Columbia College vs Carnegie Mellon (CS and Music)

@deadgirl After reading through several of your posts, the following things jumped out to me. It does not seem like you are singularly driven by desire to deep dive into CS. Music and social considerations appear to weigh heavy on your decision making process. You have many posts talking about music, composing etc but few, if any, that detail your focus on CS. Competing and sometimes conflicting wants appear to make your decision making very complex. Because of this, it seems that at Columbia it would be easier for you all-around. If it was only about CS my recommendation would be CMU as it is, IMO, far superior for CS.

Here’s a CS kind of thing to do. Copy and paste all of your CC posts into a doc and apply that text to a word cloud generator. Analyze what your words and phrases focus on. This may give you some insight.

@Rivet2000 I love that idea! I hope the OP considers it.

@mwolf is 100 percent correct. I suggest Columbia for all the reasons mentioned. Regret of a road not taken is a powerful thing. No need to feel that way.

@deadgirl any decision yet ??

No, I have until tonight. I’m just scared that if I go to Columbia, I’ll have a subpar education in CS and not be able to travel for a job and not be able to pass my interviews or work with companies like Google or find people to make start-ups with. Also, the core is quite daunting.

@deadgirl You aren’t going to have a subpar CS education at Columbia. Yes, a CS education at CMU is better and offers more options. But that’s only true if you can take advantage of it. You won’t be able to take advantage of it if you aren’t passionate about it and dedicated to it. Are you?

One thing I like about Columbia’s core for a STEM student is that it forces you to take courses in the humanities. The ability to communicate well is far more important to passing interviews and getting that job at Google etc than taking the highest level CS course at the highest ranked CS program.

Columbia’s CS program is not subpar. It’s ranked 18th in the world.

If we were speaking in real life, I would tell you that words matter, and that you, in particular, would be very well served during this decision process (and throughout your life) to change words like “scared” and “worried” and “terrified,” all of which I’ve seen you using with great frequency here, into “concerned.” I mean it. It may not seem like such a small linguistic change could make a big difference, but it can and does.

Concern is intellectually constructive. Having concern is the impetus for finding a solution and acting on it. Fear is emotion-based and is the precursor to seeking help. You want to be in a position of strength, and focusing on your fears undermines this. There is nothing scary or terrifying about making a choice between two fabulous options.

Either of these two fine institutions will provide you with an excellent education and a promising future, unless you make it turn out otherwise. The burden of your own success at either place will fall entirely on your shoulders. Of course you will not get a “substandard” education in either of these fine programs at world-class universities. As I wrote in an earlier post, however, both are imperfect — as is everything in life — and it will be your job to focus on all the positive aspects once you’re there, or you will ruin it all for yourself.

Also, be aware of the possibility that you may have become addicted to the “rush” that can accompany indecision, and know that that once you make a choice, all of the drama and suspense will be gone. You will simply move forward like all the other hundreds of thousands of students looking forward to starting undergraduate work in the fall. This may be contributing to why you are having trouble making a final choice. But you do need to make one, and the time is now. It is actually good and healthy to be out of the state of indecision, even though it will take some getting used to.

Whichever program you pick will give you unique benefits and will have drawbacks, some of which you know about now and some of which will be a surprise to you. But that’s just life and, again, your job is to forget about your other options once you have chosen your path, and to move forward with confidence and positivity. Thousands of students would be envious of your choice. Good luck with your decision. Whichever way you go, don’t look back.

Go to CMU for CS.

I have a strong sense that you will get additional education as well, in music, CS or another subject, so don’t worry so much about your undergraduate education. Compare CS class by class at Columbia, and CMU. Its really not that different. CMU also requires humanities and social sciences. You are not doing a PhD in CS, yet. If you were,
still Columbia is on the map for CS, and for certain Google hires Columbia Grads! I just heard
a Colorado State grad got a starting offer of $120K at Google, so its not that hard to get a job at Google,
but that grad had a triple major in math, CS and physics, all bachelors degrees. Google likes physics students !

Take it step by step.

Buy Bling on line, T shirts, hats, coasters, and celebrate your chosen university ! Good luck.

Coloradomama, you are great! Thanks for all the PMs. @Coloradomama And same for all the other dedicated parents on this forum!!

Interesting. I remember Google said something like they would hire the valedictorian of some unknown school or top 50 graduates of MIT. In general, they may have a list of schools they want to hire their graduates, and CMU should be on the list.

Columbia may be the choice here, but not for CS.

“The ability to communicate well is far more important to passing interviews and getting that job at Google etc than taking the highest level CS course at the highest ranked CS program.”

That is generally not true, and I’d be wary of giving that kind of advice for an entry level job. You have to absolutely know your CS in and out for Google, and it doesn’t have to be from the highest ranked CS program. If your goal is Google, CMU is the clear choice, trust me on this, you just need a 3.0 from a place like CMU to get an internship interview. That’s how well regarded that program is out here. But if you’re not sure of CS or STEM in general, Columbia would be my recommendation.

As someone said on another thread bout CMU vs UMD, what if it was MIT vs Columbia, would people really be saying go to Columbia like they are now. Probably not, and for CS, MIT and CMU are the same wrt prestige and opportunities.

@theloniusmonk Is a CMU degree as versatile as a Columbia degree if I want to do stuff with journalism, foreign service or go to grad etc?

hey @deadgirl I think everyone is basically giving you the same advice 1) both great choices 2) if you know you really want to do some amount of CS and a bit of stress go to CMU 2) if you are unsure of what you want to do columbia. They both have lots of great other programs, e.g. Carnegie Mellon is also one of the worlds top acting undergrad schools too… how many people know that… they both can prepare one adequately for anything to follow

Practically all CMU SCS graduates went into software engineering (which obviously covers a broad spectrum of jobs in tech firms):
https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/2017_one_pagers/scs/BS_SCS_One_Pager_2017_%20rev.1.18.pdf
https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/2018_one_pagers/scs/1-Pager_SCS%20BS%202018%20rev%202.1.19.kc.pdf

Columbia, on the other hand, sent many of their graduates to financial and consulting services, but relatively few to tech firms:
https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/2017%20GSS–CC%20%26%20SEAS-UG.pdf

“Is a CMU degree as versatile as a Columbia degree if I want to do stuff with journalism, foreign service or go to grad etc?”

No it’s not as versatile as you put it, if you’re thinking journalism, foreign service, Columbia is the choice, imo.

As OP posts grow there is more and more about music and now journalism and foreign service. No mention about goals and objectives for CS. Points to Columbia.

Sorry, I should have been more clear so it didn’t sound so random. I was thinking foreign service as in Developers/Engineers w/out Borders.

What did you decide? Wasn’t your deadline last night? I’m excited for your future!