#CMU SCS vs Cornell CAS

90 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

ruby vault
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From what you've listed, I think CMU might be better? The only thing holding me back from confidently asserting that CMU would be better is that you're not 100% sure about cs.

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I will give some comments on your bullet points (for sake of my fingers, I'll only comment on CMU for now).

School 1 Pros:

  • campus and size are important, as you know. and the culture of the campus is very important (tho, you should theoretically be able to find any type of person on any campus).
  • CMU's cs program is one of the few that is a solid tier above Cornell's.
  • The 50/50 gender split is quite important! It can be uncomfortable walking into a lecture hall and realizing that you're one out of five girls in the entire room. For better or worse, people tend to get used to this.

School 1 Cons:

  • CMU has a stress culture, but I'd imagine Cornell's grade deflation also causes much stress. I've heard that Cornell's finance folks can be quite toxic to each other. peeposhrug
  • CS is not necessarily Computer Engineering. I work in like the mathematical logic side of cs, so my perspective might be skewed lmao.

Consideration:

  • CMU has lots of faculty, classes, research opportunities, extracurriculars, and peers who will quite thoroughly represent each area of cs. As long as you like puzzles, I think you'll be able to find some area in cs that you'll fall in love with. (there might be a better interest outside of cs but you can be happy)
dawn heath
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thank you for the thorough feedback! im currently leaning towards CMU, but i just want to be sure im not overlooking anything important/making the wrong decision by denying cornell. the biggest consideration is my major, as id like to love CS but i cant be definite that i will. however i think i enjoy puzzles/logic/problem solving well enough, so i hope ill be fine doing CS.

dawn heath
ruby vault
# dawn heath if you dont mind, i would love to hear your comments about cornell or just any ...

If you happen to be interested in Programming Languages Theory (PLT - my research interest), both CMU and Cornell are fucking stacked. I know a Cornell PLT grad student through Discord and met a Cornell undergrad at a PLT conference, and they only spoke good things. Lots of good research opportunities for ya! And I think PLT is sooo fun. Lots of room for interdisciplinary research too!

General thoughts:

  • Cornell is divided into several schools. Some of the divisions are due to public vs private funding. Some of the divisions are due to ???. Unfortunately, these divisions impact students in sometimes negative ways (e.g., pass/fail options for general education requirements). CMU is as well, but I haven't heard much about how CMU is divided from the admin view point.
  • Cornell has a housing crisis to the point that they're calling upperclassmen's phones to ask if they'd consider giving up their housing contract with the university to give room for first years. Apparently, some first years might not have dorms?
  • Ithaca has interesting problems. They have a toxic dependent relationship with Cornell. Apparently some of the workers at Cornell can't afford houses cuz Cornell students jack up housing prices??
    -~~ Cornell has lots of fun classes like wine tasting?? It's legal to drink alcohol underage cuz it's "educational."~~
    -~~ Apparently, the hills on campus can get really muddy, but you just need to get good at walking. The campus is quite beautiful otherwise.~~
  • If you want cheap groceries, you're out of luck without a car.
    -~~ At least some departments have student representatives who can give feedback, and they're listened to?? That's like actually crazy. I worked as the student representative on academics at Harvard, and it can be really really hard to convince admin/faculty to change something. ~~

I was talking to an urban planning major at Cornell, and they naturally talked a lot about Ithaca's campus, city politics, etc. LMAO

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You should ask CMU students about housing, unseen living costs, and things to do off campus.

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The biggest positives about Cornell I can say are:

  • I've heard Adrian Sampson is friendly and goated af. He's a CS professor. Has lots of nice research going on that you might be able to join??
  • All four Cornell students I know are nice people, and they're all interesting. Kinda nerdy too tbh.
dawn heath
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oh yeah ive heard about the housing crisis lol rip, ive heard from cmu students that the housing is decent

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thanks for the input! it seems both cmu and cornell have really great academic programs, which is to be expected lol

steel charm
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Cornell vs cmu

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Bro is having a stress off

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I mean just look at this tbh

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When you consider class size, no school is even close to cmu for big tech

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However you said you’re not sure about CS which changes things

crude dove
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have u taken a look at the coursework for cmu scs and cornell cas

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im worried i won't be able to find my people/fit into the social culture (yes i know cornell is huge, but i think that's part of the problem)
it is not part of the problem its the whole reason why its so easy to find ur people

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i think its not very comparable to ur public hs since hs is consisted of ppl who usually like grew up together or in the similar area and cliques built up from k-8

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in my and many others experiences at cornell, u got here and EVERYONE is looking to make friends and find their people

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as long as u attend ur classes at the start of the semesters ull def find people

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whether it be in class, in ur dorm, or thru insta class gcs

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" small, "nerdy" environment "

  • i agree that cmu scs would likely have this versus cornell
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"people who want to see and help others succeed"

most ppl here are like that

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but im not disagreeing w ur point of comp atmosphere bc htere are some antisocials and bitches

crude dove
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I'd imagine Cornell's grade deflation also causes much stress. I've heard that Cornell's finance folks can be quite toxic to each other.
dyson isnt engineering. engineering is huge in comparison and there are many ppl who bond tg and work tg and shit

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most ppl arent the toxic gatekeepers

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but again, im not 100% disagreeing bc there are a few

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Cornell is divided into several schools. Some of the divisions are due to public vs private funding. Some of the divisions are due to ???. Unfortunately, these divisions impact students in sometimes negative ways (e.g., pass/fail options for general education requirements).
idk what bro uis even talking abt here tbh

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u can take ur distributions as pass fail iirc

dawn heath
crude dove
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most r normal human beigns

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majority of unviersities at least in my perception are student vs curve or student vs prof

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not student vs student

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ppl wont lie to u if theyre giving u like hints on what the test was on or what the assignment was

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if they do theyre an asshole and u need better friends

crude dove
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so idk why they mentioned this to begin with

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idt u shouldve asked the harvard person fro their take on cornell

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bc lowkey reading some of these is making me mad 😭

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Cornell has a housing crisis to the point that they're calling upperclassmen's phones to ask if they'd consider giving up their housing contract with the university to give room for first years. Apparently, some first years might not have dorms?
theyre not giving room for firstyears. theyre giving room for CURRENT firstyears. there r like 100 ppl still on waitlist for dorms but the firstyear dorms are alrdy set aside

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firstyears will never be without dorms

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at worst, force triple but thats an issue every year

dawn heath
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lol yeah ofc asking current students is better, i have asked a few about their experiences and stuff

crude dove
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Ithaca has interesting problems. They have a toxic dependent relationship with Cornell. Apparently some of the workers at Cornell can't afford houses cuz Cornell students jack up housing prices??
this literally doesnt even matter

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and idek what theyre talking abt

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Cornell has lots of fun classes like wine tasting?? It's legal to drink alcohol underage cuz it's "educational."
its not legal bc its educational.. the fuck. its legal bc its under the legal limit and its supervised.
but yeah there are fun classes like Meat, wines, goat raising or smth, oceanography, ice cream making

crude dove
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j ask me anything

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Apparently, the hills on campus can get really muddy, but you just need to get good at walking. The campus is quite beautiful otherwise.
hills get muddy anywhere what even 😭

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i do agree there is a bit of walking

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freshie dorms are like 20-25 min walk from the engineering quad

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could take the bus but buses arent timed with classes and could be delayed

dawn heath
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and since im in CAS i think its less engineernig focus more theoretical

crude dove
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If you want cheap groceries, you're out of luck without a car.
take the bus..

dawn heath
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or smth

crude dove
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the bus goes to target, wegmans, aldis, trader joes

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walmart

crude dove
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just less engineering requirements

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like ur not required to take physics and engineering math and chem

dawn heath
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oh yea thats what i meant sorry idk why i said it like that 💀

crude dove
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I've heard Adrian Sampson is friendly and goated af. He's a CS professor. Has lots of nice research going on that you might be able to join??
walker white supremacy 🤩

dawn heath
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do you go off campus often?

crude dove
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to do what

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i just dont go out in general often

dawn heath
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idk lol

crude dove
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ppl weekend trip to nyc or syracuse or bing n stuff tho

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everything i feel i need is on campus

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until im bored of the food or smth

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my friends and i lowkey eat in ctown and commons quite often

dark slate
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oppurtunity wise, yeah cmu no brainer. Culture-wise, Cornell. At CMU, the work-culture there is strong and although i dont doubt its collobrative, ur never catcihng a break as my friend that goes there puts it.

ruby vault
# crude dove > Cornell is divided into several schools. Some of the divisions are due to publ...

Ahh, I was talking to a Cornell student about grading, general education requirements, etc. In hindsight, I shouldn't have brought this up because I don't remember much of it (the convo), but iirc, depending on the college, you're not able to pass/fail as many classes as you would in another college.

I thought this was relevant cuz OP was worried about the possibility of switching. My bad~

vapid heron
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If you’re not 100% sure about cs then do Cornell. It’s equivalent to cmu for cs and better at everything else. Environment of cornel is chill af. Any cs dept is going to be nerdy lol

steel charm
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Bro they’re not equivalent for cs 😭

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Cmu is head and shoulders above

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But otherwise Cornell is better yeah

umbral blaze
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i just chose cornell over cmu scs too!

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i was also very unsure if i wanted to do cs

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so that's the reason i chose not to go to cmu

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bc if i wanted to change my major at cornell the program would still be very strong

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just my two cents tho haha

dawn heath
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ah okok i see! thats pretty interesting

umbral blaze
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yup but if you're the kinda person who could tough out cmu cs even if you didn't like it then maybe it'd be worth it

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either way u have 2 really good options so just trust that whatever u choose it'll still be a good choice

dark knoll
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if not cs, do you know what you would consider switching to?

dawn heath
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i dont really know, which is why i think im pretty ok with just doing CS for now