Cornell vs CMU...help me!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am deciding between Cornell and CMU for ED.</p>

<p>Admissions: Chances of admissions are relatively similar for both because Cornell strongly favors females in engineering and ED applicants. </p>

<p>Electrical Engineering Programs: Both engineering programs sound great. I'm into robotics too.... Both schools are in all the different competitions. CMU won DARPA while Cornell did really well in Robocup. They're both great for electrical engineering/robotics.</p>

<p>Campus: Cornell's campus is beautiful. I love it! I like Carnegie Mellon's campus as well, but not nearly as much as Cornell's.</p>

<p>Location: Carnegie Mellon is much closer to where I live, which I prefer. I also prefer being in a city. I prefer CMU's location to Cornell's</p>

<p>Social Life/Food: I am afraid of CMU's nerdy reputation with no social life. On the other hand, I am not a big partyer or anything. I think I would be happy at either school and was happy with the types of students I met at both schools. Cornell's food is great, while CMU's is terrible, which is a big plus for Cornell.</p>

<p>Getting a Job: Both schools have great names in terms of getting a job after college, Cornell having a slight edge. I'm concerned though that my grades will be worse at Cornell, so I don't know which school will give me better job opportunities.</p>

<p>School Environment: Cornell is known for being hard to stay in and having a student body that is often stressed by the workload. On the one hand, I am the type of kid to be stressed about my work and to take on way more work than I need to. I am definately an over-achiever. On the other hand, I don't know if I will be able to handle the workload, it may be too much for me.</p>

<p>Despite the negatives I have listed for both schools, I LOVE both of them and am having a really hard time deciding which school is my first choice. Any thoughts?</p>

2

<p>Flip a coin.</p>

<p>however, if you are so torn between two schools, you shouldn't apply ED to either one</p>

3

<p>Engineers everywhere are stressed, not just at Cornell. Also, if Cornell only accepts people that they know can handle the workload, so if you get in then you have nothing to fear. You'll have pretty much the same exit opportunities at both schools. I recommend overnight stays at each school, if possible.</p>

4

<p>I think Cornell is a more complete university and given the choice, I would personally recommend Cornell. CMU is awesome, but it is not as well rounded as Cornell. In Engineering, they are equal, but in most other ways, Cornell has the edge.</p>

5

<p>Ithaca is not Pittsburg but it has restaurants, theater, music, coffee shops. Nice area for sailing and skiing and hiking...Cayuga Lake is lovely. But...I hate to say it...in electrical eng you won't have much time to enjoy the amenities unless you stay for the summer to work or do research.</p>

<p>The student quality at Cornell and CMU is similar but the grad rate at Cornell (95% in engineering, 92% from Cornell overall) is substantially higher than at CMU (85%). Students vote with their feet. There is a different culture at Cornell. There is good advising and support for females, and female faculty members in electrical. </p>

<p>I think Cornell electrical engineering is wonderful but much work. Endless problem sets...but plenty of help is available. The reputation for tough grading is deserved but it makes me proud of Cornell. The reputation for being cut-throat is absolutely not true. Students are friendly and mutually supportive. In engineering you have to learn to work as a team. Unfortunately, your team can't help you on the exams.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, I think very highly of CMU, especially in electrical/computer. They are first-class. You can't go wrong. I love Pittsburg, too. CMU looks good to me as a PhD grad school possibility if Cornell doesn't work out.</p>

6

<p>Thanks so much you guys! All your thoughts have been very helpful!</p>

<p>Another thing I like about Cornell is its size. CMU is a bit too small for my tastes.</p>

<p>I will not apply ED to either one unless I am able to make a definate decision. I am not planning on visiting Cornell again but I am planning on visiting CMU again. I'm hoping that will make my decision easier.</p>

<p>When I visited Cornell, I was not too impressed with Ithaca- it seemed sort of like a dead town to me. However, the area right outside of Cornell, where there was a bagel shop and some other restaurants, looked nice enough. The sailing is a big benefit of Cornell (I forgot about that), but I still prefer being in a place with more going on.</p>

<p>The graduation rate info is nice to hear. I thought that both CMU and Cornell had good advising, etc. for females. They both seem to be trying to even out the M/F ratio.</p>

7

<p>I worked with a girl from CMU this summer (she is studying MSE) and she didn't have many good things to say about the school. No social life, no athletics, students are VERY VERY geeky.</p>

<p>In terms of academics, I would give the slight edge to CMU but undergrad in engineering is not nearly as important as grad school so it really shouldn't matter.</p>

<p>Like others said I think cornell is a much more rounded/diverse school and would highly recommend it over CMU</p>

8

<p>chocolateluvr,</p>

<p>Can't speak for Cornell but I do know a lot about CMU as my son just graduated, and I visited often. I'll comment on some of the previous posts:</p>

<p>-EE Programs: at CMU EE is ECE, as in electrical and computer engineering combined, it's not stand alone EE. As such the program is one of the top 5 or so ranked with Berkeley, Stanford and MIT.</p>

<p>-location: most kids end up really liking the small city of Pittsburgh. And CMU's location is in Oakland, the best part of the city: literally adjacent to U of Pitt, the Carnegie Museums, art galleries, book stores, etc. Plus you can catch a Pirates or Steelers game, and there's plenty of "culture" in the theatre district if you're into that. </p>

<p>-social life/food: jeez, they're not all antisocial geeks. Sure it is geekier than the average school but there's plenty there for fun. Son lived in a fraternity for 3 years, which also killed the food dilemma for him (they had a great frat chef). Plus there's the city of Pittsburgh for entertainment and as I said 20,000 Pitt students next door.</p>

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<p>-CMU is not an easy school. I can't imagine ECE at CMU would be any easier than EE at Cornell or that your grades at one would be much different than at the other. (You can't possibly predict what your grades will be at either school at this point). Student quality is similar...SAT's and such are pretty close at both schools.</p>

<p>-jobs: that should be no problem coming from either school. For EE or ECE employers know CMU.</p>

<p>and I agree, don't apply ED unless you're 100% sure. I'd do an overnight at each school this fall if possible. Good luck...</p>