<p>I am an International and I know it very well.</p>
<p>But I am just curious that why CMU's tuition is so high? Is it because they spend more money on the students?</p>
<p>I’ve been at CMU for four years, and they do a really good job of making their high tuition worth it. Because it’s a technical research university for the most part, students have access to fantastic resources, facilities, funding, and projects. Class sizes are small, and you have ample access to your professors (not just TAs, but the professors themselves) outside of class. Also, the impact of your tuition money is quite visible. Computers and software are frequently updated, so we always have access to faster, better machines and the most recent version of creative/engineering/scientific software. While admissions can be annoying, the school administration is efficient, and the school is very well run, in my opinion. </p>
<p>CMU in particular puts lots of emphasis into the quality of its programs, and in delivering that quality directly to the students. So the education behind the degree you get while make that degree far, far more valuable than one from other schools. Even though I’m paying in full, I never feel like I’m paying too much or getting ripped off, just annoyed that I don’t have enough time to do everything the school has to offer that I want to take part in.</p>
<p>I’d visited some other schools, and my parents and I took the course of breaking away from canned tours and going off and taking to students, and we heard about many of these schools that while the program was excellent, the administration was inefficient, sometimes staffed with incompetent people (I experienced this first hand at another school I visited), and raises in tuition without seeing any visible benefit from it. But CMU, I can see a rise in tuition, but for example, see all the NEW computers in our department lab get upgraded to the most recent version of Abode, and installation of a new laser cutter for our use.</p>
<p>So in short, yes, they really do put that money directly towards the students.</p>