<p>Which one should I go for? I want to study AI and Robotics. </p>
<p>Which one is harder to get into? (just curious)</p>
<p>I've gotten into both and I'm leaning towards Duke more, but some tell me to go to CMU. </p>
<p>Plz help!</p>
<p>CMU has some of the leading robotics research in the country, and as an undergrad, you will definitely be able to be involved in that research. CMU CS is probably harder to get into, but I know nothing about Duke's CS program. In general, I think that admission to Duke is more test score driven than admission to CMU.</p>
<p>How do you feel about CMU as a whole? Both Duke and CMU have some quirks that might make them bad 'fits' for people. That's important too.</p>
<p>Also, random note, AI sounds cooler than it actually is. But there is a pretty cool machine learning class with a good prof at CMU. :)</p>
<p>What quirks exactly KK? </p>
<p>I know nothing about Duke. My son liked the looks of CMU - there's a huge bay where they test robots (unfortunately most were away at some conference for our visit though). I had the feeling that because CS is a school of its own at CMU you get more attention than you might at a place where it's just one of many departments.</p>
<p>Mostly the stuff that's mentioned on the bboard- students are "too geeky", "work too much", "don't have lives", "smell bad", "there aren't enough girls".</p>
<p>It's true that there's less girls than at other schools, and that on average they are less concerned with their appearance- although, depending on your point of view, that might not be a bad thing- I know some guys who think it's easier to find girls with similar interests here. For them, finding a "geek" girl that they connect with is more important than dating someone really hot.</p>
<p>There is a very small group of students who don't seem to understand hygiene. It's not enough to impact your life, but some people take it as an excuse to claim that no one showers and use it as a reason to hate CMU as a whole. I don't think those are vaild claims, but the people who make them are not people who would necessarily be happy here, even if they got past that.</p>
<p>We do work hard, and we don't party as much as students at other schools. Don't come here if you want to be a slacker and/or spend the majority of your time partying. That said, there was definitely partying this weekend because of carnival, though, as always, it was completely avoidable if that's what you want. Last night, some of my friends went to parties, but others played Starcraft in the cluster, and I was playing DDR and randon NES games with some friends.</p>
<p>CMU is more pre-professional than other universities, but it was founded to be that way. Andrew Carnegie gave his money to found a school to educate the working class's children in trades. While it's debatable whether or not CMU's tuition makes it possible for it to educate children of the working class, CMU's strengths are still in areas with specific training - engineering/computer science, business, art, drama, music, architecture. CMU isn't a good place for an undecided person who wants a liberal arts education, and it never will be because that's not its goal. Some people dislike that- but it's okay, there are schools that do have what they want.</p>
<p>There is a bit of self-segregation between majors, but in general in freshman dorms everyone is friendly, regardless of major. I've actually found the random engineering guys on my floor this year as a sophomore to be more friendly than the girls that were on my floor as a freshman, but I was on a floor with one of the double-major living community things, and having 1/4 of the floor be in a bunch of the same classes kind of threw off the everyone-knows-everyone-equally dynamic. It just happens because of the classes people take and who they feel most comfortable with they know people mostly in the same major, but it's easily overcome by joining clubs that are not related to or closely correlated with majors (join student dormitory council or fringe, not the kgb or computer club, if you want to meet people who aren't CS).</p>
<p>See in comparison to RPI and WPI CMU seemed relatively ungeeky! I worry most about self-segregation, but my kid is who he is. I think my kid understands hygiene, but he did go through a stage of having to be nagged about it. I actually thought it was sort of sweet that the SCS used the Immigration course to do a little nagging if necessary. I fully expect my kid to find the geeky community wherever he ends up. (He spent yesterday afternoon with Harvard's sci fi club playing board games.)</p>
<p>Uh... CMU's CS program, Robotics, and AI are like top-notch in the country. Overall for CS, Duke is ranked 25 and CMU is rank 1. CMU's AI program is Rank 3 after MIT and Stanford.</p>
<p>And just from a student's perspective, there's a lot of robotics and AI research going on. There's an entire "Robotics Institute" under SCS, and they get a lot of lab space to work. Last year, CMU sent two humvees to the DARPA autonomous race, and placed 2nd and 3rd. The Stanford team who placed first was actually led by a former CMU Graduate who had previously worked with the CMU leader.</p>
<p>I think that CMU may have more non-engineering/CS majors around than RPI or WPI, so there are more people to complain about geeks who aren't their "type." The immigration course really only mentions hygiene in passing in the first week or two when some upperclassmen come in to give advice (which includes taking showers at least every few days...), although it is true that you can't pass unless you do enough non-schoolwork things, like go out to eat off campus or join clubs.</p>