Carnegie Mellon University

Location

The main CMU campus is just 3 miles away from downtown Pittsburgh. Public transportation is the only means of commute for most of the students, but that isn’t really a problem since the public transport around here is pretty good. This provided you get used to the bus timings, of course. Also, CMU students can roam around most of Pittsburgh for free with the bus passes the university provides.

Campus

CMU is spread over 140 acres of greenery, and is quite beautifully maintained. There are a number of fantastic libraries, all up-to-date with tens of thousands of volumes. CMU has excellent facilities for almost all sports and recreation, and even has its own theatre.

Residing Options

Many students (especially graduation students) choose to stay off-campus, both because it’s cheaper and because it’s slightly more liberal. Beeler Street is perhaps the most popular and common destination for student apartments, though Shadyside, Oakland and Squirrel Hill get their fair share of off-campus students as well.

Faculty

Most of the professors at CMU are highly reputed stalwarts of their own fields, and are at the university for further research. Having said that, they are still extremely approachable, and also take teaching very seriously. The student-professor relationship depends largely on what the students make out of it.
CMU is notorious for its workload, so if you want to end up here, get used to really slogging it out.