I’ve spent the summer at Carnegie Mellon and visited Cornell as well. I am torn between these two choices for my early decision. I’m seeking views about:
CMU computer science program is top notch. It is probably harder to get into than most of top tier schools. Cornell has two CS programs, one in A&S and another in Engineering. Cornell’s CS programs are very good and students get great internships and jobs after graduation.
My oldest Daughter just graduated from CMU in May with a tremendous job, making 6 figures, as did most of her classmates. CMU is so difficult, and I agree with @oldfort that it is a difficult admit, like maybe under 5% for the CS program. She hung in there, though, and made it through at the top of her class, but it wasn’t easy. Lots of socially awkward kids at CMU, and most students there spend so much time studying that they don’t have much time for anything else. Also, CMU is a D3 school for sports, and Cornell is D1, so IMO, Cornell is probably more fun in that regard. My youngest Daughter is at Cornell but not in the CS program, but Cornell is also very good in this field.
Re #1:
I’m not really up on this but please @oldfort correct me if I’m mistaken.
I had assumed the CS major and courses at Cornell are the same, essentially, whether the major is undertaken as a student in CAS or COE.
What is different is not CS, the major or courses, but whether one fulfills the distribution and credit requirements of CAS or COE.
I assumed this because that is pretty much how I understood what happens with the biology major, which has long been shared between CAS and CALS.
So if I’m correct, saying “there are two CS programs” is not really accurate. There is one CS program, it’s just that this major can be undertaken either through CAS or through COE.
Monydad is correct that CS courses at Cornell are the same. I just googled. 
When D1 was a math student at Cornell, she told me that Probability and Stats course was offered at multiple Cornell schools, and each school’s focus was different. She said A&S’s course was more theoretical and AEM was more applied.
To add on to @oldfort’s post above, unless things have changed, Stats is also offered in Hotel and ILR.
To add to #5 there are probability and statistics and related courses offered in the engineering college too.(or I should say there used to be, and probably still are…)
The IE/OR major in engineering relies heavily on those disciplines as foundation.
@monydad --I was thinking the exact same thing but was too lazy to look up the ORIE course listing.
Econ is another one, but we don’t want to confuse people more than we probably have already!