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| - My University Alma Mater.
It's one of those places you love to hate and hate to love, but in the end, you're going to be extremely grateful for the opportunity to have attended and will love CMU for what it is.
Let's be honest, you're not going to CMU to party, to partake in the incredible sports scene, or even to enjoy the amazing year-round weather. You're here to get a great degree, to meet and make some lifelong friends, and to become part of the brand that is Carnegie Mellon.
CMU is a research and academic institution, first and foremost. The faculty and staff are AMAZING. This goes for every college and school on campus. Every single one of my professors I had was incredibly well-versed in their field of study, and they definitely made classes challenging. Oh, that's another point to make about CMU - your class load will most likely be more intense than your counterparts at other institutions. Why? Because professors here actually care about students understanding and growing beyond the material that is presented in the classroom. What's the good in taking a test where you just spit back out what you heard in lecture? Classes here make you THINK, and yes, you'll probably cry for your momma every now and then when midterms come around, but you'll come out the other side a stronger person than before. Intellectually at least. As others have pointed out, there is a 99% chance there is someone on campus that is smarter than you, and you will probably need to allocate an inordinate amount of your waking hours (really, sleep is for the weak) to studying and bugging out about your homework set. But don't let that get you down about CMU, it's all part of the collective experience, because everyone does it.
The facilities are top notch - technology is almost always refreshed as soon as possible to keep campus up to date. Heck, CMU had the first all-campus wireless internet capability out of all the universities in the States. Computer labs are everywhere, from classrooms to dorms, to the library, to the student centers. The newest CS building (the Gates Center), is brand new and has computers out the wazoo. Hey, if Bill Gates wants computers, Bill Gates gets computers and lots of CMU students learning on them.
Campus itself is an interesting place to be. It's small enough so that a walk from one side to the other should only take about 10-15 minutes max. However, it's large enough so that you won't see the same people day after day, unless of course, you hang out in the UC (University Center) at the black chairs all the time. The buildings are a mix of old and new, where the older buildings (like Doherty, Porter, Baker, Heinz, and Hamerschlag) are from the Andrew Carnegie era. The older buildings definitely have a charm that I loved. Something about that long, sloped hallway.
When it comes to dorms, yeah, they aren't the most amazing. If you can snag a room along the Morewood corridor or in West Wing/Resnik, then you're probably the best off. Henderson is pretty good as well. Or just go off campus if you really can't deal with it.
Ok, food-wise, CMU isn't the greatest. You're not going to get any franchise meals on campus, and the available eateries aren't tremendous, but they're decent for what they are. Lunchtime rushes between classes can get crazy in the UC. There are alternative dining options scattered throughout campus, so find something you really like and make that a frequent destination. For me, it was Joe's hotdog cart outside Tepper and the actual cafe inside Tepper. Ok fine, Si Senor burgers and chicken fingers were amazing as well (gotta love the triple-nuked fingers!). Off-campus, there are bunches of bordering neighborhoods to find food at, such as Squirrel Hill or Craig St. You can even venture down to the Pitt area of Oakland for some more well-known chains and local joints.
There are a bunch of traditions and campus myths at CMU, as with any school, and you'll be sure to learn them quickly enough. These are integrated into student life pretty heavily, and I wished I'd taken advantage of more of them. Definitely spend a night out to paint the Fence. Definitely be involved with Carnival in some capacity - building a Booth is the real way to go. Definitely explore campus to find "secret" levels and rooms. Sounds like a video game, right? Don't forget, CMU students are a bunch of self-professed nerds, no matter how much we may deny it.
I'm not going to go over other Pittsburgh attractions or amenities, as others have done so already. CMU is an oft-overlooked institution because it isn't a traditional Ivy, and it's not MIT or Stanford. However, the education and academic reputation is absolutely there to compete with the best (a recent Forbes ranking placed ~4 degrees from CMU in the Top 10 highest-paid degrees upon graduation), and all of our colleges are consistently present in discussions regarding top academic programs in the country. This includes the arts and design programs.
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