<p>Just a simple question: which school has a stronger undergraduate English program: BU or CMU? I was accepted as a transfer student to both, but am so far undecided. BU was ranked 56 overall (not with English, but as a whole), while CMU was recently ranked around 23 in the nation (again, overall). But BU appears to sound better in the ears of law schools (which I will soon be applying to)... Is this correct? Where am I better off studying if I will eventually apply to law schools and graduate English programs? Please help ASAP; I have to make my decision in about 4 days :S:S!</p>
<p>I can't tell you who has a better ranked English program; however, if you are concerned with law school admission, all you need to worry about is GPA and LSAT scores--period. It won't matter which school that you attend.</p>
<p>BU and CMU's campuses are very different. Have you visited both?</p>
<p>I haven't visited either campus, but I definitely prefer CMU from the pictures. But, if I go to BU, I should have a better chance at THEIR law program. </p>
<p>Taxguy: you don't think that the strength of one school's liberal arts program would have a veritable effect on my application to law schools? Because when I ask most of my friends, they say that a BU degree in arts sounds better than a CMU degree in arts (but they concede that this is particular to the arts, and certainly not, say, engineering). Would an admissions committee feel the same? </p>
<p>I think I would prefer Boston to Pittsburg, but I would prefer CMU's campus to BU's... I haven't received a financial aid decision from CMU yet, so that might be the deciding factor (BU only gave me 24,000, and I need a lot more). </p>
<p>Is there anything else I should take into consideration... I am really in a pickle, and I have to respond to CMU by Monday (and, as you all know, it's a rather expensive response!)</p>
<p>noripj,</p>
<p>The problem with your choice is it's like comparing apples to oranges, BU and CMU are such different schools. You don't hear much about English at CMU but it may be because there are a lot of highly ranked technical and arts programs that take the spotlight. I think the professional and creative writing departments (one or both) are ranked pretty well.</p>
<p>I'd suggest posting this on the law school forum here on CC asap. That's where you should get your best responses. Good luck...</p>
<p>The percieved notion is that getting into CMU is harder thus better. Probably not true. </p>
<p>CMU has guaranteed housing. BU does not. Thus the total COA is much higher in Boston.</p>
<p>"Because when I ask most of my friends, they say that a BU degree in arts sounds better than a CMU degree in arts (but they concede that this is particular to the arts, and certainly not, say, engineering)."</p>
<p>Not true. A CMU degree in Drama, Fine Art, and Music is considered more presitigious than the same from BU</p>
<p>hayhayden, I think by "arts" he means liberal arts.</p>
<p>yes, but the college of fine arts is totally different from the college of arts and humanities (which is what the English major is in). Is the humanities program very good at CMU?</p>
<p>anybody else have any advice? CMU gave me an extension, so I have until next Monday to decide. I'm leaning toward CMU, but it will likely boil down to financial aid, transfer credits and whether they force me to take any 1-200 level classes my senior year.</p>
<p>tough choice, CMU is def the better school overall but english is probably its weakest department.</p>
<p>as a former humanities cmu student i can tell you that the humanities are marginalized there. humanities dont get much respect from other students or the school as a whole whereas its reputation is dependent on its cs/engineering programs and they are well developed programs. Most of the humanities programs where founded in the 1970s when it became a university (prior carnegie intitute of tech) as a kind of afterthough ("hey we're now a university so we better get a philosophy dept"). Dont get me wrong, cmu has some steller humanities but these are mostly computer relatied (tech writing, cog sci, logic, and on that note my english teacher didnt do research in english but with the robotics dept where he was tech writer). For a mainstream humanities major like english, though, i would hesistate to go to a school like cmu. I dont know much about boston but it is a better rounded school and has a better ranked english dept.</p>
<p>Does Boston have a better ranked undergraduate English department? Because both schools were ranked 51 for graduate English departments. I couldn't find anything on their undergraduate rankings.</p>
<p>i believe bu was in the top 25 in the 2002 for creative writing, cmu was not listed, i couldnt find this online though. </p>
<p><a href="http://www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/%7Erouzie/569A/compcreative/University.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/~rouzie/569A/compcreative/University.htm</a>
is a 1998 masters ranking i found that puts bu at 10, cmu not listed.</p>
<p>and here is the one i would trust the most
<a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/area4.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area4.html</a>
nrc rank based on research: 38 bu 52 cmu</p>
<p>bu has a much bigger english dept so that of course is in their favor for these rankings. I would say that is the biggest difference between the two schools, cmu has a small minority humanities pop and of that a small minority english pop where at bu english is one of the most popular majors. Perhaps cmu would offer more personalization but I think the larger dept of bu would offer more and outweigh that. I cant really say because my knowledge is only of cmu. PM me if you have any specific questions about humanities at cmu.</p>
<p>_42,</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help. Here's another quandary: Will I receive more personal attention, have better recommendations and be in a more rigorous academic environment at CMU? Since I just spent a year abroad, I don't want to attend Boston for the experience or the cultural diversity... those are things that I should have experienced by now and more of both will not necessarily benefit me when applying to law school. I need a quieter, more personal academic milieu. Will I find that at CMU? This has been my main reasoning for leaning toward Carnegie Mellon; attending CMU will allow me to study hard and earn good grades without as many distractions. </p>
<p>Also, BU has more students who are less serious (which is an assumption I've made based on the school's overall population and acceptance rates... I may be wrong, but in general, whenever you accept that many students, many of them tend not to be so serious; and that affects the classroom experience). Please let me know whether my assumptions are correct, and, if so, whether that changes your opinion. Thanks again for everything!!!</p>
<p>While cmu is more selective overall i dont think the english program is more selective than bu. cmu accepts over 50% for hss for frosh (1149/2070 it is so high because less than a quater will actually enroll) and if there is more seriousness there it is probably due to self-selecting not higher standards than bu. I think perhaps there would be some self-selecting due to cmu being known as a very interoverted place and bu as more party. From my experience the humanities majors are the less serious of cmu but are certinly more serious than the average college student.</p>
<p>More rigorous at cmu? I would almost say no. humanities are regarded by most students as puff classes at cmu and rightly so. The ones I had were not very hard at all. I think you would have more challanging classes at bu as there by sheer numbers would be a lot of top notch english students. At the higher level classes these would be you classmates and the curve would be less. I would also think a larger school would produce the harder, more specialized classes. This is all speculation but I can say for certin that when you hear that cmu has hard classes and little curve they are not talking about the humanities or english. </p>
<p>Less distractions and more personal at cmu? By definition yes. BU would have more distractions but given that you are motivated enough to have gone through the entire transfer process I doubt this would make much difference. cmu is smaller and you couldnt aviod getting to know your professors and such. My theory on this is to go soley to the school that has the most options. I go for the big research universities and have never considered the small liberal arts schools. I feel that you cannot ever know about the enivornment and how it will affect you, perhaps the people will all be nice and the enivorment motivating or the counter but either way it is not something you can tell by looking up some stats and a quick visit. However, one can get a pretty good idea of the resources. And with resources bigger is better. You would probably have to work more (isnt that what you want) but you would probably get better connections at bu.</p>
<p>It seems to me that bu has better resources for a english major so that is what I would choose. If you are the type of person who would go for say Williams over Stanford than you really shouldnt take my advice.</p>
<p>no.. bu doesn't give you better connections than cmu.. tottally incorrect.. cmu is well respected among the top recruiters unlike bu which is on no i-bankers in new yorks's(just an example.. dont shoot me caus i said ibanker) list of top schools.</p>
<p>thank you all for your help. Would it change any opinions if I were to also pursue a minor in economics (I have already taken 5 econ classes)? Would my minor really have a positive effect on my application to law school? Doesn't CMU have a veritable advantage over BU in that field?</p>
<p>I believe it does because the economic program has similarities with the business administration program. This is why the economic programs website is fowarded to Tepper business school's site.</p>
<p>The undergraduate economics program is jointly administered by HSS and Tepper. Students are admitted by HSS but take most courses in Tepper. The winner of this year's Nobel prize in economics is a prof there. Overall, I believe they well thought of for economics.</p>
<p>okay, sorry to ask so many questions, but I just reviewed CMU's classes for English, Philosophy and a few other departments, and there aren't too many interesting ones from which I can choose... No Milton, Chaucer or Shakespeare in the 3-400 levels... amd Chaucer was kind of my previous concentration. CMU doesn't even have a Classics department... These a veritable weaknesses in their English program, which looks more technical (i.e. Rhetoric, and writing for Englineers)... The problem is that BU wants me to take 5, 1-200 level courses during my last two years as an undergrad--which looks horrible when you apply to grad school... Does anybody have any new advice now that I am aware of all of the above?</p>