<p>So, I have an interesting dillema on my hands. I want to study computer science for my undergraduate degree with an eventual goal of either working in finance or entrepreaneaurship. I will be going to Business School after working for a few years after my undergraduate. So, I was accepted to CIT but waitlisted for the ECE department and for SCS. This means that I would have to declare some other CIT major and then attempt to transfer into SCS. I was also accepted to USC straight into their computer science program and I might do a dual degree with marshall business school. When I visited CMU for a sleeping bag weekend, I was not dazzled by pittsburgh but I really enjoyed CMUs campus and the CS program. However, the social scene at CMU seemed to be lacking and the CS major that I talked to said that he had no time to be involved with any clubs, sports or organizations. Also, the freshman that I talked to said that they had not explored Pittsburgh at all which points to the fact that they only study. At USC, I know that I would be very involved and have an amazing social life, but I would not have as prestigious of a CS degree. Affordability is not a concern of mine and I could care less about bad weather. But I am having trouble with the idea that I would need to transfer once i am at CMU, which likely means a very tough freshman year. So should I go to USC for a balanced undergraduate experience or go to CMU with hopes of transfering into SCS? If i dont plan on staying in a programmer career for my whole life, is SCS really that much better than USC's comp. sci department?</p>
<p>Don’t they tell you not to enroll with the specific intention of enrolling in one of the departments you got waitlisted to? I was waitlisted to ECE and SCS as well</p>
<p>Well, they do say not to enroll with hopes of transferring, but everyone that I talked to at CMU said that transferring was fairly easy if you do well in the intro courses.</p>
<p>Any other opinions?</p>
<p>
This is because the introductory courses are very difficult. The idea is that if CMU sees a student that truly loves a subject and is excelling at it at the same level or better than SCS people, there is no reason not to let that kid be with other SCS kids.</p>
<p>Of course it will be easy to transfer if you do well. But are you confident you can actually do well? </p>
<p>As for the social scene: I have a pretty busy social life, involved in several clubs. A lot of my friends in CS are also very social. I think you had a meh experience because not all CS majors are social and you just happened to end up with one of them. In fact, I’d venture to say that a higher proportion of CS majors are the type to be more introverted and whatnot than, say, fine arts/business/english majors.</p>
<p>However, super social CS people really do exist and do well. I know tonnnns. You just need to find them and that won’t be a problem at all if you are a social person by nature. They’ll be pretty easy to spot: they’re the ones coding in groups and laughing :P</p>
<p>I’ll also say that a good bit of socializing is when people study together in groups o_o</p>