<p>I got into both Columbia and Carnegie Mellon as a computer science major. </p>
<p>Getting into Columbia was entirely unexpected. What appeals to me about Columbia is the location, the prestige, etc. Columbia isn't that great for what I want to major in, though. Its computer science program falls far behind CMU's. If I were to pick a school regardless of major, however, I would go with Columbia.</p>
<p>I know that Carnegie Mellon is undoubtedly the better option if I'm going into CS. What I'm worried about is the fact that people at CMU are so overworked and that the social life is nonexistent. The latter fact doesn't bother me much, but I'd still like to be able to go out and enjoy myself even if it's only once a month. I'm also scared that, because I'm not as experienced in CS, I won't be able to maintain a high enough GPA to get into graduate school. I plan on studying a lot over the summer, but I'm not sure it'll be enough compared to people who have been prepared for this their entire lives. </p>
<p>Can anyone help me decide what to do? I'm going to visit both schools near the end of the month and decide for sure after that.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon definitely has a social life – there are forum posts with people doubling in Tepper/CS or ECE/CS while maintaining A’s and still have tons of free time to roam the city and do whatever. Plus, UPitt is very close-by, so there are lots of college kids to do stuff with on the weekends. But then again, Columbia IS in NYC lol</p>
<p>CMU’s SCS is very, very highly ranked and, if this is your intended major, besides probably Stanford/Berkeley/MIT, CMU’s SCS is the best choice.</p>
<p>Also, CMU really pushes everyone to pursue a minor or even double major. This definitely helps when it comes to recruiting.</p>