Is it worth going to Carnegie Mellon?

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if it is worth attending Carnegie Mellon for undergraduate studies if I major in Business Administration and a minor in either Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science. Cost is not a problem.

Everyone I have talked to has stressed the importance of being skillful in machine learning and artificial intelligence for the long term future.

I am completely sure that I want to work in Investment Banking after college but I would like to take some cross disciplinary courses involving computers and finance in my college years.

In addition to this, I would like to experiment with being an entrepreneur, because after all, when if not in college?

Given all of this, I am still stuck on Investment Banking after college so I don't know if attending Carnegie Mellon is good enough to place me in New York IB at a MM or EB since it is only a semi-target for NYC.

Additional stuff about me:

  1. I don't care about parties or the social scene at big colleges. I understand that CMU is a little nerdy compared to state schools.

  2. I will be letting go of in-state tuition at UNC Chapel Hill. However, Carnegie Mellon Tepper seems to place more students in NYC IB than Kena Flagler and the CMU brand is a little more prestigious (pls correct me if I'm wrong)

  3. I definitely want to go into Investment Banking. The artificial intelligence minor and the entrepreneurial experiment is just a way of me trying to use my 4 years in college to the maximum potential so that I don't end up regretting not learning specialized skills or starting a side business.

  4. The new Tepper Quad opening in August looks cool lol.

END GOAL - Investment Banking in NYC at a MM/EB for 3 years and then a MBA at a top 10 school. Potentially, start my own hedge fund or private equity firm in my 40s.

9 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I actually am close to ppl from both schools. A close friend of mine went to Carnegie Mellon and got a S&T BB internship through a moderate amount of networking. Another friend of mine that went to UNC told me he was able to network through Kenan-Flagler alumni and get a BB IB internship. They both said they get a good amt of NYC firms that come to campus and recruit, but obviously not as much as target schools. Since you have an interest for AI and machine learning, then Carnegie would have the edge over UNC. UNC does not have a strong computer science program, as NC State and Duke have far better programs in that field. Other than that, I feel like they are relatively similar for NYC IB: semi-targets.

 

I vote CMU. Nice campus, Pittsburgh is a cool little city to hang out for a couple of years. I seem to see plenty of people from CMU getting at least opportunities to break into IB if they want to. If you're reading WSO before you even go to school and keep up this passion, you'll be one of the ones who can do it. Hard to top CMU for some of the tech stuff too. I say go for it.

 

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