<p>Hey all! I didn't quite get into CMU yet, but I figure it doesn't hurt to think about my options.</p>
<p>I've been so ecstatic about CMU, and telling everyone that I want to go there, but ever since I got into RPI, I've been a little uneasy, and am now unsure of where I truly want to go. </p>
<p>Both schools are awesome, but in slightly different ways. The pros of CMU are a great academic community, the city of Pittsburgh, as well as the integration of technology and the arts. The only con for me for CMU is the courseload, and the lack of the kinds of clubs I want (I have interests in dance, and in the martial art Capoeira, which there is a club for, but not taught by actual teachers).</p>
<p>The pros of RPI for me is that it's a rising university, I'm already in there, I have a great financial aid plan, the courses are just right for me, they are rated the fifth best game design program, and the extracurricular activities are great. The cons are that although it has an orchestra, I'm not sure if I can take cello lessons, and the surrounding city is a little iffy.</p>
<p>I'm sorry if this is a bad post, but I'd appreciate it if anyone could help me decide. Thanks!</p>
<p>My boyfriend just graduated from RPI last June (Electronic Media & Communications and Game Design) and as the game design program was very new when he started attending, he was a huge part of the feedback committee in developing the program. I’m at CMU now as a freshman and I’m also looking to go into the game design field. He’ll be coming to CMU for grad school in the fall, and we’ve discussed the pros and cons a bit of both colleges:</p>
<p>CMU</p>
<p>Pros: In a good city, lots of things to do off-campus, has DS (Dancer’s Symposium) which is a highly attended dance event, coursework is NOT that bad unless you’re in SCS or ECE, good food, excellent orchestra (Carnegie Music Hall is right down the street and it’s ginormous, plus CFA has its own orchestra hall) and the Game Creation Society is huge at CMU. They put out games every semester and are very active/involved on campus. Pitt is also right down the street and if there’s a class that’s not at CMU, chances are you can take it in the Pitt honors program.</p>
<p>Cons: Weather sucks, the Mexican food sucks more, SCS is difficult, the aid might not be as good unless you can have it matched with a peer institution’s aid (see: RPI), bus transit is slow, difficult admissions process. </p>
<p>RPI</p>
<p>Pros: Highly technical, excellent game design program (top 5, as you mentioned) and awesome professors in that field. The coursework is hard, but it’s not as difficult as CMU’s technical fields are. The diploma has very good weight with employers and their career fair is very well attended each year (after graduation, boyfriend got a job with Lockheed Martin at an excellent starting salary thanks to RPI). Great financial aid-- boyfriend received 12k+ a year. </p>
<p>Cons: Humanities suck. Troy, NY is a ghetto where you have to basically carry a knife to go grocery shopping. The game design club doesn’t ever do anything (boyfriend was lead artist in the club and could not motivate anyone to ever work on a single game with him). No active arts presence. The guy:girl ratio sucks majorly (they call it RIBS - Rensselaer Induced ***** Syndrome. Girls get whatever they want purely because there are so few of them.) </p>
<p>It would help if you could provide more info about your intended major and career goals too hope this is of some use to you!</p>
<p>I remember seeing lots of postings about Capoeira on misc.market at CMU, so while there might not be “real” classes, I’m sure you could get involved in some way that would still have you learning.</p>
<p>I know there’s also a dance group that puts on performances every semester doing all sorts of styles.</p>
<p>If you get into both schools and RPI offers you a better aid package you can always try working with CMU to get them to raise their offer. I did it and was able to get CMU to match RPI.</p>
<p>My intended major is Computer Science, and my intended career path is as a game programmer/designer (basically, anything in the game development field)</p>
<p>Despite that, I think that your opinion has really helped me. Do you think it would possibly be better for me to go to Carnegie Mellon for both Undergraduate and Graduate (ETC), or would it be better to go to RPI for undergraduate, and then Carnegie for Graduate?</p>
<p>If you go to cmu undergrad and are a member of the game creation society, you’ll have zero problem getting into the ETC. On the other hand, if you go to CMU undergrad, you might not want to go to the ETC for grad as well-- I came here thinking, “Okay, I’ll get my dual degree here and then go to the ETC for graduate school”-- but now I’m not so sure I want to spend the next five years in Pittsburgh. It’s kinda rainy and gross. </p>
<p>As a game programmer, CMU is going to definitely be your best bet, though. RPI is considered the “fallback” school for programmers who couldn’t get into CMU. I would definitely advise you to choose CMU if they match your RPI aid and it is reasonable for you to go. The coursework is intense, but there’s a lot of help for SCS kids-- they definitely are aware of how hard it is! You can then decide if you want to really go to the ETC or whether you would prefer to go somewhere different, like USC or Vancouver. </p>
<p>A lot of people think that getting a degree in just game design is the way to go-- but it’s not. As my boyfriend’s now learning, the industry much prefers you to have a degree in something more diverse (like his animation degree) than just a game design degree alone. If you’re going to go to RPI, do not merely study game design-- do a dual CS/GD degree. CMU won’t offer you a game design degree, unfortunately, but it’ll offer you an excellent CS school with the chance to branch out into many different skillsets with a game design slant. Look into the Human-Computer Interaction institute as well ([Welcome</a> | Human-Computer Interaction Institute](<a href=“http://hcii.cmu.edu%5DWelcome”>http://hcii.cmu.edu)). This is my intended double major, and it’s a highly sought after skillset in the field from what I have learned. Many CS majors take a double major in HCI to learn game design principles. </p>
<p>I might also add that there are a couple classes (building virtual worlds, game design, etc) that are taught by ETC professors and are available to undergrads at CMU.</p>
<p>Hmm, I have the same question but about engineering. Either aeromechE if I go to RPI or mechE or comp/elecE if I go to CMU. I don’t know, I think at the moment that I’d like to go into aerospace and I’m not sure how to do that at CMU. Still, I’m not entirely sure, maybe I want to do something in robotics and that’s easier at CMU. I like how both have student run theater clubs but CMUs is definitely bigger yet RPIs seemed to take themselves less seriously and I like that.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned mexican food, RPI and CMU both have terrible mexican food, just saying that. Also, the boy:girl ration is pretty bad at either school I hear. I’m a girl so I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I’ve visited both and really liked both. I sometimes lean more to CMU because of the crazy traditions I saw but otherwise I don’t know. So let’s just say I’m a female mechE into robots, aerospace and theater (and I hate both schools “mexican food”, just gonna cook my own). Any further advice? (sorry for thread jacking, if this is okay, but I’m wondering about the same schools)</p>
<p>For aerospace and robotics CMU towers over RPI. For theatre not taking itself seriously… well, RPI wins that one. Scotch n’ Soda tries, but a lot of them have their heads up their you-know-whats. Hence why I didn’t join. Hardcore theater kids terrify me. </p>
<p>Also the female ratio is slightly worse at RPI. CMU isn’t great, but as a girl, you basically have your pick of campus boys if you’re socially active. It’s about 40:60 at CMU and a little less-- around 35:65:-- at RPI, and worse in technical fields. CM’ does a lot of active recruiting of females in the sciences, so if you’re looking to bump up your aid, just wave your aid from RPI at them and I’m sure they’ll be happy to oblige.</p>
<p>And you’re right on the mexican food. Gah. RPI’s dining hall and CMU’s Si Senor should be in competition for worst southern food ever.</p>
<p>gcs looked interesting… and i’m pretty sure i’m even on the email dlist, but i just haven’t had the time to get involved. if i take computer graphics next semester then perhaps, but i’m also leaning (suicidally) towards OS, so in that case that may be one club that i never get around to =/</p>
<p>FayBeeAn, there will never be enough time to do half of the cool stuff that’s out here… it’s really pretty great, and having 0 down time makes time fly so fast it’s ridiculous. I honestly can’t believe it’s already been a year since I decided on coming here. Or that it’s only 2 weeks until my next wave of midterms =(</p>
<p>nope, I’m HSS, but I work in the SCS/Robotics Institute and my intended double is HCI. (Applied, waiting to hear back from them.) I’m also in 15-121 right now.</p>
<p>Man, I remember eating at Si Senor so often back when I was at CMU since the food options were pretty terrible then (though we did have an O on campus, which was sweet). Ever since moving out to Los Angeles for grad school I haven’t had a bad Mexican meal. Now when I go back and visit my parents at home they ask if I want to go out for mexican and I’m pretty much D:</p>
<p>Haha, yeah, I have this tally of pros for 3 schools: UT, CMU, and RPI. UT has this huge check for mexican food over the others, and city and social life. But how do I go into aerospace from CMU if I can’t major? I mean, I know they have internships with NASA (because they like, loved showing us that) but otherwise I don’t know how one would go into that. </p>
<p>I’m from San Antonio and told by tourists that the mexican food here is some of the best, and they’ll be eating at regular restaurants not even the really good ones. Then I hear from up north that TX has some of the best mexican food. Soooo I think I’m screwed if I go anywhere up north if they consider what I regularly eat as the best thing. Ah, but mexican food is only…mmmm 25% of my college decision :P</p>
<p>Lucky-- with all due respect…if you are seriously entering food into your equation to select a school- you have some seriously warped college selection models working in your head <smile>! If you need mexican food, eat out once and a while… campus food other than a few places known for great food like Bowdoin, Northwestern, Cornell SUCKS-- that is why we will gain freshman 10 – b/c we’re going to eat high carb greasy institutional food…</smile></p>
<p>Aerospace is just narrowly focused MechE at the undergrad level-- you’ll get thermo and other electives and can easily go to grad school in Aero with an undergrad degree in MechE. Look at a course catalog and see the types of courses you would take in both majors…they’re very similar</p>
<p>If you want robotics-- there is no other place but CMU to be (well MIT and Stanford…but that’s a different story).</p>
<p>Personally I cannot imagine isolating oneself in Troy NY vs. Pittsburgh…Troy is depressing-- I visited RPI in spring of my junior year-- no way could I live in such a place for four years…</p>
<p>What about aerospace engineering is it that has you interested? You don’t need to be aerospace in order to work on air/spacecraft. One of my friends in undergrad double majored in Materials Science & Engineering and Physics. After graduating he got a job in Lockheed Martin’s satellite division. I have other friends not even in MechE that went to Raytheon and General Dynamics. Another one of my friends out here almost went to an aerospace engineering company up near China Lake (big aerospace testing area north of Los Angeles) even though they were an EE.</p>
<p>But, if you want to do stuff like aircraft design, you could always do MechE and go to grad school for aerospace. Heck, that’s probably a much more useful degree combination anyway.</p>
<p>I’m joking about the food. I know how to cook so if I really need it I’ll make me some, I think as a mexican anything I make will be mexican food and I’m okay with my cooking. Still, I really did like the other food they have there, it’s not bad. I do like the smallness of RPI though, like I’m in a big city at the moment and wouldn’t mind being somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I tried to get a feel for the parties while there but both were really fun environments.</p>
<p>I think if I were to do aerospace it would be mechE and then focus on aerospace, because I do want to get into the design and building of aircrafts. Still, I’m not entirely sure on what I’d like to do in engineering and that’s the main thing RPI has is more engineering major options to choose from.</p>
<p>Heh, be sure to take a look through some of the related threads at the bottom of the page. There’s been at least five other threads here on CC with the same title as yours!</p>
<p>Also, one of the great things about CMU is how you really don’t feel like you’re in a large city when you’re on campus or go in the direction of Shadyside or Squirrel Hill. They’re mostly residential neighborhoods with smaller mom and pop stores. But, if you want to feel like you’re right in a city you can just walk down to Oakland or take the bus Downtown.</p>
hope this is of some use to you!</p>
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