how academically-challenging is Carnegie Mellon

<p>just curious, how many hours do you spend on study on average? (do not count in exam seasons) and how many hours of sleep do you usually get in a week? in one of the freshmen CS surveys, we were asked to estimate the average GPA at the end of the first semester, by your experience, how was the actual first semester GPA in average for the incoming student body?</p>

<p>Varies by major. As an architect major, I rarely slept. They say Freshman year and 1st semester 3rd year are your hardest (or was it 1st semester Freshman year and the whole of 3rd year?). Avg. hours of sleep were probably around 4 hrs/night on weekdays.</p>

<p>As an art major now, I sleep maybe 6 hrs avg per night.</p>

<p>It also varies on person. How fast you work, your dedication, whether you attempt to have a social life, etc.</p>

<p>As for the grades, expect them to be lower than what you are used to. I was a 4.0 student back in high school. My QPA is closer to 3.0 now.</p>

<p>My S, a CS major, claimed he was working 100 hour weeks as a freshman. He took Operating Systems as a junior and that went way up.</p>

<p>Like everywhere else, it varies by major and the time and energy you decide you need to put in for the classes you take.</p>

<p>It's hard to estimate how much time one spends 'studying,' because in CS most of your time isn't spent sitting down with a book and reading it, but rather doing programming assignments and homeworks. Different people take different amounts of time to do these, in large part influenced by their previous experience, especially first semester. A general rule is that for every unit a class is, you spend one hour per week in or out of class working on it. It's always an underestimate for project courses, and it's often an overestimate for 'easier' classes, but for most of the classes you will take as a CS freshman, at least first semester, it will be a reasonable approximation. A typical CS freshman takes 42-54 units. I think in CS, for many people second semester freshman year and whatever semester they take Operating Systems are the most challenging.</p>

<p>I sleep at least 6 hours a night, and usually at least 7 and I'm a CS major with a high QPA. It's all about how you prioritize - I know I can't function without sleep, so I sleep.</p>

<p>The survey is to get a general idea of what the incoming class thinks about things. All sorts of interesting statistics come out of the data, and your advisor will probably share them with you. The old advisor loved talking about the data; I don't know about the new one. It's not something that matters a lot, so don't stress about it. Anyways, the advisor probably can't estimate the freshman GPA much better than you can- it fluctuates year to year based on who is teaching common freshman classes.</p>

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I think in CS, for many people second semester freshman year and whatever semester they take Operating Systems are the most challenging.

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<p>That sounds about right. And I probably should have remembered that my S was throwing some efforts not related to his classes in that 100 hours. </p>

<p>YMMV, often considerably.</p>

<p>when you mention OS courses, did you mean OS design and implementation or OS practicum?</p>

<p>15-410, design and implementation. 15-41, OS practicum, is a self-directed project course with less rigorous deadlines that many fewer students take.</p>

<p>It depends on your major. For CS major it is 100 hours plus.</p>

<p>This is old, but I wanted to make a point here. CMU's academic intensity is what you make it. Some people happily sit on 48 units a semester, while others take 60+. You can live a calm, smooth academic life here - or it can be one of fervor, intensity and pace.</p>

<p>that's true, I wish to take 21-131 and 33-131, but my CS advisor would not let me kill myself</p>

<p>What about an Econ. major?</p>

<p>bump. What about an Econ major?
Thanks</p>

<p>no clue about econ… but gahhhhhh OS!!! 1.5 months until i get my life back</p>