<p>I keep reading the CMU has no social life.
What exactly classifies as a social life?</p>
<p>Are people complaining that there aren't parties every night, or that it's hard to simply hang out with friends?</p>
<p>I’m not sure why CMU has a reputation of "no social life’, but there are over 12 universities in the Pittsburgh area. Pitt (30K students) is literally across the street. If you cannot find a social life with that many potential friends…then you just are NOT trying.</p>
<p>There is more social life than you think. Just because people don’t throw ragers every night doesn’t mean they don’t socialize…CMU has a pretty tight community and its not that hard to make friends, and like aglages said, there are plenty of people you can meet outside CMU.</p>
<p>Easy flow chart:
Are you CS/ECE?
No: Join a club or 16. You’ll figure out some semblance of a life unless you are looking to be a party animal (in which case I question why you applied to a research institution instead of Penn State/UF).</p>
<p>Yes: Derp. Mass funerals will be held several nights prior to the first exam. A special ceremony will be conducted for those taking Intro to ECE.</p>
<p>Are CS majors that overworked here? I got the feeling CS was just an average major in terms of workload. I have heard some horror stories about 251 taking 30 hours a week, but other than that, I was under the impression that CS was pretty typical, and that other majors like Architecture were more time consuming. To be honest, though, I mostly know CS majors so I actually don’t have very much information about this.</p>
<p>CS majors definitely have an intense workload (it’s definitely one of the more difficult majors at CMU) but it is absolutely possible to have a social life. I’m a CS major and many of my CS friends find time for pretty intense extracurriculars (e.g. 10+ hours/week). I still get to hang out with friends, although it’s often while doing homework if it’s a weekday. One of my CS friends manages to go and party every other weekend.</p>
<p>It’s all about prioritizing. I am honestly sick of people saying that you can’t have a social life here. You absolutely can if you want it.</p>
<p>Even though architecture is famously difficult and time-consuming, the archies I’m friends with have acknowledged that it’s totally possible to get everything done. You just have to prioritize well…a lot of archies spend a lot of time slacking off and socializing in studio together. This isn’t to say it’s not a difficult major, but you won’t have to spend all of your time working.</p>
<p>I think a lot of studio time for Arch students is spent as a form of socializing. I know that’s how it was for me with my friends in engineering. Yeah, we might spend 10 hours on homework one night, but it was with friends having fun almost the whole time.</p>
<p>Depends on your major and how much you want to socialize.</p>
<p>Some people feel like they don’t have enough time to socialize, while a lot of CMU people just don’t want to socialize in the way people think college students socialize (get smashed and go to parties).</p>
<p>If you want to party, there are plenty of parties, if they’re not wild enough, you can go to Pitt parties.</p>
<p>The tougher majors obviously give you less free time unless you’re incredibly talented/smart, but even then I know people who do a lot of work and still find the time to get out on the weekends and have fun.</p>
<p>What RacinReaver said…yeah, I spent five hours most nights my freshman year doing homework, but I was always hanging out with friends, taking breaks to watch Youtube videos with them, talking to each other, and with homework and discussions on content material lazily interspersed. It’s really not grueling if you can always turn around and chat with a friend.</p>
<p>CMU students aren’t blind to that reputation, and if they want a social life, they’ll go about creating one for themselves. In general, the stereotype reinforces itself, in that less-than-social students are okay with that because they see it as the norm.</p>
<p>Still, CMU is usually ranked as one of the happiest campuses, so I wouldn’t let that perception influence your decision too much.</p>
<p>I agree with what everyone else has said. It totally depends on your major and what you consider socializing. I am a double major in Biology and Chemistry and pre-med as well. But I still find time to hang out with my friends and be a part of extracurriculars. That being said, if you want to be successful in a challenging major and be part of things outside of class you may have to compromise things in other areas. The typical choice is sleep haha. But it is totally doable and will make your time here so much better!</p>