<p>My friend got accepted into MIT and CMU SCS. HE can't decide where to go though and he has a passion for computer science. Im telling you, this guy is a CS genius.</p>
<p>You cannot expect to get unbiased replies here. CMU and MIT are arch-rivals when it comes to CS. I, of course, say come to CMU.</p>
<p>Objectively, either one he goes to will give him a top-notch CS education, but I think CMU offers a more balanced academic experience in that we're strong in non-CS and engineering fields and dabbling in other fields is strongly encouraged. I also think CMU's campus is a lot nicer. Has your friend visited either campus?</p>
<p>CMU just because of balanced academics and an even more balanced social life. You can combine CS with things like business or dabble in design/fine arts while receiving the best in all these fields while MIT is very focused on its CS/sciences.</p>
<p>ALthough I will be attending CMU this upcoming year, If I were in the same situation as your friend (as I had hoped I would be) I would've chosen MIT for sure. Probably for different reasons than most people though. MIT has a very unique culture (although, so does CMU), and many of my role models (the great hackers of the 1970s, like Richard Stallman) went to MIT. Also, although MIT and CMU might be about equally ranked as far as CS goes, if your friend is interested in otehr sciences (physics or mathematics or whatever), as I am, MIT would arguable have better mathematics and sciences departments.</p>
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CMU just because of balanced academics and an even more balanced social life. You can combine CS with things like business or dabble in design/fine arts while receiving the best in all these fields while MIT is very focused on its CS/sciences.
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<p>While I really like CMU (priority waitlist :D) and I partially agree with this statement....one cannot ignore the reputation of MIT's Sloan School of Business either.</p>
<p>Oh that is very very true. I am just saying even SLOAN is technical based and rarely do its students try do stuff like major firm consulting or Ibanking. They tend to lean more than even Tepper grads into technical stuff.</p>
<p>I was focusing on the ease of minoring/double majoring in CS/Business and with other majors at CMU where it'd be hard if not impossible at MIT (I recently heard you have to get special permission?)</p>