Here’s my dilemma. Right now I’m a junior in high school, but I was accepted to CMU (SCS) early admission, but I’m not quite sure if I should go right now or not. The thing is, my first choice is always going to be Stanford.
If I accept admission to CMU, I’m not sure if I can still apply as regular / ED to Stanford (I’ll still be a high school senior), though probably not. Transfer from CMU is certainly possible, but with Stanford’s transfer acceptance at around 10%, it’s iffy at best.
If I stay another year in high school though, I’ll definitely be able to apply ED to Stanford, as well as probably have a little bit more time to boost my ranking, maybe, and have the oppurtunity to do some school-related ECs. The problem is, I won’t have much of a class load if I do stay – it’s either study halls or intro-level courses. Also, I don’t have much of a liking for high school, which is why I applied.
I’m not sure if this’s the right section to post in; anyway, which do you think would be the better choice to take?
First of all, congratulations on acceptance to my alma mater. I graduated in '99 and never regretted my experiences. I wasn’t in SCS, so my experiences will differ from yours. Therefore, I’m not sure how much help I can give you. Stanford is a great school too, but I’m not sure how its CS program compares to CMU. All I know is that CMU’s CS program is very hard to get into, so maybe you shouldn’t be quite so willing to jump ship. Any particular reason Stanford is your first choice?
If you are not happy where you are, get moving on. Action is more productive than stagnation. Unless you think you’ll hate CMU. If you haven’t already visit both campuses for good chunks of time.
My first choice school, the one I swore I was going to because it was perfect, dropped off the list instantly upon me setting foot on campus. The feel of the place made me ill, the administrations was horrible, the kids all looked confined and unhappy. Not for me.
The school I’m graduating from, which I have loved, I loved from the moment I visited, and I only filled out the application because my mom pulled it out of the trash and asked me to. the campus is vibrant, full of opportunities, and teh administration is hugely flexable here.
If you are done where you are, which it sounds like you are, and you would be happier with a bigger academic challenge, go for it. I hung around my high school for an extra year because I thought the relaxing pace and my beloved EC’s would keep me together. Wrong choice. I was done there and I went crazy until I could setp up to the next phase of my life.
I’m a Pitt grad, and a Pittsburgh native. I have friends and family that graduated from CMU, and loved it. Their CS program is truly one of the best in the country.
CMU is in Oakland, right next to Pitt. Carlow College, Chatham College, Point Park College, and Duquesne University are also within the city limits. Oakland has a bustling social scene, and the club districts in the Strip and the South Side are a short bus ride away.
I can almost guarantee that you’ll have a great time at CMU, and get a great education if you take advantage of this tremendous opportunity. Whether you regret your decision depends solely on your attitude.
I’m going to go the opposite way here and recommend (at least conditionally) that you stay in high school.
Do you have AP courses available? Then take them as a senior and take the AP exams for possible advance placement. Ditto with the SAT 2’s. Getting some of the general education requirements out of the way while still in high school saves time and mucho bucks.
If your heart’s set on Stanford, then go for Stanford. It’s likely that the transition from a high school senior to a Stanford freshman (and I assure you, there WILL be a transition) will actually be easier than that of a CMU freshman to a Stanford sophomore.
If, for whatever reason, you don’t get into Stanford, or get wait-listed, you still have CMU as a backup. Depending on how you’ve accumulated graduation credits, you might even be able to leave high school after your first semester and start the second semester at CMU.
Most of the reason is because of a girl, the weather, and the fact that CMU is a little too close to my hometown. CMU, Stanford, and MIT are the three top-ranked in Comp. Sci., so it’s mainly those differences that sells it for me. I’m just in love with the west coast.
I’ve exhausted my entire AP courseload saving Euro, and though it is quite a bit of money, I’d much rather just take it in college than attempt to test out.
I’ve gone to CMU for little classes since I’d started regular school, so CMU is about the most familiar college to me, maybe a little too familiar. The same applies to Pittsburgh; it’s not entirely a bad city, but I probably wouldn’t be content living here for another 3 or 4 years.
The last time I went to SF, it was gorgeous to me, as was California in general. I’m not sure how my opinion would change the longer I lived there, but as of right now, I’d really like it there.
I am currently studying Mechanical Engineering at CMU and I felt you should know some things. The weather is horrible, the girls are hideous, and being around Oakland doesn’t mean all that much contrary to the UPitt grad’s comments. He obviously does not realize that being a CS major means you will automatically be a loser and will feel very out of place in the Oakland/UPitt party scene. If you have a girl out at Stanford maybe it’s worth staying for (although you will undoubtedly break up so whatever), because you will not find many girls that actually look like girls out here at CMU. Also, Pittsburgh is freaking boring. Everything closes at like 5pm. I’m from the Philly area, and my friends are from some other major cities like NYC and Chicago; we all complain about the boring nature of Pittsburgh. Also, you will not be prepared for the horrible weather, it is ALWAYS overcast here. The sun is a rare sight. It is pretty damn cold in the winters, and you may think you can handle it, but you will realize how weak you truly are when you are in college and you have to actually walk long distances for the first time in your life (across campus, places to eat, etc…as opposed to the normal world where you drive to specific destinations in the safety of a warm car). Although Pittsburgh SUCKS and CMU SUCKS you can come out of this school with a degree in CS and make a ish-load of money, and I am pretty sure our CS program can stick it in Standford’s back side, or at least it can rub it on Stanford. That is all.
CMU was my first choice too. Then I went to the campus. Wow, cold, dreary and everyone looked like they were afraid of just being near so many other people. Everyone was staring at the sidewalk as they walked (alone) with their hands stuffed deep in their pockets.
Sure, the CS program was top-notch and you could probably get a great job with a degree from there, but the place costs 40+k a year anyway. You’d be paying any extra money you get from that degree in loans for several years to come most likely.
I decided to go to the #5 ranked school instead. Big, cheerful, good social scene, lots more opportunities in general in terms of clubs/internships/etc. and good programs outside my area of study.
Not sure about Stanford, maybe its just like CMU (and MIT incidentally), but if you have a girl there and you like the campus I’d wait for that. A good program is only worth so much, college is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life too.
First, a girl (or a boy) isn’t a good reason to choose one college over another. Many of the people I went to HS with who followed their HS sweethearts to college ended up breaking up sometime during their freshman year.
The other thing you need to consider is whether you can deal with separation. Depending on Stanford’s academic schedule and your coursework, you may not be able to go home for breaks. Can you deal with holidays away from your family?
Would it be possible for you to enroll in summer courses at Stanford so you can be there for a longer period of time to see if you really like it there?
Yeah, thanks for that. Because CMU’s so full of handsome (and charming!) boys like you. The other comments were pretty much so moronic I don’t want to address them, except for the whole bitch about walking around. Dude–CMU’s like the smallest campus EVER. If you have problems walking around here, I hope you can get some sort of special treatment for the physical disability you must have.
All right. Now that the unproductive part of this post is over, I can actually address Tarokun’s question. I got accepted to CMU my junior year of high school, and elected to go and study Professional Writing and English rather than do my senior year.
Best decision I ever made. Bar none.
I ended up going through CMU in three years and getting my Master’s in Professional Writing last year. I learned a lot from the English department, and shit, if you got accepted for CS, I would go in a heartbeat if I were you. Aren’t we #1 in CS undergrad or something?
Re: the transferring thing. I, too, am from the area, and thought I would transfer to Brown after my first year, but I got settled, got friends (yes, it is possible! ;)), and decided not to. Believe me, Carnegie Mellon isn’t the horrible bleak social wasteland that people are painting it to be. I’m not sure if you have trouble making friends, and yes, the conventional wisdom on the Computer Science department is that they’re…a little less than socially adept, but I knew tons of CS people who made fast friends and had the time of their lives at CMU. It’s definitely what you make of it, as cliche as that sounds. If you’re outgoing, you’d probably also be fine at Stanford, but I kind of agree that a girl is a really shitty reason to choose colleges.
And the skipping high school thing is totally up to you. I went to a teeny tiny all girls school for 11 years; after junior year, I was ready to get the hell out of there. I didn’t miss anything by skipping senior year. I kept in touch with the friends I wanted to keep in touch with and still saw my best friend a couple of times a week. If you’re big on high school (and I’m guessing you kinda aren’t, since you took the initiative to apply early admission to CMU in the first place), you might miss the whole prom/graduation/last-year-we’ll-ever-be-together type of mentality that pervades a lot of people’s senior years. I certainly didn’t.
People will try to tell you high school is the best four years of your life, and then they’ll try to tell you that college is the best years of life. In the end, only YOU can decide what the best years of your life are. Hell, when I was in high school, those were the best years of my life. When I was in college, it sure seemed like I was having the time of my life. Now that I’m working, finally 21 (oh yeah, if you do go early: be ready for the onslaught of 21st birthdays among your friends when you’re still a lowly 20 year-old. Get a fake.), and making good money, I definitely think I’m having the time of my life. If you think you’ll be happier at CMU than in your last year of high school, please, go for it.
I would also like to echo the sentiment that CS grads from Carnegie Mellon make bucketloads of money. All of my friends do, now. If that’s a motivating factor for you, it’s something to keep in mind.
Like I said, in the end, you’re the only one who can make this decision. I just wanted to share my experience at CMU.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… I am pretty sure that we are ranked like second ugliest in the nation for girls. I will agree however that we do have some f’d up guys here as the ugliness knows no boundaries; however, some of the girls make me want to pick up a stick and beat them back into the forest or under whatever rock they crawled out from under. I know this has nothing to do with the kid’s question, however I can’t let you tell lies. The girls in general at CMU (I know there are a handful of pretty girls, including my friend Melanie sitting behind me watching me type this…had to put that in so she wouldn’t hit me) look like mother fucking animals. That is all. I wrote this at 4am so I am hoping it’s coherent, smoke a blunt.
Recent (May '03) CMU SCS grad checking in: just for the record, don’t expect to get a good job when you get out, unless we have a dramatic reversal of the situation in that sector of the economy. CMU’s an expensive place, so just make sure you truly love the field of computer science before you set out on that path; your main reward will be learning for its own sake, not a pile of cash. The program there and the education you’ll get really are great though.
I began college after my sophomore year of high school at Simon’s Rock , without getting any sort of HS diploma or GED first. I am currently working on my PhD.
Going to college early has it’s advantages and drawbacks, but I have never once regretted my decision to go. I have never had trouble with transferring colleges, getting jobs, etc. By the way, I still do not have my HS degree.
I would do it if you believe you can and you have the opportunity to do so. My only advice is this: there are a number of schools which will let you in after your junior year. Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, and Simon’s Rock are three I can think of off the tp of my head, but I know there are many many more. Consider all options, not just the first school that offers.