<p>Hey guys,
I have to decide between UIUC (CS), CMU (ECE, waitlisted for CS) and UT Austin(CS). I know I want to do CS and not EE. I did talk to couple people at CMU who said transferring in to SCS is possible provided you do well in 3 specific courses.
Now I know these are all great schools, but I think I'm willing to work extra hard, possibly study even before starting college to do well in the 3 given classes and transfer in to CMU SCS. How likely is this? Should I enroll, assuming if I do well I'll get the opportunity to transfer?
Which school do you think I should attend? I intend to work in software once I graduate. Also, since I am an international student there is no questions of FA, so will be paying full for all 3 if I attend.
Thanks.</p>
<p>If I understand you correctly, and you want to work in software (engineering), I think that CS is not really for you. A lot of people misinterpret what CS encompasses, at least here at CMU. Yes few people do end up doing software, but not many. Look at [this</a> post](<a href=“SCS Environment and Difficulty? - #2 by gajolo - Carnegie Mellon University - College Confidential Forums”>SCS Environment and Difficulty? - #2 by gajolo - Carnegie Mellon University - College Confidential Forums)
My advice for you is to see what the curriculum is like at UIUC and UT Austin for CS, whether it’s more software based, or heavily mathematical/theory based like here at CMU.
If it’s the same, I would suggest going for ECE and concentrating in software (we have a software track, and since it’s engineering, it’s way more practical than theoretical). At the same time I would look into <a href=“http://isri.cmu.edu/education/undergrad/”>http://isri.cmu.edu/education/undergrad/</a> to do on the side.
To sum up, if you really want to program and do software stuff, in my opinion you will not enjoy being a CS major and taking all the hard, extremely time consuming math courses. Instead, declare your primary major as something that’s more related to your interests and take any CS courses you like whenever you like. </p>
<p>@Selena731 I did hear that CS at CMU is very theory intensive and has a lot of math involved. While I did say I want to work in software, I did also research a bit more about this and found out a lot of math/theory is essential to be a good software developer. Also, I did try out some courses in CS online and one which I found especially fun was algorithms(though I didn’t complete it due to high school work). So, I’m not yet entirely sure whether this part of being a computer scientist is for me or not, but given the choice I would definitely like the option to decide once I’ve had more exposure to Computer Science. From what I understand, very few CMU grads work in software companies, do the rest go into research/academia? At this point I wouldn’t like to rule anything out, but I understand CMU CS people still have the opportunity to work in software right?</p>
<p>Yeah everyone has the opportunity to do anything, it’s just the fact that the curriculum might bore/stress you for no reason.</p>