!!**HELP**!! Carnegie Mellon Computer Science vs UT Turing Scholars

College Search & Selection
1

I was recently accepted to Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, and was accepted to the Turing Scholars program at the University of Texas in late November. I really do love both programs, and I’m a little torn as to which school to attend. A big factor for me is also location/culture - whether I want to stay close to home in sunny Texas or live farther away. I know Austin is filled with so many things to do, and I’m not so sure about Pittsburgh. My brother currently attends CMU for CS so I’m pretty comfortable and familiar with that department but I’m also attracted to the specialized plan for Turing Scholars (Attending a huge state school, but being a part of such a small program). I’ve toured both programs/faculties and I’m very familiar with both programs, but I’m still not sure about where I want to go. I was hoping I could get some opinions on what others think of these programs in comparison. Maybe some stuff about internship and job availability or just overall college experience.

Money not being a factor, how do you think the programs compare?

2

An embarrassment of riches there. Congrats. I visited CMU last year and really liked the school and the city. Everyone I know who’s done CS there has been really happy and successful. I know kids in Turing, and they really like it, too. The only complaint I’ve heard is how there are so few women in the program (I don’t know that that’s true, but that’s what a Turing Scholar told me about his classes). Academically, you’ll be good at either place so I would look at other factors.

I always think it’s great to go someplace different for college. It’s only four years, and college is a time to really stretch, IMO. Both of my kids went 1,000 miles away. In that sense, I think CMU would be great. It’s really close to University of Pittsburgh so the area has a real college feel. But how would you feel going to school with your brother? How would he feel? My ds2 absolutely wouldn’t consider his big brother’s school.

Is cost a consideration? Any thoughts about where you want to settle after college?