How prestigious is CMU?

<p>Is it prestigious? Is CMU known only for its CS program?</p>

<p>If you’re interested in starting salaries:
[25</a> College Diplomas With the Highest Pay - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-college-diplomas-highest-pay-161915563.html]25”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-college-diplomas-highest-pay-161915563.html)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science
Average salary: $84,400</p></li>
<li><p>Stanford University, Engineering
Average salary: $74,700</p></li>
<li><p>New York University, College of Nursing
Average salary: $70,200</p></li>
<li><p>Harvey Mudd College
Average salary: $69,200</p></li>
<li><p>University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering & Applied Science
Average salary: $66,500</p></li>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon University, Mellon College of Science
Average salary: $65,700</p></li>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institute of Technology (College of Engineering)
Average salary: $65,700</p></li>
<li><p>University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
Average salary: $65,600</p></li>
<li><p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Average salary: $65,300</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell University, College of Engineering
Average salary: $64,300</p></li>
<li><p>Colorado School of Mines
Average salary: $64,200</p></li>
<li><p>Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing
Average salary: $63,500</p></li>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Average salary: $63,500</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton University
Average salary: $63,100</p></li>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon University, Architecture & Design
Average salary: $62,700</p></li>
<li><p>Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Engineering
Average salary: $62,700</p></li>
<li><p>New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Average salary: $62,200</p></li>
<li><p>Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business
Average salary: $60,800</p></li>
<li><p>University of Notre Dame, College of Engineering
Average salary: $60,200</p></li>
<li><p>Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School
Average salary: $60,100</p></li>
<li><p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Average salary: $60,000</p></li>
<li><p>Ohio State University, College of Engineering
Average salary: $59,500</p></li>
<li><p>University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
Average salary: $59,400</p></li>
<li><p>Lehigh University, College of Engineering & Applied Science
Average salary: $59,300</p></li>
<li><p>University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing
Average salary: $57,700</p></li>
</ol>

<p>that list is super misleading b/c a lot of top schools (including harvard & yale) don’t report the salaries of their grads. also, not all schools report salaries by department. eg. MIT’s is an overall average, whereas CMU topping that list is just for CS majors. i wouldn’t be surprised if the average comp sci major from MIT makes more bank than an SCS grad. </p>

<p>long story short, take that list with a grain of salt. it doesn’t really reflect how prestigious the universities on it are. that’s an incredibly tough trait to quantify, and i don’t think that list is a good way to gauge it. </p>

<p>prestige-wise, CMU’s not as recognizable as the ivies or other pseudo-ivies. that having been said, CMU’s got kickass architecture, business, engineering, and fine arts programs. but if you tell the average person that you go to CMU the reaction you’ll most likely get is: “oh, so you want to do CS/engineering?”</p>

<p>If MIT CS grads make more money it’s probably because so many of them end up on Wall Street. If that’s what you want it’s fine. Personally I think CMU is prestigious enough, but plenty of guys at the gym will say “Oh is that in Philadelphia?”</p>

<p>I’ve seen that list far too often on FB. Though I’m glad that CMU is ranked “#1,” the list is too misleading and distorted by lack of data (as metroplex pointed out). </p>

<p>The prestige question is slightly tricky. CMU’s international reputation is better than most colleges in the 14-25 range (excluding the ivies) like Notre Dame, Emory, Rice, Vanderbilt, and WUSTL. Domestically however, CMU’s reputation is weaker than many 14-25 schools outside of CS and Engineering fields. </p>

<p>tl;dr - CMU has prestigious non-CS programs, but most people aren’t fully aware of them.</p>

<p>Based on information I’ve read off this forum, CMU is particularly prestigious in the areas of:
Computer Science and Engineering,
Fine Arts,
Business</p>

<p>The other subjects are definitely quite good as well, but don’t really make CMU stick out among other top tier schools. CS, Engineering, Fine Arts, and Tepper usually overshadow the other departments.</p>

<p>metroplex, what schools are pseudo-ivies?</p>

<p>“1. Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science
Average salary: $84,400”</p>

<p>Apparently those are old numbers, and a more accurate average salary is about 95-100K</p>

<p>I have done a great deal of recruiting over the years in the IT and business areas. There are really two things to think about in terms of “prestige” - one is how much it matters to you and the other is how much it matters to potential employers, et al.</p>

<p>what i write below can be interpreted many ways and is not intended as a “diss” on any other school, but reflects my personal experience</p>

<p>in my experience, we judge graduates from schools the following way:
Undergraduate Engineering - Top Tier
MIT, Olin, CMU, Georgia Tech, Berkeley, Stanford, Purdue, Cornell, Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>Undergraduate CS - Top Tier
CMU, Berkeley, MIT, U of Washington, Purdue</p>

<p>Undergraduate Business - Top Tier
Stanford, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, quite a few others</p>

<p>In our experience the Ivy BA/BS graduates are not as technically competent as those from other schools, but certainly have an excellent overall education</p>

<p>@andesite, what’s your opinion of CMU’s Computational Finance program?</p>

<p>I honestly cannot say i know enough to comment in detail about that. Sorry.</p>

<p>Computational Finance at CMU is among the top in America. Here are some links, but as with all rankings, take them with a grain of salt (and context):
<a href=“https://www.quantnet.com/mfe-programs-rankings/[/url]”>https://www.quantnet.com/mfe-programs-rankings/&lt;/a&gt;
[The</a> Top 10 Quant Schools, According to the Street - Advanced Trading](<a href=“http://www.advancedtrading.com/the-top-10-quant-schools-according-to-th/209102204]The”>http://www.advancedtrading.com/the-top-10-quant-schools-according-to-th/209102204)
[Top</a> five quantitative engineering programs in America | SmartPlanet](<a href=“Top five quantitative engineering programs in America | ZDNET”>Top five quantitative engineering programs in America | ZDNET)</p>

<p>As a CMU student, I can tell you that the program is extremely difficult to get into. I would say bar none the most difficult undergraduate degree to obtain at CMU. Generally the applicants accepted into the program are either Math or CS majors (both among the most difficult subjects at CMU) that have 3.7+ cumulative GPA.</p>

<hr>

<p>As for prestige in general. I think if you tell somebody on the street you’re from CMU some may only have heard of the name, but know nothing of it, others just a bit (CS/Engineering, in Pittsburgh, CM stands for Carnegie Mellon, etc.). It certainly doesn’t have that brand value that the ivies/Stanford/MIT, etc. have.</p>

<p>Among employers I have heard that they consider CMU to be a top tier school in CS and Engineering. I don’t know anything about the arts, so I can’t comment on stuff like Drama, Architecture, etc. I don’t think I’d consider Tepper to be a top tier business school. I can tell you that the reputation of Tepper students among their colleagues at CMU isn’t that high.</p>

<p>“Undergraduate Business - Top Tier
Stanford, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, quite a few others”</p>

<p>Did you say Northwestern has a great ungraduate business? Since NU don’t have undergarduate busineess school, do you mean their Econ major or the MMSS+Econ +Kellogg cert is good?</p>

<p>^ Stanford does not have an undergraduate business school either.</p>