DD is trying to decide between CMU (extra $$ over the other two) v WPI v McGill. She’s fairly certain she’s going to stick with ECE and would like to focus on AI/Robotics/Neuroscience as a minor.
We’re going to CMU this weekend and back to McGill the following week. Each schools has its own pros/cons.
Any thoughts? I have heard different things as to whether CMU Is worht the extra $$. In addition, any thoughts on the other schools, pros/cons that you could share?
(We’re in the US)
What’s your cost delta?
CMU Is approx $22K/year more over WPI and McGill
“Is it worth is?” threads are always very challenging. No one can really know how much that cost differential will hurt any given family.
Also, it’s rare that for most engineering majors that there will be a big earnings differential, even between say ME at a T10 school and a random strong state flagship. Robotics is a field where there might be justification to pay more.
CMU is generally considered the King of the Hill, but you’re not comparing it to random state U. WPI is arguably the runner up and maybe the King of the Hill themselves. I don’t know how McGill stacks up.
I’d base the decision on two things. How much will the $88K hurt and if the answer is “not much,” what would you do with the savings? More importantly, how does your daughter feel about each of them? They are very different experiences from one and other. CMU is a school that not everyone is cut out for. There are several posters who are CMU alums that directed their kids away because they knew it wouldn’t be a good fit. Is it for her?
Most Robotics courses happens at the Masters level. I think at McGill it is called the Center for Intelligent Design. It depends a lot on the school, and how much they are willing to let you stray into other levels of study. At a place like Purdue, Robotics tends to happen in the MechE and Polytech depts, not ECE, though there can be workarounds. Not sure about WPI or CMU.
I know very little about CMU besides it’s reputation. McGill is a vg school, and is known for it’s Neuroscience, but I am guessing you know that already. S2 looked at it for ECE, and decided he would rather apply to Waterloo, as it is superb in CE, CS, SE, but he had no interest in Neuroscience. Wife is a grad of McGill medical, and S1 is at the Commerce school. Both of those faculties range from very to extremely rigorous. I would guess that ECE isn’t much easier. Friends of S1 are in MechE and Civil, and seem to be doing alright, though one is going back for a 5th year to finish up.
I wish i could tell you more about the other schools, or ECE in particular at McGill. S2 is in the midst of deciding between a few ECE colleges. I am proud of the way that he is really digging in at what each school really offers and is ferreting out opinions from actual students rather than relying on the school’s opinion of itself. At first he wanted to go to the highest ranking school. Now he wants to go to the school that he thinks will work best for him- which includes taking Robotics/AI both in class, and in research/clubs.
Good luck.
The key phrase is “It depends a lot on the school”. It also depends quite a bit on what is intended when a student says they are interested in “robotics”? An interest in robotics can take you down the road om ME, EE, ECE, CS or others. My S was (and still is) very interested in robotics (an autonomous vehicle is a robot) and took many undergrad courses as part of his CS major.
I have a lot of respect for CMU engineering, gained as my S applied to colleges a while back. CMU has a long track record as a pioneer in many engineering fields, robotics included. At CMU you can add a secondary major in robotics and they have a healthy list of undergraduate robotic classes.
Now, when it comes to money, that’s something you will need to decide on. I’d suggest you write down degree plans for each school and compare them side by side. I’d also look at labs and research availability at each school. Hint: CMU has some awesome labs.
For what it’s worth, the premiere college for neuroscience is down the road from CMU at the University of Pittsburgh. Many times CMU collaborates with Pitt in neuro not the other way around.
Indeed if her primary goal is Robotics CMU is tops for that!
She needs to visit CMU to see and feel if it’s right for her.
You can add a second robotics major to any other major. Having looked at the curriculum, I would guess that would have to increase the length of the program though. It’s worth calling to ask or asking on a tour if you haven’t visited yet. If money is a factor, that might make it worse.
Unsure if it would add time or by how long if it does. Good reason to map it out. I think that robotics institute classes can be used to meet class requirements of several majors so they can be taken as part of a single major.
Money is money. If you want to dance, you gotta pay da band.
Indeed! The schools and experience are pretty different though. I’d think if money were no object, the fit would be pretty obvious one way or the other. If money is an issue, WPI is solid.
I wouldn’t ignore fit over perception of prestige in the workforce. Both will have good prospects.
I just pulled up Boston Dynamics. There are more from CMU, but each has quite a few. WPI is the second biggest school for Amazon Robotics, just behind Northeastern and well ahead of Georgia Tech. CMU doesn’t crack the top 15. Neither hit the top 15 at Piaggio Fast Forward. CMU is big at Nuro and WPI is not represented. Neither are in the top 15 at Barrett or Sarcos. Opportunities will be plentiful, but different.
With any school is the student cut out for each school since each is different. When getting hired if a company hires 20 graduates regardless where they went to school they are mostly being paid the same. Many will come from non brand name schools.
Most pay is regional so West Coast will make more then the Midwest etc. Cost of living is more also.
So is CMU a national brand worth more money then WPI an excellent regional brand with national exposure?
To me the answer could be “maybe”. Don’t rely on the internships at either school (one of my sons was canceled due to pandemic), but that could help pay for school but sometimes there are non paid opportunities also.
I would do a pro /con list. I would only pay more if it’s clean. No taking out of retirement and no additional loans. Don’t expect junior to have excessive payments right out of school. It’s not fair. Start ahead and not behind if you can. My son just paid off $5,000 /loans in his first year out in engineering since he really doesn’t have much. He is putting away about 70% of his paycheck in investments, retirement instead of paying large monthly payments for loans.
Start ahead not behind. Good luck.
WPI has a pretty open curriculum where she can easily combine AI, Robotics and neuroscience courses right from her first year. The project based curriculum and opportunities to work with nearby companies doing that type of work would make it a great choice, in my opinion, however, I have no experience with either CMU or McGill. Have you visited yet? I would guess that CMU and WPI would have vastly different campus experiences. My favorite things about WPI are the students and how the administration works with students to come up with solutions to engineering projects on campus.
Since McGill is out, and OO started a new thread, closing