<p>I do not mean to be offensive to anyone by asking this but since CMU is one of the universities my S is looking at, I would like to know what those who have experienced the college. I have to admit we are pretty sticker shocked. And no we would not qualify for financial aid. Already looked into that. We could swing it with no debt incurred but definitely some sacrifices would have to be made. What are the opinions out there?</p>
<p>Son is a senior at CMU and a happy computer science major. He and his friends had lucrative summer internships and, they are now being contacted by numerous recruiters for well paying full time positions after they graduate. That being said, I believe each family has to weigh the pros and cons of making sacrifices to pay for a high quality education. Carnegie Mellon is a great school.</p>
<p>Well, CMU has been ranked as one of the top colleges in terms of ROI. That being said, it’s more than that. What does your son want out of his college education? A world class education? Social experiences? A job? You have to consider this all in one.</p>
<p>If your son is interested in a poor ROI field like history, literature, or modern languages: no.</p>
<p>If he’s interested in anything else: yes. </p>
<p>CMU is a truly amazing school beyond academics. Probably only about 25% of my life is invested into the classes I’m taking or my majors - everything else has been outside activities, clubs, job opportunities at my dream companies, HCI research, etc. These are all things I would have likely struggled to find at other schools.</p>
<p>That said, if I had planned to come here just for creative writing, I would have chosen somewhere else. In many humanities fields at CMU it’s clear that jobs are scarce and the debt might be crushing if a student can’t find gainful employment after graduation.</p>
<p>My S is interested in CFA- the design school. He’s very much a right brain/left brain kind of kid. Can play an instrument, excellent writer, acts and does tech with the theatre but totally at home with the computer science geeks and artsy kids too. The environment at CMU appears to fit him well. It’s a tough decision. Of course he still needs to apply and then be accepted to even really agonize about it.</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>Send a PM to Fineartsmom - -her son is an art major within the art/cs combo degree program.</p>
<p>She’s a frequent contributor to these threads.</p>
<p>Ditto what kate said-- $55k for humanities - probably not.
55k for any STEM, arch yes, and music, drama, art- probably too.</p>
<p>How much less expensive is the next highly ranked school on the list.
If he could get a spot at Cooper Union for free- sure take it.
RisD, Savanna-- they’re just as pricey as CMU.
CMU is a niche school- if the niche fits, it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Keep in mind- the budget includes housing, food and personal expernses and books. neither of my kids has ever hit that budget. So think about $3k less on average after you get out of the freshman meal plan, don’t travel lots and/or have to spend $100 a week on enterainment (which you don’t!)
Art supplies are pricey though - books can be bought used- but not art supplies</p>
<p>Art supplies are a *****! I still remember high school b&w photography… I literally spent hundreds on paper alone :(</p>
<p>I didnt get a pm from the OP but I just returned from visiting S at CMU. I still think we made the right choice even as I cringe when I look at our bank statements.</p>
<p>As an economist who has a S at CMU in fine arts, I get asked about this a lot because really, what rational economic actor would spend $200 K for a degree in a field that has a VERY low expected income for its graduates (CFA)? It is hard to generalize and it depends on whether your kid is going to take advantage of what makes CMU/CFA different than an art program at WUSTL, MICA, RIT, OSU, UW-Madison or VCU. My son really agonized over going to VCU for free or CMU (almost full cost) and it came down to the non-CFA aspects of CMU–the faculty and facilities at VCU are as good or better but my son wanted to be at a place surrounded by smart and ambitious students in many fields. He is trying to do a minor in robotics and none of the other schools could offer the quality of comp science/engineering compared to CMU. More importantly, the emphasis on multidisciplinary education was unique to CMU and he always wanted to be in a place where new findings on sub-atomic particles are discussed by art and theatre students as well by the physics majors. That being said he said that he would never, never have done this degree at CMU if it had meant going into debt. He thinks that high debt is going to crush his friends who are already freaking out about what will happen when they graduate in this economy. We do not qualify for financial aid; son has a small CMU merit aid award and one substantial outside scholarship that means we pay for about 3 years of school rather than 4. We are very fortunate that he has some help from his grandpa so we are not taking loans or using retirement savings to pay for CMU. </p>
<p>If we had had to take out loans it would have been a no-brainer–VCU–but my son had th luxury of a choice, but not a costless choice. What he did have to recognize that there will be absolutely NO help for grad school, starting a studio or a small b usiness. If he had chosen VCU we told him the $200K that he is using could be put toward another academic or career choice. He chose CMU and says, to date, he has no regrets. Do I think it was the right choice? yes. Do I think CMU is too expensive, yes also. But I think a free education at VCU was also going to be expensive but impossible to say how much… what is the cost of spending 4 years of his life not being creatively or intellectually stimulated to his full potential? Also pretty high. </p>
<p>Frankly, I think a undergraduate education for 50K/year is too high no matter what the major or the future career path. However, I think 18-22 are some of the most critical years in a person’s life w hen your brain is capable of incredible growth and if your kid is not in an environment that really motivates him to take advantage of this it is costly in terms t hat are hard to measure. So the “cheap” in-state option vs expensive private may need to include t his type of cost/benefit analysis. BUT, be careful. CMU and other art programs accept a lot of kids who can pay full freight who, frankly, are not particularly gifted artists and have little chance of succeeding as artists. Leaving CMU early or producing a poor portfolio means wasted money and wasted years… A CMU CFA degree may be very, very costly for this type of student. If your student can articulate with passion why he will be motivated/educated/stretched at CMU in a way that he can’t at his alternatives, then CMU may be the right choice. It is very personal and very difficult and no one can really help you decide.</p>
<p>CMU sounds like a great fit - another option are honors colleges/programs at top public universities where you tend to get the smarter, motivated kids together at a substantially less cost.</p>