^I was also surprised at how many alumni go back to CMU for carnival. Including my kid at least once. And he met a bunch of alumni at Carnival the first year he was there, because they were all on some listserv/chatroom together.
But if you are looking for rah rah sports, CMU is not the place.
A quote my daughter picked up from someone re Carnival:
âItâs that time of the year again - the five day stretch where we let ourselves believe we go to a fun school. Itâs time for our rag tag crew of Ivy League rejects to fully show what true degenerates we are.â
@SkepticalOfMostâ, I think that if you go to a school with big time sports, youâll find that the student involvement is anything but passive.
I will first qualify this by saying I am a Duke alum and interviewer, but I agree with the general tone of this thread - Duke will provide you with a more well-rounded education, opportunities to switch out of CS or double major/minor if you want to explore other fields, it will provide more of a âcollegeâ experience, and the fact that it will cost you half makes it a no-brainer. Once you get to the level of programs youâre considering, no degree is worth 2x the other, especially if itâs paid for with debt. At CMU, youâd be leveraging your future and if youâre not committed to being a hard-core CS guy, it could be even costlier.
As a side note, I went to Duke (albeit 30 yrs ago) as a biomedical engineer, hated it, switched out after 1.5 yrs and ended up an Econ major with a minor in Art History. I could not have been more pleased with the way my education turned out and prepared me for life. I also went on to get an MBA from an ivy league institution.
I find that quote very amusing considering in my STEM-centered public magnet HS around 2 decades ago, those aspiring to engineering/CS and were intending to go to CMU often turned down Ivy admissions if they bothered to apply(often at prompting of parents) because it was known none of them held a candle to CMU in engineering/CS.
In fact, one aspiring engineering major classmate who turned down admission to CMUâs engineering/CS peers, MIT for Harvard was often greeted by fellow HS classmates with puzzled reactions and she later regretted her choice as she found the engineering program was treated as in her words âa neglected stepchild of FASâ. Granted, that has changed within the last few years as Harvard has been prioritizing DEAS more with funding and institutional support.
I donât know about the Ivy Leagues, but about 90% of the SCS class raised their hands when asked at the convocation whether they had been rejected by MIT. (Which segued into a talk about how you canât allow being #2 define you - and the Dean talked about his own disappointment of being salutorian of his high school class.)
The dynamic between MIT and CMU is very similar to one Iâve observed about a few Yale students who were turned down by Harvard or around 2 decades ago, some Ivy admits/attendees feeling down for being rejected by Duke back when Duke was so in demand it wasnât unusual for HYPSMCC admits to be rejected in droves.
@PurpleTitan, I went to a purple school in the Big 10 and played soccer. My daughter grew up playing soccer and wearing an Ohio State jersey on game days (not my choice, BTW). We both appreciate collegiate sports.
But I also appreciate broad student participation in competitive non-sport activities, especially if they help kids develop planning, preparation, practice and teamwork skills. The more the merrier, so to speak, and my point was merely that itâs just a different type of school spirit. Just because a school doesnât have big-time sports doesnât mean it lacks âspiritâ.
@cobrat, the quote has currency among students and I took it to be tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating. They seem to be riffing on a stereotype and are probably less sensitive about that sort of thing than are their parents. 
After all, if theyâre going to be immortal (âSex kills, so come to CMU and live foreverâ) they better be able to laugh at themselves.
@mathmom, sounds like great âcoachingâ by the Dean.
After all, staying with a sports theme, neither the #1 team in menâs football nor basketball won the championship, right? And the best recruiting class doesnât automatically lead to a championship.
Iâm conveniently ignoring the UConn womenâs basketball team, of courseâŠ
Thank you all for your wonderful advice and words of wisdom!
I have decided to make Duke my home for the next four years, and I cannot be happier with my decision.
Go Blue Devils!
Good for you!