Carnegie Mellon University

Academics: The academics are, quite frankly, awesome. CMU specializes in all sorts of fields which allows anyone who has an interest in another field to easily take top tier classes in them. CMU is known for the sciences, but it still has amazing schools in architecture, art and drama, business, etc. It was CMU that helped me discover my passion for CS. If you KNOW you are interested in the sciences but are maybe not sure about what you want to major in, then CMU is definitely a school to look at.

Professors: I rarely talked with professors but I've heard they're pretty friendly and accessible. This isn't some snotty school where all the professors are absorbed in their research to enhance the school's reputation.

Social Life: The social life may not be as great as people expect. It is true that the school is more heavily focused on academics, but I see no reason why people can't have the social life they desire. If you like to party, then there are plenty of frats that do so. You can even go to UPitt or the other 50 colleges in Pittsburgh to get your groove on. If you like to be a loner, that's always an option too and you won't be "alone" in that category as there are plenty of introverts here that prefer studying and quite environments. Most people are in between and I don't see how any part of CMU prevents those people from making friends and having a fun time.

Advice: There is no doubt the school is academically challenging. You may feel overworked. You probably won't get the grades that you were thinking of getting. With this in mind, I think it's important to keep things in perspective. When you get a bad grade, don't beat yourself up thinking your a failure. Everyone knows this is a hard school. Everyone knows that grades aren't everything.