<p>kinda depends on what you make of it. The school only provides the opportunity. </p>
<p>fwiw.
CMU does a graduating class salary survey. 100% participation in most years. You can see the salary range and companies that hired. </p>
<p>I don’t think graduating CMU students plays 2nd to your 1st choice schools. I think that DS got more out of CMU than what he may have gotten out of either MIT or CalTech (applied but not selected ). </p>
<p>DS , Mech, HCI '06, now does a robotics startup and works now pt in CS (robotics) at Udub, As collegealum314, mentioned, you don’t need to be a CS person to do CS. DS got into a highly rated CS grad school (not MIT Caltech), microsoft internships, works in school of computer science without a cs background. </p>
<p>You are looking for prestige and rankings, which in a few years after graduation, will mean very little. </p>
<p>Hard work, passion for what you want, networking, and character will take you further.</p>