<p>Nothing personal, but college isn’t about having fun. What the college/university brings to the table is an environment conducive to learning, resources to provide opportunities for self-improvement, and (as a result of the previous two things) a community of motivated individuals of a similar qualification/ability. If you are serious about education, that by itself could be fun, but I think your post is mainly looking at what you expect from the college experience rather than what college is for. The having fun and personal growth parts are just that - personal, both in that only you can really steer them and in that it’s all a matter of perception.</p>
<p>As a young adult (probably) experiencing freedom and (probably) greatly increased responsibility for the first time you have to choose how to respond to the challenges of the serious academic side of things (meaning faster paced and less hand-holding than high school) while also navigating living on your own far away from home and without your previous support networks. The distance and independence alone would be hard enough for many people to handle, but throw 1500 people together to all figure out these things at the same time and you’ve got a recipe for a confusing and potentially disastrous first semester at any school. You will make friends and expand socially no matter what your previous experience level were (a major upside of CMU attracting the crowd that it does), but you will also have to deal with people (and perhaps yourself) testing boundaries with alcohol/drugs, sex, and a bunch more mundane but equally tempting distractions.</p>
<p>What you (or anyone else) ultimately choose to do in that environment is up to you - if you take a bunch of hard classes at the same time or can’t manage the personal/inter-personal aspects of the college experience I don’t see that as being universally unavoidable and I don’t see it as being this or any other university’s fault. Certainly they are aware of the perception/issue and work to provide support to the student body, but you have the opportunity to come in forewarned and knowing to take things slow and careful until you learn your limits.</p>
<p>Yes, there are single classes you can take in a bunch of CMU majors (thankfully many, though not all, are capstones) that will totally floor you academically and are enough work by themselves to equate to most of a semester of regular classes. CMU doesn’t weight/value classes by ‘credits’ but instead uses ‘units’ representing how many hours a week they think you will/should expect to be doing work for the class. In my experience, the weekly hour estimates are very inaccurate, but the scale is relevant - keep an eye out for 12/15/18 unit classes to be massively more difficult in comparison to regular classes that are ‘only’ 9 units. The normal course load varies by school and major, but IIRC you need to take at least 30-35 units (~4 classes) to be considered a full-time student with 45-50 (5 classes) being more of a norm. Many people take close to 60 units at a time either because they are crazy, like stress, or want to graduate early and save $$$ - people overloading themselves or competing for how many units they can take at once is a major source of CMU’s reputation for stress culture and it is categorically ■■■■■■■■. Ooh, someone else took more/harder classes at once than I did, good for them - I am doing just fine over here at my own livable pace.</p>
<p>To address your other points:</p>
<p>~The weather is always given a bad rap and, while I guess some of the criticism is fair when you come from somewhere so radically different as Texas, Pittsburgh does have sunlight and good weather days well beyond what many critics complain about. Yes it gets cold and snows and we have the somewhat frequent gray days, but its not like we never see the sun or live in a monsoon.</p>
<p>~The food is what you make of it - CMU doesn’t really have a central cafeteria idea of dining on campus, instead favoring small cafe type deals spread out around campus and across a bunch of different styles. Obviously they have to cater to all dietary needs and many ethnicities in a liberal and highly international college environment. If the on-campus offerings don’t appeal to you, get a mini fridge and go to the store or eat in Oakland or Shady Side - there are tons of tasty options within easy walking distance and many of those deliver on campus.</p>
<p>~I am not going to go too far down the ‘CMU women’ discussion line other than to say I have never agreed with those criticisms or their reasoning. There are plenty of smart <em>and</em> beautiful people walking around campus and if they don’t appeal to you there are 5-6 other colleges within walking distance that have different demographics and student bases (most notable Pitt, Carlow, Duquesne, Chatham, etc). There are also tons of other non-college-related (and non-alcohol-related too if that’s your thing) places to meet other people.</p>
<p>~Social life (as with most of these other bullet points) is what you make of it - If you want to party you can do that, and even have a bunch of options about what kind you want to attend (frats, sororities, small friendly gatherings, bars, gaming, etc). There are a ton of clubs and interest groups for similarly minded people looking to either build/do something or let off a little steam. Some people like studying all the time (whether that is stressful or stress-preventing is up to the individual and their time-management skills) but there are a bunch of opportunities to go to extremes on either end of the social life scale.</p>
<p>I am no genius (socially or academically) and I was able to navigate these waters pretty easily without being overly stressed (while also working a job full-time all 4 years - my own brand of crazy). Personally, I did this because I needed the $ (who doesn’t?) and because it helped me keep my non-academic life structured. Don’t overestimate your self-assigned mediocrity, even getting accepted into CMU is no small feat (see the 15k+ people who apply and don’t get accepted every year. Want to know how many perfect SAT/ACT scores and valedictorians? a bunch). If you are looking for a party school or the Hollywood/movie version of the college experience run away screaming since CMU is most definitely not for you. If you want to get an idea of what CMU is like socially go watch the college/dorm room coding/small group party bits of The Social Network and then scale the snobbery/preppy aspects down almost entirely.</p>
<p>As far as something to look forward to about going to CMU, think about the wicked smart people you get to work and chill with, build and do stupid/interesting things with. The classes are hard but informative and worthwhile - you learn a ton and in the end the experience is worth more than just the college name on a piece of paper (though that does help with the job hunt). You will have great opportunities for networking and internships and there are a bunch of active alumni in major-related fields.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind when you hear about people sulking/complaining - they are doing so anonymously on the internet and there is likely a hefty sampling bias (happy/content people being less likely to comment at all). It’s not like you walk around campus or sit in class and see people with clouds hanging over their heads - sure, individually some people may be unhappy, but CMU is not some educational gulag or cram school (though some individuals may make it the latter through a poor understanding of why they came here and what the point is/was)</p>
<p>I enjoyed my time at CMU and am (obviously) not at all afraid to say it against the grain of the prevailing ‘CMU is hard/stressful/ugly/boring/shut-in’ internet reviews. Look at some of the positive reviews and write-ups too and realize how many more of those are just not being written or seen.</p>