<p>“Better overall experience” is very subjective. I was just down at USC the other day and definitely felt I wouldn’t have enjoyed being there for undergrad. I really liked the tech vibe at CMU and how there were people on campus other than Asians and tanned bros.</p>
<p>“tanned bros” is enough to cross USC off my list</p>
<p>I think it’s an alright place thus far; my only BIG objection is how they deal with finances. </p>
<p>Tuition is ridiculously high, almost completely unreasonable in my opinion.
Their policies for refunds and the like are pretty ridiculous as well (e.g. in response to going on leave, “We can’t refund any of your tuition because you were in the course for too long, but you can’t receive credit/incompletes because you weren’t in the course for long enough”). I know they need to make money to stay afloat, but it often feels like they rely on bureaucratic tricks.</p>
<p>As for social life, I’m not very social and I still made a lot of friends really quickly. </p>
<p>btw AvgAsian, I get where you’re coming from, but it’s pretty generally accepted that the REQUIRED workload for CIT and CS is much higher than that of Tepper. I’m not going to deny that there are diligent and intelligent individuals enrolled in TSB, but most of the people I’ve run into are pretty naive and arrogant. They think that they’ll be making 6-figs right out of school, and brag about how the engineers/comp scientists are going “to work for them one day”. Maybe that’ll change once they get farther into the curriculum.</p>
<p>I have been considering fitting a double major in Business into my last year and a half, just to stick it to 'em :D</p>
<p>Yeah, I myself agree that the Tepper core is weak sauce. It’s particularly infuriating that a parent is making such a comment though. </p>
<p>Back on topic. Pros and cons of CMU after my first year…</p>
<p>Pros:
-A great nerdy culture, even for some CFA kids.
-Exposure to some amazing professors. Kosbie forever!!!
-It’s a challenge. If you find it too easy, the opportunity is there to add more.
-Cozy campus. Might be a con I guess for people expecting something grander.
-Internet. Seriously, gaming latency at home sucks…
-Career/Internship opportunities later down the road.</p>
<p>Cons:
-COST. There are plenty of “what the f*** is this school doing with my money” moments.
-Brilliant professors who are average at teaching. See the first con.
-Recognition I guess? If you come from a smallish town you wont impress anyone throwing around Carnegie Mellon. I gotta say though, it sounds pretentious on it’s own ^.^
-Dining plan gets old reallllllllllllllll quickly.
-Weather. And whiny kids complaining about said weather.</p>
<p>I still don’t really get what nerdy culture means. I mean I always pictured nerds as people holed up in their room playing video games all day and never showering, but that’s not the sense I got what with cmu’s 200-some clubs and even some of THE geekiest-seeming guys I met were really talkative and fun.</p>
<p>Also, I’m gonna move off campus after freshman year probably to save $$.</p>
<p>For bonus points, pronounce Carnegie Mellon like some people in the region and the Port Authority buses do. “Car-NEIGH-Gee Mellon”.</p>
<p>wingardium leviosa</p>
<p>how many bonus points? and do they count towards the tuition?</p>
<p>Geeky doesn’t always mean “video games.” (That peeves me, by the way, since… I’m currently working an internship at a game development studio 
) It can mean people who are really into drama, history majors who spend most of their time caring about obscure history crap that no one else cares about, or students who really would just prefer to sit down with a good book than go out on a friday night. </p>
<p>When I go to visit my friends at other colleges, it seems like a lot of the students I meet are just studying whatever seems good to them at the time and aren’t really passionate for the subject. They’re just getting a degree so they can get a job. At CMU, what people study is what they really, honestly care about. </p>
<p>Freshman year I lived next door to a giant, talkative guy who was (is) a Cuban physics major. He’d get completely stoned and drunk out of his mind and then start talking string theory to me. One of my roommates was a fashion-minded urban outfitters type who loved to bake… and prove mathematical theorems. Down the hall (and still one of my best friends) was a guy on CMU’s nationally-ranked tennis team who spent his free time watching the stock market like a hawk. </p>
<p>Do you see what I mean? “Geeky” here isn’t fat basement nerds playing Call of Duty. But it still counts as “geeky.”</p>
<p>Well that’s the kind of geeky I am so maybe I’ll like this place after all :P</p>
<p>Another example of CMu’s culture:</p>
<p>When I went to sleeping bag weekend, one of the members of the frat I was staying at was a creative writing major with a minor in design. The night I slept over, we were all watching and making fun of SciFi Channel movies until about 2 in the morning while the creative writing major was busy programming a game using Python.</p>
<p>You’d think the game programmer would not react well to making fun of sci-fi :P</p>
<p>“Edit: I just remembered - you should check out steelersngators’ post history. He was a freshman this past year who posted on CC and was worried about finding a social life. He rushed a frat, made some good friends, and hasn’t been online since. Case in point.”</p>
<p>My friend just told me about this post lol I just had to come back :D</p>
<p>Currently doing a software internship. Out of all the people I’ve met (like 30), the most charming/outgoing is the dude from Carnegie Mellon. This guy seems to party and enjoy his life…Carnegie Mellon can’t be too bad!</p>
<p>Steelers! Welcome Back!</p>
<p>Now unlike Kate, I thought your absence was b/c you were studying so hard at Tepper (lmao) – stay around a while- -we don’t have any Tepper contingents. Plenty of CS, CIT, arts, HSS, MCS posters - but no Tepper regulars here.</p>
<p>So are you on WS this summer?</p>
<p>hahaha no kate was right i was having a bit too much fun. freshman year was great but i’ll be honest i didn’t have to study that hard because I was in Tepper. I’m spending the summer out of the country visiting family so I’m back on CC until September :)</p>
<p>Haha, I just saw this. I’m glad you had a good year, I’m a total creeper and I saw you around Mudge a lot and you seemed to be having a pretty good time. I think most people go a little too hard freshman year (I know I def did first semester) and it’s pretty much expected.</p>
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<p>Well, I guess I qualify as a “tanned bro” considering I grew up on the beach and still surf almost every week in the year. Yet, I’m as passionate about math, statistics and signal processing as I am about surfing (which gives me “balance”, no pun intended !). And I went to CMU (thought the change of environment would do me good, but went home twice a year when school was out !).</p>
<p>Bottom line, you shouldn’t judge people by the labels you give them. Each person is unique in his/her own sense.</p>
<p>I gotta say you sound like the balanced guy I’d like to see at CMU.</p>
<p>I noticed something funny. Most threads get a few hundred views but all the ones about CMU social life are in the thousands :P</p>
<p>Actually, I’ve got a question, is misc.market still going strong at CMU? That actually used to be a fairly strong part of campus culture back when I was there. (As in, almost everyone read the discussion threads that wound up going on there.)</p>