<p>I've been accepted into both CMU's design program and Brown university. Design is a possible career direction for my life, but I'm not 100% sure that I want to do it. These two colleges are so completely different that I'm torn between the two.
At CMU I can go and get a fantastic education in design but run the risk of suddenly not wanting to do it and being pin-holed into there. If I decide Brown I can explore and finally decide on what I want to do. Only problem is, that if I do decide to do design, I've missed my opportunity for a fantastic program at CMU. Suggestions or thoughts?</p>
<p>How much are you considering design? I guess it also depends what other fields interest you. If you are unsure about design but definitely see yourself doing something technology based, go to CMU. If you think you’ll change drastically to something like, i don’t know, classics, you might want to consider brown. People usually say CMU is for those who know what they want to do, but I think people who know generally what field they want to go into (like something with technology) attend. You could major in humanities at cmu, of course, but it’s just not as well known and brown would be a better choice.</p>
<p>Right now I have a wide range of interest in all subjects, but have really kept with the visual arts. I just feel that if I go to CMU and get into the work force not wanting to do ID, I’ll have nothing to fall back on. If I have a Brown degree I might be more flexible in what I pursue afterwards, which might be better in this economy.</p>
<p>I would go to Brown. Brown has a great partnership with RISD. I just think the flexibility would be great.</p>
<p>Brown is an awesome school, all I’ll say. the decision is up to you</p>
<p>If you don’t go to Brown, I’ll take your spot. If you miss Brown, you’ll have missed one of the most unique and inspiring universities that <em>accepted its most competitive class this year</em>. You can always focus on design later (ditto to awanderer on that one); Brown will change your life. Haha I should advertise for Brown.</p>
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<p>You do realize that every school says this every year, right?</p>
<p>I’m industrial design at CMU, about to graduate and don’t necessarily want to go into ID (although I still want to do something design-centric). However, you don’t realize how applicable design really is until you start getting into the program. It’s as much about learning how to think and solve problems and to approach a problem as it is learning about designing things. So you sure won’t be pin-holed career-wise. And even so, I’d still not trade my design education for anything. Also, CMU, unlike most other schools, as a really lax core requirement, so very little of your classes will be taken up by crap like world history and English 101. So pretty much after freshman year, you’ll be able to take whatever electives you want. I’ve taken lots of stuff from business and computer science, to photography and history. As long as you meet the prereqs for the class and there’s space, you can take it. I’ve heard that doing this is considerably harder at other schools. And if you do ditch design, it should be very easy for you to just jump into H&SS (humanities) and then take whatever you want from there.</p>
<p>But it really depends, if you want get a solid, practical education that prepares you very well for the real world, and you like technology and science and robots and see yourself dabbling in technological fields, and even entertainment technology (CMU has a strong connection with the movie special effects and video game industries), then CMU would e perfect.</p>
<p>But if you want to remain undecided about what to study, sit read history books and write essays, and enjoy walking up very steep hills, then go to Brown. </p>
<p>Brown is still a fantastic school, and it would be awesome to go there, I’m just biased towards the more practical tech-infused education model that CMU offers, rather than the more traditional theoretical liberal arts type model. Which is why I chose CMU over both pure art schools and liberal arts schools.</p>