<p>People often cite SCS as Carnegie Mellon's strongest program, and one of the world's best. My questions is: why? Is it the faculty? The curriculum? The environment, research opportunities, or something else? Additionally, are SCS students absorbed in their coursework 24/7? Do they participate in other campus activities, both programming-related and not? (Are programming-related activities like competitions, robotics, web design, etc. available?)</p>
<p>Thanks for anyone who can help. And yeah, I'll be visiting at some point, but I think that there are a lot of people here who have some insight.</p>
<p>SCS has some of the best faculty in the nation. They do cutting edge research, invite undergrads to join in, and teach courses at all levels. The basic curriculum is very challenging, and there are courses that challenge even the most amibitious students. This school is very clearly a tech hub. It is often hard to find a recruiter on campus who isn’t looking for a CS/ECE major.</p>
<p>CS students are generally “more nerdy” than the rest of the student body. Some suffer from the stereotypical hygeine / social issues, but these will also tend to be the kids acing through their classes so go figure. With the exception of varsity athletics, i’d say CS students are fairly well represented in all aspects of campus. That’s not to say that scs students are generally fat, or even out of shape… there simply are not enough hours in a week for most people to dedicate to a mediocre d III team. </p>
<p>There are a ton of programming opportunities on and around campus. I got about 10 emails full of openings from my advisor this morning (which I won’t be taking since I already have more than enough on my plate!).</p>
<p>There is a robotics club, a game creation society, a competition programming team, mobile app classes, and whole departments for a few of them here at cmu. If you want to go full nerd (never go full nerd) it’s yours for the taking</p>