<p>I know CMU has an outstanding reputation for its engineering programs and for Tepper, its business school. They say if you graduate from an Ivy League school or Duke, etc. you can have a degree in basketweaving and it will still look impressive. I was wondering if you felt this was true for CMU as well. How would "random" majors from CMU stack up? Thanks for answering!</p>
<p>I would like to know the answer to this question too :D</p>
<p>I don’t think random majors from CMU will have nearly as much of an impact as one from a school with a really well known name. It’s mostly due to CMU being extremely well respected in fields its good at and relatively unheard of otherwise.</p>
<p>If by ‘random’ you mean H&SS majors, then it’s still very well regarded, because people who DO know about CMU will be impressed with you regardless of your major. Even ‘random’ stuff is very highly ranked. Design, for instance, is one of those programs that gets overshadowed by CS, engineering and business, but it’s still top ten in the nation. While CMU does some things better than it does other things, it still does everything very well, and is all around highly regarded. Not to mention, it is quickly becoming more widely recognized as a premier university. It’s traditionally been a more regional name.</p>
<p>I am a tepper and CS major (specifically human computer interaction) so while I may be taking advantage of two of the better known programs at CMU, I wish i was in some of the others! Architecture is widely recognized as one of the best 5 yr programs out there. Drama and design consistently rank top in the nation. Psychology (both undergrad and grad) are top in national universities (don’t know bout liberal colleges). Math and physics, while not up there with some ivy’s, still command huge respect from the academic communities for their research. </p>
<p>Another thing you should really note is the amount of cross discipline majors and flexibility CMU allows to study different subjects. </p>
<p>BHA - combination of arts and sciences
Comp Finance - combination of business and math (#1 in the country)
HCI - combination of design, computer science, and psychology</p>
<p>those are just some of the major ones but tons of students dual study in whatever programs because of interst and like Demon Thermos said, everything is very good. The point of CMU is they work you…hard. So everything you study will be good because of that emphasis. It just depends on whether or not your willing to take advantage of everything the school offers.</p>