Carnegie Mellon University

Location and Contact Information

The campus is in a large city.

Overview

Carnegie Mellon University, also known as CMU, is a private, research university located in Pittsburgh.

It was established as the Carnegie Technical Schools by philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1900 and became the degree-granting Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912.

Carnegie Tech, as it was called, merged with the Mellon Institute to become Carnegie Mellon University in 1967.

The campus covers 140 acres. Carnegie Mellon University has more than 11,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff and s a student-faculty ratio of 10:1.

U.S. News & World Report (2009 edition) ranked Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate program 22nd in the nation amongst national research universities.

CMU offers a wide variety of degrees and programs in diverse areas of study. It is organized into the following academic divisions:

• Carnegie Institute of Technology
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Humanities and Social Sciences
• H. John Heinz III College
• Mellon College of Science
• School of Computer Science
• Tepper School of Business

CMU has an active Greek life, a tradition that began with the founding of the first fraternity on campus, Theta Xi, in 1912. Today there are several fraternities and sororities--governed by the Panhellenic council, Interfraternity Council, and National Pan-Hellenic Council.

Scottish tradition is also strong on campus, because of founder Andrew Carnegie's background. Among student organizations are the Bagpipers, a Pipe Band that performs at formal university events. The university is one of the few in the United States to offer a degree in bagpipes.

Carnegie Mellon teams are known as the Tartans. The school is a member of the Division III in the NCAA and of the University Athletic Association.

Among the notable alumni of Carnegie Mellon are John Forbes Nash, Economics Nobel Laureate, subject of "A Beautiful Mind"; Edward Feingenbaum, Turing Award recipient for work on artificial intelligence; Dina Dublon, former executive vice president/CFO of J. P. Morgan Chase; Aditya Agarwal, director of engineering at Facebook; actors Rene Auberjonois, Shari Belafonte, Ted Danson, Tamara Tunie, Cherry Jones, Holly Hunter, and Jack Klugman; film director Rob Marshall; Andy Warhol, American painter, pop art movement leader; Henry Mancini, composer, winner of 20 Grammys and four Oscars; and Charles Erwin Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Defense under Dwight Eisenhower. The show "Pippin," by alumnus composer Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked," "Godspell"), originated as a Carnegie Mellon production. Singer Josh Groban and actor Ethan Hawke attended briefly.

Highlights (vs. Other Schools)

• Many students concentrating in mathematics, engineering, computer science and engineering, music, art studies, drama and performing arts, and religion and philosophy.
• High faculty salary.
• High percentage of students are from out-of-state.
• Large number of programs of study offered.
• High SAT scores (combined Verbal and Math).
• Large number of students.
• Good faculty-to-student ratio.
• Selective admissions.
• High male/female ratio.
• Number of dorm rooms for students.
• Racially diverse student body.

School characteristics:

• The school is private, not-for-profit.
• Academic calender: Semester.
• Carnegie classification: Doctoral/Research Universities, Extensive.

Features of note:

• The school offers a faculty tenure system.
• There are one or more libraries on-campus.
• Campus housing is available.
• Students may study abroad.
• Distance learning is available.
• Part-time classes are available.
• ROTC.

Similar Schools

Based on proprietary BrainTrack computer comparisons against all other US colleges, these schools appear to be most similar to Carnegie Mellon:

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Degrees Awarded (in 2009-2010)

Faculty

Tenure (2009-2010):

Students

Student enrollment was 10,875 in 2009-2010 (10,268 full-time equivalent).

About 57% of the freshmen class in 2009-2010 was male and women were 43% of the class.

Undergrads are 54% of enrolled students and graduate students are 46%.

Students under 25 years old represent 67% of the student body. About 3% of the school is at least 40 years of age.

Admissions Summary (2009-2010)

SAT Test Scores:

Room and Board

Carnegie Mellon provides on-campus housing for 3,844 of its 10,268 (full-time) students (as of 2009-2010). The school requires freshmen to live on campus.

Athletics

School sports include football, basketball, baseball, and track. The school is in the University Athletic Association for major sports.

Graduate School Focus

Carnegie Mellon offers graduate (post-Bachelor) studies. The highest degree offered is the Doctorate (Other Than Research or Professional Practice).

Graduate offerings include continuing professional education.The school's Graduate School Carnegie Classification is Comprehensive Doctoral (No Medical/Veterinary).

Programs of Study

(Number of degrees in 2009-2010 in parentheses)

ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING (69 awarded)

• Architecture (BArch, BA/BS, MArch, MA/MS, PhD)
• Architecture and Related Services
• City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning
• Environmental Design/Architecture

ART STUDIES (83 awarded)

• Art/Art Studies
• Arts Management

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT (575 awarded)

• Accounting
• Actuarial Science
• Business Administration and Management
• Business Administration, Management and Operations
• Business/Managerial Economics
• E-Commerce/Electronic Commerce
• Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies
• Finance
• Information Resources Management/CIO Training
• International Business/Trade/Commerce
• Management Information Systems
• Management Science
• Marketing/Marketing Management
• Operations Management and Supervision
• Organizational Behavior Studies

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (816 awarded)

• Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
• Computer Engineering
• Computer Graphics
• Computer Science
• Computer Software Engineering
• Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services
• Computer and Information Sciences
• Computer and Information Systems Security
• Computer/Info Tech Services Administration & Management
• Information Science/Studies
• Information Technology

CONSERVATION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (0 awarded)

• Environmental Science
• Environmental Studies
• Natural Resources Management and Policy

DESIGN (37 awarded)

• Design and Applied Arts
• Design and Visual Communications
• Industrial Design

DRAMA AND PERFORMING ARTS (77 awarded)

• Directing and Theatrical Production
• Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts
• Dramatic/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
• Playwriting and Screenwriting
• Theatre/Theatre Arts Management
• Visual and Performing Arts

ENGINEERING (723 awarded)

• Biomedical/Medical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Engineering Physics
• Engineering
• Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Operations Research

ENGINEERING TECHNICIAN (12 awarded)

• Engineering Technology

FAMILY AND SOCIAL WORK (195 awarded)

• Public Administration
• Public Policy Analysis

FINE ARTS (0 awarded)

• Fine Arts and Art Studies

LIBERAL ARTS (204 awarded)

• Anthropology
• Central/Middle and Eastern European Studies
• Chinese Language and Literature
• Classics/Classical Languages, Lit & Linguistics
• Creative Writing
• Economics
• English Language and Literature
• English Language and Literature/Letters
• European Studies/Civilization
• Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
• French Language and Literature
• German Language and Literature
• History
• International Economics
• International Relations and Affairs
• International/Global Studies
• Japanese Language and Literature
• Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities
• Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies
• Linguistic/Comparative/Related Language Studies & Services
• Linguistics
• Political Science and Government
• Russian Studies
• Social Sciences
• Sociology
• Spanish Language and Literature
• Speech and Rhetorical Studies
• Technical and Business Writing

MATHEMATICS (114 awarded)

• Applied Mathematics
• Computational Mathematics
• Mathematical Statistics and Probability
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Systems Science and Theory

MEDIA (19 awarded)

• Animation, Interactive Tech, Video Graphics and Special Effects
• Communication and Media Studies
• Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia
• Journalism

MEDICAL ADMINISTRATION (58 awarded)

• Health/Health Care Administration/Management
• Medical Informatics

MEDICINE (1 awarded)

• Neuroscience

MUSIC (63 awarded)

• Conducting
• Jazz/Jazz Studies
• Music Pedagogy
• Music Performance
• Music Theory and Composition
• Music
• Musicology and Ethnomusicology
• Piano and Organ
• Violin, Viola, Guitar and Other Stringed Instruments
• Voice and Opera

PHOTOGRAPHY AND COMMERCIAL ART (0 awarded)

• Film/Cinema Studies
• Film/Video and Photographic Arts
• Intermedia/Multimedia

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY (28 awarded)

• Ethics
• Logic
• Philosophy

SCIENCE (172 awarded)

• Astrophysics
• Biological and Biomedical Sciences
• Biology/Biological Sciences
• Biometry/Biometrics
• Biophysics
• Biopsychology
• Biotechnology
• Chemical Physics
• Chemistry
• Physical Sciences
• Physics
• Polymer Chemistry
• Science, Technology and Society

THERAPY AND COUNSELING (77 awarded)

• Behavioral Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Physiological Psychology/Psychobiology
• Psychology