Yes! Did you decide? ?
@deadgirl Was this for real?
Please let us know what you ultimately decided. We all are rooting for you.
: ( So far, I haven’t committed to Columbia, so I guess I’m CMU right now… The option still remains open on my portal, and I was going to tonight but I don’t know… People from Columbia keep reaching out… A part of me wants to, but tbh, I don’t know. I’m sooo, sooo stressed. I’m really worried about wasting $ so I’ve been researching both schools non-stop… like literally all day this past week. I’ve received soooo much conflicting information and people keep pulling me in different directions… The 3-2/4-1 CC BA/SEAS BS programs are daunting and I’m scared I won’t get in.
- if you go to Columbia, major in CS. Music should be a minor, just take whatever classes you have the pre-reqs for. No need to double degree.
- there’s no wrong choice. Really.
It’s a tough choice, but life is about making tough choices. You need to be decisive. Indecision won’t serve you well. You have two good choices. Why stress yourself out over these good choices? You’ve done enough of your own research and got plenty of good advices. Make your decision and move on. Enjoy your next four (or five) years in college and never look back.
Think more about music and what you want to do with that. . You may get more clear which school is better for you if you get more clear what your music goals are right now. Do you want private lessons, and is there any chance you will go the performance route? Did you find a private teacher in both cities already? Which is your favorite private music teacher? Or is music more of a hobby and you will go into a high tech career? What do your parents do and love, you may be similar to them, as an example. Do you know any professional musicians and have you talked to them about that path? Do you want a PhD in music and to become a professor and a performer, with a private studio? Do you want to teach music? Even Hillary Hahn teaches now, as I understand it, so if you are to become a professional classical musician or jazz musician, teaching will be in your future. Music involves hours and hours of practice time daily, time you spend alone with your instrument, or practicing voice.
If you major in CS, there is a wider range of careers. You can go into patent law, engineering, teaching, big data analysis, business, or medicine. CS can prepare you for a wider range of careers these days. That does NOT make it better than music, but just think about what you like to do.
College is a time to explore majors too, so you really have time to figure this out. I think music in NYC or CMU
are both excellent. There are fantastic music teachers in both cities, so you cannot go wrong.
You seem to be indicating that you did not audition at CMU so you are worried about that. Take that out of the equation, you cannot change your status, if you are meant to be a professional musician, it will become obvious once you audition. Don’t worry about that piece, more about which city is better for you and which school is more appealing. The more techy school, CMU or the more well rounded school, Columbia, in a bigger world class city. (my bias coming out, I like NYC a bit better)
Also see well known CS researcher Jonathan Katz got his Phd in CS at Columbia. He is pretty darn famous in cryptography. See Moti Yung at Columbia , very well known in cryptography/CS. Columbia’s program for undergrad is just as strong as CMU’s for classwork. The only advantage CMU has is IF you want on campus robotics research, but you seem more interested in summer work in California, so that will boil down to your coding skills, at either school.
Undergrad CS is very very similar at both schools. The ranks are about graduate school and breadth in fields like combinatorics, and other subfields were CMU shines brightly. CMU has a BREADTH similar to GaTech for research work and the very top research scientists. That does NOT make them better teachers.
The student body at Columbia and CMU is similar, but Columbia students may be a bit higher scoring and more diversity there too. Columbia is the more well rounded school, probably, although CMU is strong in business, and musical theatre too. Engineering, probably about the same, actually, I don’t care for CMU engineering as much as most people, EE is sort of strange there, and materials science is about the same at both schools.
For sciences, maybe Columbia is stronger actually than CMU, for physics say. But they are roughly comparable for most undergraduate fields, with somewhat more strong techy students gravitating towards CMU.
The students are more well rounded and diverse at Columbia, with top English, philosophy and history majors choosing Columbia. So the subject interest diversity is larger at Columbia.
Here is another way to view Columbia and CMU.
Look at their ranks in subfields of math and CS. You will see that Columbia is PHENOMENAL in mathematics
and CS. Top ranks in artificial intelligence and theory at Columbia and ranked in many other subfields in CS.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/columbia-university-190150
Most fields of mathematics are ranked LOWER at CMU, except for discrete math–
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/carnegie-mellon-university-211440
As is well known, CMU is at the very top rank for most but not all subfields of computer science. (MIT is
higher for a few, GaTech higher for combinatics, UC San Diego is ranked HIGHER THAN CMU for combinatorics
as well. So don’t believe the people that say CMU is better across the board, it depends on the subfield.
I think the averaged rank for computer science is totally meaningless for undergrads, and also really for grad students, it all depends on exactly what you want to do inside of CS and since you don’t know, a dart will suffice for choosing between these two, or other criteria like, your favorite city.
Believe in yourself and choose the city you like.
Hasn’t the fact that OP still hasn’t committed to Columbia an indicator of reluctance to do so? Stick with the place that offers the best program for you.
People can study anything they like at CMU. It’s also well-rounded. Pittsburgh is more affordable than NYC. When you move off campus, that will be easier to manage financially.
^ It’s more of an indication of extreme indecisiveness. The OP really needs to work on that. A simple, detailed, pros/cons list for each plus DEEP analysis of course schedule at each school should have make the choice clear.
@suzyQ7 – totally agree re the prevarication. Or are we being taken for a ride in a creative writing exercise? My spidey-sense says this drama has gone on for way too long. Unfortunately if it’s not an act the indecision doesn’t bode well no matter what school is selected. Apologies for being blunt if it offends but sometimes cold water in the face helps one wake up.
If I understand correctly the OP chose CMU . For $80,000 a year, I would seriously consider what to study rather than which school to attend. If you have taken AP Stats, you should know using outliers to make general believing is how people abuse statistics. Which one is better? – the best one should be the one that you stop saying it but start believing it.
For a freshman at any school, the best or the wannabe will start CS as the 1st attempt major, no exceptions at CMU or Columbia.
CMU has many entry level weedout classes for CS, make you are aware of that.
Columbia surely has weed-out classes too?
Don’t over stress about this. Go to the professor pages on CMU and Columbia.
First observation is how bad most webpages are for CS experts. Lol. Bad.
But if you dig into CVs you will realize the people who are the ones leading your education and are the best in the world -it’s comforting to see how few started out getting a BS from that school. It’s such a wide range and goes to my ongoing point about outcomes driven by people not schools.
Please Go where you will be happiest and don’t be shopping for predetermined and unknowable outcomes or physic income (prestige).
A quick summary off the top of my head from over 30 at Columbia I reviewed.
Majority from overseas. 2 from China Italy Israel and Australia. 1 from several others.
3 Brown and Columbia. One from brown was a literature major of all things. The other two appeared to be later in their careers.
2 from UCLA MIT CAL
1 CMU Harvard then CMU. UW Penn Magill Yale (music major) and several others.
lol, you could consider your entire four years at Columbia as weed-out, it’s pretty intense there.
“I think the averaged rank for computer science is totally meaningless for undergrads,”
as with any rankings they should not be taken too literally (#1 is definitely better than #2), maybe as a starting point to get a general idea, but not sure they’re meaningless.
@deadgirl, I think @privatebanker gave you good advice. My daughter carried out a similar process (without our input) for all the schools she had considered. It really helped her narrow her choices. Good luck!
PS I know it’s best to pick right the first time, but we told our daughter that if she finds she made a mistake, she can always transfer. She’ll be at Columbia in the fall.
I would be remiss if I did not provide a link to CMU’s directory for SCS. Their faculty is truly impressive in background, accomplishments, publications, and diversity. One reason, among many, why CMU is widely considered as one of the best CS schools in the world.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/directory/mld
That said, I still recommend Columbia for the OP as more aligned to her various interests. 
It should be stated that U.S. News, at least, does not rank undergraduate computer science departments. Nor does it even hint that its graduate department rankings should be used as a tool for selecting an undergraduate college. If the OP believes that CMU is “#1” for undergraduate computer science, then this must be based on a source other than USN.
Rooting for you @deadgirl.
As William James wrote, “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.”
I hope you’ll be able to feel that you OWN this important decision, because you WILL own it, even if you just passively let time run out.
Accept that either program/institution will be imperfect and that your experience at either university will inevitably be filled with joys and challenges and frustrations big and small – and that’s okay – and then move optimistically toward your future and don’t look back.
@deadgirl Final decision?