<p>Hey Guys!</p>
<p>So I’m debating between attending Brown CS or Carnegie SCS.</p>
<p>Brown - strong program, good opportunities, great social life, happy people!, expensive </p>
<p>Carnegie - strongest program, great opportunities, notsogreat social life, notsohappy people, cheaper (ap credits allow me to place out of a year)</p>
<p>What’s your opinion? Where would you attend?</p>
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<p>It may well seem like 4 years!</p>
<p>Definitely Brown. I don’t really know anything about CS, but a few of my good friends do (and they would pick Brown). Brown has more prestige overall than Carnegie Mellon does, and you’ll be happier there. I would pick Brown honestly, for any subject, over any school, except for maybe engineering. :)</p>
<p>Having never studied at CMU, I can only answer for Brown :). I’m not sure if I’m going to concentrate in CS, Math, Applied Math or some combination of those (#freshmanproblems), but I’ve enjoyed my intro sequence tremendously.</p>
<p>You have three options as a freshman:
CS 15/16 = the most popular intro sequence. Andy van Dam teaches you in 15, you learn Java right off the bat, and you do much more colorful stuff in your first semester (you make Tetris, Reversi, and your own version of Paint in the projects). I think you do Python in 16, but don’t hold me to that.
CS 17/18 = my sequence = the more “CS-y” intro sequence. You do functional programming in 17, learn recursion very, very well, and top it off by programming your own game (Connect 4/Gomoku/Mancala). In 18, you dive into object-oriented programming, and learn a lot more industry-ready techniques. The projects are pretty awesome (who doesn’t want to make their own Pok</p>
<p>Oh, and in terms of the social life: let me just say that you’ll find a great time every weekend, no matter what your idea of fun is. There’s a reason why we have the happiest students ;)!</p>
<p>Just to clarify, CMU is more prestigious than Brown in terms of CS. If prestige of the CS program were the only factor, CMU would be the obvious choice. Brown has an incredible department, but Stanford and CMU are seen as better (by how much, I don’t know - the top half of Brown students, if not more, have no trouble getting top jobs in industry, like at their peer schools).</p>
<p>However…does the Open Curriculum appeal to you? What would you do outside of CS, and does Brown make it easier to do that? How important is the social life? Is the cost difference substantial? I didn’t consider CMU because of location, but you’re very lucky to have this choice, and if you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each, you’ll be in a great position either way.</p>
<p>That is a tough but great choice. CMU is the ne plus ultra for CS, as Uroogla says. If there is no chance of a significant change in major, that’s hard to pass up. Brown does have a strong program and my daughter was an appreciative part of the close knit department. She also had numerous opportunities for research including 2 years in the same project that resulted in a co-author credit. Brown has so many other</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use a year of AP credits to miss a year at a school like Brown or CMU. AP coursework just isn’t equavalent to coursework at a top college. Particularly AP CS isn’t remotely equal to the intro courses for CS majors at these 2 colleges. For other courses use it for advanced standing if you were strong in it.</p>
<p>Other factors: CMU has a better gender ratio WITHIN CS: so, if you don’t ever plan on getting outside the department (and there are a rare few CS concentrators who don’t really), then in terms of social ratios CMU will be better. However, if you want to have a social mix (i.e. my roommates span the spectrum from History to Sociology to Chem concentrators), Brown’s got a smaller department (this may be a good or bad thing) AND people come into the CS department who didn’t think they’d do CS (something CMU students, with their direct admissions, don’t seem to do as often), so you get relatively non-CSey people in CS, and social life isn’t too likely to revolve around who you know in the department.</p>
<p>Bumpppppppp</p>
<p>I personally know two really incredible people that both passed up CMU for Brown CS. They are definitely the top of the department here and sometimes I think its too easy for them.</p>
<p>I mean, I also know a couple people who passed up CMU. One of them hasn’t taken a class outside of the sciences/philosophy, and the other one would not have fit in socially with CMU (her own opinion).</p>