Is CMU really that stressful? What's great about CMU besides academics? Make me love CMU

<p><a href="http://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth"&gt;http://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I was quite excited for CMU when I applied, but That link seriously scares me. CMU is ranked as one of the most stressful universities in the nation (no.8), and is supposedly " full of workaholics ". While I am attracted to CMUs academics, and I found the tour quite interesting with a pretty campus... </p>

<p>Sure CMU has excellent academics, an awesome reputation, and will probably get me a great job, but is it all worth the stressful time that each student has? I thought college was a time to have fun and grow as a person while simultaneously doing academics, but everyone at CMU Is just stressed out all the time. I don't see how that can be fun at all or how I will become a better person from that. </p>

<p>It seems to have "Stanford" syndrome where people seem happy but are actually emotionally unstable and extremely stressed out. </p>

<p>I'm from Texas and in comparison Pitt has probably the "grayest" weather out there. The food is supposedly awful. Along with the girls ( no offense just saying what I heard on CC ). The social life is supposedly mediocre at best. </p>

<p>It doesn't help that CMU's CAPs program is so flooded - so many students need mental and depression help..</p>

<p>I highly doubt I would do well being stressed constantly for four years of my life like everyone seems to say it is. I heard the work is collaborative, but damn if people are seriously that broken from the work..... While I do think I am a hard worker, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up at CMU levels. I browse reddit and CC and not a single person said they weren't constantly stressed</p>

<p>People who enjoy their time at CMU are probably geniuses who actually have free time while here I am being a mediocre student only accepted to CMU and UT-Austin and rejected everywhere else. All of my UT- austin friends are so excited because of the great social life there, but supposedly CMU hardly even has a social life.</p>

<p>.... I really should have researched more about this school before I applied. Please give me something to look forward to at CMU - I honestly really was excited to go, but searching online about the school and really learning more about it makes me think that it really wasn't a good fit for me at all - more for those people who don't really care about having a social life and love hard work and academics more than anything. Which isn't me. </p>

<p>Ugh.</p>

<p>Hey! I saw your post on Reddit also. I’m starting at CMU next year and I have talked to current students about all of this stuff and here’s what I’ve learned,</p>

<p>People on the internet:</p>

<p>You are reading the posts of the people who choose to post about CMU online, keep this in mind. People who are happy and thriving at CMU are probably not going to post about how great it is, they’re probably out enjoying their lives. People who aren’t loving it are probably going to tend towards the internet to vent. On campus and on facebook, I’ve met loads of happy students who love their time there and who admit the work is hard and very few angry lonely people who hate it. Don’t let the type of person that posts on CollegeConfidential about how stressed they are at CMU be your basis for what you know about CMU, that’s probably the person who isn’t taking full advantage of his experience at CMU.</p>

<p>Stress:</p>

<p>I talked to a student in ECE (one of the hardest majors) and he came from a very non-rigorous high school and he’s doing great and getting good grades, loving it at CMU. CMU will work you hard though, no doubt about it. The best thing you can do for yourself is to go in with confidence: some people at CMU will be more accomplished than you but nobody is necessarily SMARTER than you. Lots of students are very stressed out at CMU but not everyone. You just need to adjust to the workload and learn how to pace yourself.</p>

<p>The article you posted:</p>

<p>That article was a BIG DEAL when it was posted. People are very aware of this and are working to make things better. Can find examples if you want.</p>

<p>Girls:</p>

<p>Were you alarmed at the great mass of disgusting ugly girls when you visited? If the answer is no, you can conclude that those websites are bs. I met lots of cute/pretty girls when I went (and I consider myself a solid 8), I think those websites are mostly outdated. The general consensus seems to bet that the campus at CMU is getting more and more attractive haha</p>

<p>Social life:</p>

<p>LOADS OF PEOPLE at CMU have great social lives. Again, the people posting on CC about how sad they are aren’t the ones who are out partying or hanging out with friends. Tons of CMU people I met had great social lives! </p>

<p>The weather isn’t great though, I’ll give you that. In short, try not to base how you look at a school based on the people who are vocal about their problems with it, because those aren’t the people who are making the most of their time, they’re the angry people who are holed up on CC. Yes, CMU is super rigorous and difficult and you will be stressed sometimes depending on your major, but if you come in ready to work hard and learn interesting things you’ll be fine. Social life and girls are not a problem if you want that.</p>

<p>Now that I’ve addressed your negatives I want to look at some of the positives. I also had a great time when I visited and met lots of really cool, interesting people. For the first time in your life you’re going to be surrounded by smart and motivated people like you. Everyone there has such diverse interests too, you’ll meet future broadway stars and future major inventors and people who are going to change the world of computing and much much more. The faculty is amazing: professors are always open to office hours and extra help, they really want to see you succeed. I don’t know what your major is but there are lots of research opportunities available. Everyone I chatted up seemed really friendly and interesting and gave me some great advice. CMU is also super unique, what with buggy, carnival, the fence, the whole scottish thing, and when I visited the tour guide told me someone got a research grant to knit a blanket the size of a football field using only a bow and arrow. CMU is awesome and I can’t wait to go!</p>

<p>@yayitsme123‌ thanks for this info. I was also having my doubts however after reading your post , I am very excited again to go to CMU. I think the whole point is to enter with a optimistic attitude and perspective. College experience is going to be whatever you make of it. </p>

<p>@newbee18‌ exactly! That’s awesome, I’ll see you at orientation :)</p>

<p>As a parent of a incoming freshman to CMU this fall, I was initially upset by reading the Tartan article. However, I agree with yayitsme. I found out visits to CMU very positive. Our son had a great time during his admitted weekend and made friends with some of the students in his major.
As a parent of a sophmore at a Big 10 university I can tell you that it’s all about time management and knowing your strengths and weaknesses early on.
From what i learned from professors at CMU, lots of freshman do not stop and think that they’re not in high school anymore and that new study habits need to be learned and not over reaching just because others are doing it.</p>

<p>So Twixcollege just make sure you talk to your advisor and know what you;re getting yourself into. Taking a lighter load might help you deal with the culture shock of attending a rigous university.</p>

<p>Best of luck to all of you and remember, call, text or skype your parents. The people that love you will always be there for you and you can vent all you want for free.</p>

<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>

<p>My previous post was too long to add this comment (I had to cut a few sentences to be able to post it) so I will do so here.</p>

<p>I am an alum of the CMU class of 2008 and I created an account on this website specifically in order to post my previous comment (a cross-post from reddit[ ].com/r/cmu/comments/25u92u/is<em>cmu</em>really<em>that</em>depressing<em>and</em>stressful_i/ ).</p>

<p>(edited to un-break the URL that the website censored)</p>