Chances & Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>East Asian Female (British nationality)
American curriculum-based private international school (80% of graduating class goes to a top 50 college)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 UW, 4.3 W
SAT1: 780 M, 720 R, 800 W (2300)
SAT2: Bio 800, World His 800, Chem 770, Math 2 750
APs: Macro Econ 5, Micro Econ 5, Bio 5, U.S. His 5, Psych 5, Chem 4, Calc AB 4</p>

<p>ECs: Orchestra, Mu Alpha Theta, Community Service Club
- Summer: Internship at Citibank for 3 summers, community service in Thailand (working with former prostitutes)</p>

<p>Awards: Graduating with honors, International School Solo Competition 1st Place (flute, three times consecutively), United States Math Olympiad 2010 finalist, various awards from Mu Alpha Theta conventions</p>

<p>Chances to Tepper?</p>

<p>Also, I have a question about Carnegie Mellon. I've heard a rumor that Carnegie Mellon is a very miserable(?) college....In your opinion, was/is your time at Carnegie Mellon miserable?
Because I heard that..
- The college itself is too computer science focused
- Majors not related to computers are inferior
- It is boring because of the lack of a social enviornment</p>

<p>I visited and liked Carnegie Mellon's campus and location but my opinion is becoming very volatile because I would, of course, like to have a good college experience...Anything to defend Carnegie Mellon?</p>

2

<p>No one here can give you an accurate chance at CMU, since we are not admissions officers. And I’m pretty sure you know that.</p>

3

<p>you will definitely get in. not only do you have excellent credentials extracurricularly but your test scores alone would get you in. i’m also applying to tepper this upcoming year with not nearly as respectable a resume as you have. im visiting this weekend. hopefully we can be in the same business classes :)…if i get accepted…which is probably not happening unfortunately</p>

4

<p>@getin: I’d say you have a great shot. Stats are good, ECs are varied and interesting (prostitute social work sounds gritty). Make sure to write a good essay. Being British also helps, as CMU has a severe imbalance between European students and Asian/Indian international students. </p>

<p>Those who say CMU is boring are the ones who suck at socializing and have to have things handed to them all the time. They’re probably the same type of people who have trouble making friends in the real world, too. You’ve got to find your own opportunities-- of which there are many-- and seek them out yourself, and you’ll find you have plenty of friends to go around. </p>

<p>CMU does have a strong CS program. It is by no means the overwhelmingly primary thing at CMU-- in fact, CS kids seem to be pretty underrepresented in clubs and around campus, and seem to clique together a lot. Every college is top-10 in many fields in terms of academics. CMU is diverse and badass like that.</p>

<p>@MStocksl: I see you posted a chance thread yourself once upon a time. It’s nice to have people check over where you seem to be in the college process, even if they’re not admissions officers. :)</p>

5

<p>It is true that CMU is better known for being one of the top CS schools ** in the world **, but Tepper is by no means “inferior”. It is one of the top business/economics schools in the country. In some areas like operations research and information systems, it is probably top 1 or 2. There were also 5 Nobel laureates who were at some point affiliated with Tepper or its previous incarnation (GSIA) and won the prize mostly for the work they did while teaching there. </p>

<p>There are also other departments/schools at CMU which I wouldn’t call “inferior” (drama, design, architecture, most areas of engineering, robotics, public policy, statistics, philosophy, cognitive psychology, etc.). The basic sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology) and especially some areas of humanities and social sciences are not as strong as they ** could be ** for a university that aspires to be recognized as world class ** overall **, but I’m pretty sure you will still get a pretty decent undergraduate education in those areas at CMU. Since the university is relatively small with a favorable student/faculty ratio, you get a lot of individual attention and there is plenty of room for undergraduate research and other opportunities. CMU is also a high-ranked university among employers/recruiters and CMU grads are normally well placed in the job market.</p>

<p>CMU’s main weaknesses are perhaps its very low endowment (by US standards) and its low yield/relatively high acceptance rate. The low endowment is a consequence of CMU’s being a relatively “new” university that only rose to national prominence some 40 or so years ago. The low yield comes from the fact that, because of prestige and magazine rankings, CMU is still seen by any applicants as a kind of “second-choice school”, even in areas where it is exceptionally strong and on par with its competitors, like computer science or electrical & computer engineering. </p>

<p>The good thing is that CMU is on the rise (including in yield, selectivity, number of applicants, etc.) and, as it gets more exposure and increases its profile, will continue to climb the prestige ladder. I am confident that, in the long run, it will be much better ranked overall than it currently is (which BTW is already fairly good for such a new university).</p>

6

<p>Now that I look my original post did come across a little snarkier than I intended. But yes I understand the feeling of wanted to post a chance thing. I just realize now that it’s not incredibly useful/accurate but it does make you feel good.</p>

7

<p>Those scores are very competitive, but with Tepper, your EC’s count a lot more, because it’s harder to gauge how good or successful you’ll be with just, say, SAT I Math and English scores.</p>

<p>About those misconceptions:

  1. While it is true that computer science is a very challenging program, it is does not represent our whole school. In fact, the size of the school is relatively small compared to the other ones, like CIT or MCS.
  2. If our other majors besides our computer science were weak, we wouldn’t be ranked that high as an overall school. College of Fine Arts is consistently ranked as one of the top, with several music majors pushing Julliard for top honors. Mellon College of Science is a very solid school with majors such as biology or math. Carnegie Tech is full of top level majors, ranging from ECE to MechE. Tepper, obviously, is one of the top programs there is - and based on reviews, I’d say they work just as hard, if not harder, than peer institutions.
  3. Look at MIT or Georgia Tech. Any school with a big engineering department will bound to get “lack of social environment” label. But good thing about CMU is that we have other schools outside of computer science and engineering, so we’re not a one-trick pony.</p>