talents or abilities.</p>
<p>I have (had, paid deposit) this option too. Maybe it was just my visit, maybe I should have visited again in april, but I did not like Cornell. It’s such a…preppy school. My host was annoying prep/futuresorority girl, the wealthy, the lack of diverse people I guess. It felt like people were either preps or nerds. I think Carnegies ECE program is higher ranked than Cornells though I’m sure you’ll find a fine education there as well. Cornell just felt like the setting and characters in a terrible horror movie, middle of nowhere, cold, castle-stone-buildings, preps and jocks and nerds all about to…be haunted.</p>
<p>At Carnegie I think everyone is pretty intelligent and high performing, kinda nerdy but with a twist. Like a math major with a minor in music that plays a wicked guitar. Or a chemical engineering major that also coaches choreography. The people have their quirks but are very smart. Check out the robotics club if you do visit to see what I mean.</p>
<p>I don’t think the Ivy label matters a lot in ECE. A CMU degree carries a lot of weight though with some employers like Microsoft, Google, etc.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d choose CMU over Cornell (and GaTech, UIUC, or UMichigan) for ECE, magazine rankings notwithstanding. In fact, the only schools I’d pick over CMU for an ECE major would be MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I don’t quite agree. I lived 5 years in Pittsburgh and never owned a car. Public transportation in the city of Pittsburgh is really good. It is not like living in Dallas or LA.</p>
<p>I posted my thoughts on the Cornell forum where you asked, but just wanted to say that this individual’s assessment of Cornell could not be further from the truth. The beauty of Cornell is that you can’t throw everybody into a category. If you’re exposed to preps or jocks one trip, the next you might find nerds or hicks or hippies or <gasp> theatre kids… Cornell’s huge diversity of academic interests rather defies stereotype of this nature, and it’s certainly not a place full of just “preps or nerds”.</gasp></p>
<p>“I also think there is more dorm availability after freshman year.”</p>
<p>Well hopefully those dorms are better than Cornell dorms. Though its true that dorms are limited, most people at Cornell with the choice prefer to live off campus. Dorms have great utility freshman year, when you are establishing your social network. Once that’s accomplished though, many people prefer to be with their friends, in bigger rooms, without RAs or the other yahoos in the dorms. A decent number also choose to live in fraternities with like-minded individuals. </p>
<p>But one thing that must be recognized is that in many cases “off campus” there is in the collegetown “student ghetto”, or surrounding areas, which are really little more than an extension of the campus. They are immediately adjacent to the campus proper, and virtually nobody lives there except students. Functionally speaking, they are like privatized additional university housing. The campus is still very much the focus of life for students living in collegetown.</p>
<p>I still remember when I first lived off campus, with a kitchen for the first time,in my very first house in Collegetown , calling my mother long distance and asking her how to cook a hamburger. So that may be a part of the Cornell experience that might be a bit different. You can stay on the University meal plan too, but you’ve got a kitchen right there…</p>
<p>There are upperclassmen who live in the dorms.as well, and some prefer them. i guess.</p>
<p>By contrast, my D1 attended an LAC which had mandatory dormage for the first three years. She went into a predominantly upperclassmen dorm, and found it stifling socially. The upperclassmen simply didn’t have the same interests in social network expansion as she, as a freshman,did, and they kept mostly to themselves. I imagine that is often the case in upperclassman dorms, leaving one mosly with the inferior housing situation with little offsetting social benefit.</p>
<p>There’s tons of housing available outside of CMU’s dorms, though the only real “collegetown” at CMU would be Beeler St. which is about 50/50 houses filled with 5+ college students or some of the slumlord areas down in Oakland which are mostly Pitt students. If you go into Shadyside or Squirrel Hill you’ll have a lot more families and smaller homes, so you won’t have the college atmosphere. North Oakland will be more urban, but I think there’s still a significant number of non-college people around, so it’s not nearly the party town you’ll find closer to where most Pitt students live.</p>
<p>OP, I’m currently an ECE junior at Cornell. Go where the environment you like best. Both CMU and Cornell have excellent and comprehensive ECE department. Academic wise, the only difference between the two departments will be Cornell is known as more “theoretical” and CMU more “applied”. Regardless, both will give you the breadth and depth you are looking for in getting a solid education and will prepare you well for grad school or employment in the future.</p>
<p>Btw, if you visited recently were you one of the people who visited the digital lab in Phillips hall?</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice eslite. No I didn’t visit the digital labs… I met some one (Brian I believe) by the cafe in Phillips, and I also met a girl in Philips lobby that showed me around the quad. You must be thinking of another person ;)</p>
We have Pitt, Carlow, Chatham, Duquesne, CMU, the AIP, and Point Park all within about a 20 mile radius of each other. The bus system has really flourished in the last few years, and you can take buses pretty much anywhere - with a CMU ID you have an instant bus pass and the buses tend to be pretty reliable. (Except the 59U, which is a soulless demon from hell that is supposed to come on time and never does. Sighting the 59U is like spotting a unicorn.)</p>