<p>Hi! I want to study electrical and electronics engineering and have been accepted to Columbia UPenn and Carnegie Mellon.
I'd like to know which one academically is the best choice out of these 3.
I'm considering Carnegie and Columbia more seriously at the moment.</p>
<p>How good are their engineering programs?
Is an ivy league engineering education better than Carnegie's?</p>
<p>I would like to know what the research opportunities are at these schools and the overall undergrad experience.</p>
<p>Please post your answers as soon as possible, as I have to make a decision in about a week. </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is the better choice relative to Columbia and Penn.</p>
<p>However, be warned that all you will do at CMU is study, study, study, grind, grind, grind. All work and no play. I’ve heard this uniformly from three of my close friends who are currently attending CMU, one in the School of Computer Science, one in the Mellon College of Science, and one in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The gender ratio will kill you as well.</p>
<p>Therefore, either Columbia or Penn would be the sensible choice, generally speaking, since you will likely have a better quality of life at those schools, and thus be more motivated in your studies and research.</p>
<p>(Stuyvesant is way too easy to get into. All you have to do is meet a low cutoff score on a standardized test. Primary school grades and state testing aren’t considered, nor are interviews offered).</p>
<p>i think it all really depends on what you want from your college experience. columbia is a great choice is you want a solid liberal arts education in addition to your focus on ee. the college prides itself on the core, which is a rigorous humanities curriculum that is required in order to graduate-- now, i’m guessing you were admitted to seas, and from what i’ve heard the core still exists, with obviously some major modifications so you can take your required science and engineering classes as well.</p>
<p>from what i’ve heard about carnegie mellon is that it’s essentially an underrated school-- their cs programs are top ranked (comparable to MIT’s, i believe) and their academics are rigorous. however, as opposed to a primarily liberal arts education, like columbia, carnegie will train you technically. and from what i’ve heard, carnegie will train you hard. pittsburgh is charming from what i’ve heard, and the presence of such strong cs and arts programs makes carnegie pretty unique</p>
<p>well i think it is worth noting that their prized cs program has fallen a bit lately, and as someone who has had to visit pittsburgh for work, i wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy (my friends from there agree).</p>
<p>notwithstanding this - i think in the end you need to pull back and realize academically you are gonna get about the same at each. there is a misnomer somewhere that columbia engineering isn’t rigorous, it is just the same.</p>
<p>what is different is the attitude of the students. finish your problem set so you can go build something, start something, learn something new. a really close friend from college now at the top ranked phd program in EE decided junior year to learn chinese, became proficient in it, this is just a regular guy from white suburbia, just wanted to expand himself. you have the city as a place to explore, you have the core as a way to challenge yourself academically and intellectually. its a riveting experience.</p>
<p>i think the intangibles make columbia far more attractive over cmu (and i think my cuz who went to cmu would agree).</p>
<p>i try not to engage too much in the upenn/columbia debate. they are very different cultures. i think columbia is more future focused and upenn is present focused, and that is a good way to describe the dichotomy. i’m always interested in what i can become, and a place like new york, with its resources and its location, is always about what will happen tomorrow (the job you’ll get running into someone on the subway, the random event you’ll be invited to, the new friends you’ll make, the access that will open).</p>