CMU vs. UMich????

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Okay, so I just came back from admitted students days at both the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University.

I had also previously toured both schools before applying.

On paper CMU seems like the better choice I think but after visiting both I really liked UMich.

UMich is more expensive for me than CMU because I’m out of state (about 5-7k a year more).

At UMich I would be in LSA, and I got into the LSA Honors program. At CMU I would be in Dietrich.

At the moment, I want to study stats and bio but I’m not sure which one I want to major in or if I want to try and major in both.

At CMU I have been accepted to the college with the stats but the college does not have bio. I can minor in bio or double major in stats and bio, but I can’t switch majors without switching schools. At CMU most of the general requirements unfortunately are humanities because Dietrich is the humanities college.

At UMich everything (sciences and humanities) is in one school so I can easily change my major.

CMU however is renowned for its Stats department, so if I choose to stick with stats… It’s just annoying that I’d be in the humanities college.

I am leaning towards UMich, but I fear that this is a mistake because it seems CMU is academically superior/viewed more like an Ivy type school, would get me a better paying job out of college, and the tuition for me is cheaper. But I liked UMich a lot. It is big and everyone seems very happy.

I am worried about being too stressed and unhappy at CMU. I also felt like an outsider a bit at CMU since females and caucasians are both in the minority. I am excited to find diversity at college but I’m afraid at CMU since it is so small compared to UMich that I will feel alone. It also seemed that many kids come from private schools while I come from a public school.

I am very torn and worried that picking UMich would be a mistake.

Advice???

NOTE: I’m posting this under both schools’ sections to get a variety of opinions.

2

“I am worried about being too stressed and unhappy at CMU” If your gut feeling tells you that – shouldn’t you follow it? There are no perfect criteria for decisions. Filter your concerns through “reason” first… If these issues stay, then why choose to be unhappy at all?

3

Academically, I suspect you couldn’t go wrong with either school. I’m a Dietrich student and in terms of general education, I think CMU has a pretty good system. Everyone has to take introductory courses in statistics, academic writing, and history, as well as a freshman seminar course which is low-stress and gives opportunity for a small, discussion-based class. Beyond that, you have to fulfill a certain number of units from different categories of study (So a couple “creating” courses, some English and/or history, math and science, etc.) This gives a lot of flexibility and it certainly wouldn’t overwhelm your schedule with a ton of ‘liberal arts’ type classes, especially if you’re coming in with AP/IB credit.

I am a caucasian female who went to a public high school. While there certainly are a lot of Indian, Asian, and Asian-American students, I don’t think that’s really a drawback of the school. As a Dietrich student, I can tell you that you would come across plenty of caucasian students and plenty of women. While I do know a lot of students who went to private schools, there are still plenty who went to public schools. At CMU, social life exists on a pretty wide range. There are plenty of students who do nothing but study, but there are also plenty who go out on weekends and even weeknights. Your social life at CMU would be whatever you make of it. I personally really like CMU’s size. It’s big enough to have a wide range of social scenes without feeling like you’re in a sea of people.

In terms of deciding between CMU and UMich, I’d definitely look at size, location (Pittsburgh is a nice city and the winter isn’t quite as brutal), and such things as sports. If you want a school with a lot of spirit especially related to football, UMich might be the way to go. :wink:

4

My friend chose umich over cmu

5

Thanks to everyone who posted. I really appreciate the time you all took to help me out. I just wanted to post in case anyone in the future looks at this thread that I ultimately chose the University of Michigan,