Pros and cons of Carnegie Mellon

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Hi,
I’m looking to study business at Tepper at CMU, and I’m hoping to create a list of pros and cons for Tepper as well as Carnegie Mellon itself and the surrounding area. Location, food, sports, LGBT life, dorm rooms, classes, anything that could help me decide whether or not I should apply!

Thanks so much

2

Pros

  1. Its a FANTASTIC school. My kid started freshman year in SCS. As part of orientation he got to go to Google Pittsburgh.
  2. Its a really small campus. You can get from any place to any place in less than 10 minutes. Its like a large multi building office complex basically
  3. No rats in the dorm. My kid is in Margaret Morrison St dorms
  4. The staff, the faculty the people in general were all 10/10 during move in week
  5. SCS is the most elite program I heard
  6. My child was telling me recruiting events begin as early as Sophomore year
  7. Its incredibly safe in the neighborhood. There are between 20,000 to 25,000 kids in a 5 mile radius thanks to UPitt, Duquesne and CMU
  8. Hundreds of restaurants within walking distance of CMU campus
  9. Only 13k kids at CMU so the campus is very small, it doesnt feel like a number to my kid. Its not like he/she is part of 25,000 freshman. The freshman class size is 1500? or such 10 world class education. All sorts of industry partnerships and endowments and funding are coming CMU's way
  10. They have one of the longest orientations of any university. Almost 10 days with various amazing activities
  11. My child gets all sorts of help with tough homework
  12. Lots of technology company fairs, freebies and trinkets :)
  13. You MUST visit if you can. Visit, tour and interview will get u the admission if you are in the Top 5 of your graduating class with 15 APs almost all with As and a SAT/ACT of 1550-34+ :))
  14. Every communication, is very crisp, straightforward and direct
  15. Never had to wait more than 4 hours during a work day to get a email response from Admissions or Financial Aid. 10/10 for that alone. Astounding!!

Cons

  1. Not for everyone
  2. For every hour of instruction there is easily between 2-3 hours of homework. My kid has around 20-25 hours of classes a week, kid spends 5-7 hours a day (averaging it with weekends) doing homework (must be SCS too... who knows.)
  3. Grading is very very tough
  4. Not much time for drugs drinking or socializing (feels great as a parent :))
  5. Doesnt get to go out much into Pittsburgh
  6. Not one cafeteria, CMU has like 20 or so dining options/restaurants
  7. Intense 8 Nobody gets a 4.0. Highest GPA we were told was 3.4?
  8. Some housing, Stever, Residence on the 5th etc are almost a mile away from campus. Its great in Fall, but in winter it might get rough
  9. NCAA Division III school 11 Rains pretty much everyday, humidity 74-80% 12 No airconditioning in many dorms
  10. Rooms are tiny unless its Mudge House
  11. Does not have any Merit aid. Very little. Dont guarantee aid.
  12. EXPENSIVE SCHOOL Sticker price (if ur family has assets ) is over $65k a YEAR :(( 16 SCS acceptance rate I hear is around 5-6% of applicants. Almost like an Ivy.
3

Slight correction to #9. Stever is closer than Mudge and just a half-block from the intersection of Forbes/Morewood. Residence on Fifth is farther away but I don’t think it’s anywhere close to a mile.

And I don’t think the rooms are ‘tiny’ compared to most other dorms I’ve seen around the country. Otherwise I can’t quibble much about the rest except that Con # 8 may be specific to SCS, it certainly isn’t relative to other schools/majors. A 4.0 is tough but 3.4 is low - for a reality check look at the Dean’s list stats. My daughter (in Information Systems, not in SCS) has been 3.5 or higher every semester for three years. It certainly isn’t a cakewalk, though.

It’s heresay, of course, but she thinks Tepper is one of the easier schools. :slight_smile:

4

@SkepticalOfMost Tom Cortina and Jacobi Carrasquel BOTH specifically called out the graduating SCS GPA during the Orientation week address at the Cohon Center the week of August 21 2017. TWO kids had a GPA of 3.6 they said. So yeah… They said “expect 3.4” if you are a fabulous student.
You can reach out and check with them if you like, maybe they didnt want kids to become overconfident but this was said clearly.

5

The original poster was interested in applying to Tepper, not SCS, so the SCS stats are probably not germane, right?

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@BoiDel the average qpa of my daughter’s sorority is 3.35 – this includes majors from across all schools/majors at CMU. The only Tepper-specific info I could find quickly is a few years old: https://tepper.cmu.edu/news/stories/2016/02/2016-02-19-undergraduate-deans-list-fall-2015

There’s more to CMU than SCS, believe it or not.

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@SkepticalOfMost I dont think I ever tried to imply there was no other schools at CMU. I also NEVER tried to imply everything other than SCS at CMU is “easy”. In fact you were the one that ended your post yesterday by saying “Tepper is easy according to my daughter”. I didnt say that unfortunately :slight_smile:

I believe every school at CMU is extremely tough. I will not put down one school in favor of another by making the other school “easy” in order to make my child’s achievements superior
Thats why I said its tough, its challenging and a big deal to get a 3.4

Also unfortunately I did not attend orientation of any other schools at CMU. I shared the experience and facts and statistics from the one I attended :slight_smile:
I am afraid many generalizations are being made unnecessarily. I am/was only responding to the original poster.
I read his/her message again I did not read any requirement or precondition that he/she ONLY wanted non-SCS opinion. :slight_smile:

I apologize if that is hidden somewhere and I dont see it :slight_smile:

To the original poster: Please PM me if you have any Qs on the process.