Re: HELP! CMU or RPI

["Laura Lemay, Killer of Trees" <lemay -at- LNE -dot- COM>]

Richard Mateosian worte a bit about RPI; I can add a bit about CMU
(I know almost nothing about RPI).

I was an undergrad at CMU from 85-89.  I did a self-defined major in
computer technical writing, and managed to talk my way into many of the
classes that the MAPW grad students were taking (MAPW == masters in
professional writing).

The MAPW coursework is very intense, very hands on and very real to
life.  Because of it, it well prepared me for the job market.
I had exactly the right skills, not only in tools but in planning, design,
usability testing both of manuals and of products, and UI design.
And I was just an undergrad. :)

Pittsburgh has a bad reputation, but its a great city.  There's
lots to do there, it has a great transit system, and rents are cheap.
The weather is a bit rough in the winter (*very* cold, lots of snow),
but summers are quite nice.

Computers at CMU are completely ubitquitous.  All the dorms and
all the study rooms are wired for ethernet.  You just plug in and
you're connected to the campus network.  And there are hundreds of
workstations and PCs scattered around campus in public computer
centers, so you're never without a computer.

CMU is indeed very research intensive, and many of the schools have
had complaints that the professors don't pay as much attention to students
as they should. I did not hear these complaints about the english
department, and all of the MAPW students I knew called all thier professors
by thier first names.

One thing I should note, however...the course work at CMU is very
intense.  As an undergrad, 50 hour **days** were not unusual.  I
have never had so many intense inflexible deadlines in my life as I
did at CMU.  CMU has a very strong culture of weeding out the weak.

Hope this helps;

Laura