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Private nonprofit · Urban campus · founded 1900 · full profile

Carnegie Mellon University

Students with a sharply defined specialty — computing, robotics, design, drama, quantitative business — who want to go deep immediately rather than explore broadly.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania7,304 undergraduatesMean consensus percentile 7STEM-focusedHighly selectiveResearch university

The short answer

Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science is ranked #1 in the country alongside MIT and Stanford, and the university is equally unusual for having a top-tier drama conservatory in the same institution. Its CS acceptance rate is in the low single digits, well below the university's overall 11%, and median earnings reach roughly $116,000 ten years after entry.

The six numbers that matter most

Acceptance rate
11.7%

Below the dataset median of 76%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported entering class, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Average net price
$31,944

62% below the $84,412 published price

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardAverage for full-time first-time aid recipients, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Median earnings, 10 yrs
$114,862

Above the dataset median of $54,053

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMedian earnings 10 years after entry, working and not enrolled, College Scorecard June 2026 release

6-year graduation rate
94.1%

Above the dataset median of 56%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent six-year cohort, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Median debt at graduation
$21,750

Above the dataset median of $23,250

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMedian federal loan debt of completers, College Scorecard June 2026 release

SAT middle 50%
1500–1570

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardSum of reported reading and math section percentiles for the most recent entering class, College Scorecard June 2026 release. Section percentiles added together approximate, but do not exactly equal, the composite score range.

Where Carnegie Mellon ranks, and why the answers differ

Each publisher's position, the list it belongs to, and how many institutions it was drawn from.

SourceListRank
US News2026National Universities#20of 436National universities
Forbes2026America's Top Colleges#43of 500Top colleges (Forbes)
Washington Monthly2026National Universities#47of 442National universities
WSJ2026Best Colleges in the U.S.#56of 500U.S. colleges (WSJ)
Niche2026Best Colleges (Overall)A+#18of 2,605Overall (Niche)
Money2026Best Value CollegesNot ranked by this source
Princeton Review2026Best Colleges (Overall)Not ranked by this source
QS2026World University Rankings#52of 1,504World (QS)

Methodology sensitivity: Carnegie Mellon's position moves 11 percentile points depending on which published list you read. That is a moderate spread; the ranking you look at changes the answer somewhat. How we compute this

Ranking positions are the editorial property of their publishers and are reproduced here with attribution for comparison and commentary. Follow each source link for its full list and methodology.

About Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon is best understood as a federation of very strong, very different colleges that happen to share a campus. The School of Computer Science and the Robotics Institute sit at the absolute top of their fields; the School of Drama is a conservatory that has produced a long list of Tony and Oscar winners; Tepper pioneered analytics-driven business education. The interesting students are usually the ones exploiting the intersections.

Admission is college-specific and the aggregate acceptance rate badly misrepresents the odds. The university admits about 11% overall, but computer science admission runs in the low single digits and the drama conservatory admits by audition at similar rates. Applicants should research the specific college's numbers rather than the headline figure.

Two honest caveats. First, CMU's need-based aid is less generous than peers at its ranking tier — average net price is $31,944, notably higher than Rice or MIT — so the price gap versus a strong public option can be substantial. Second, the workload and stress culture are widely reported by students as intense, and the university has invested in mental-health resourcing partly in response.

Strengths and honest considerations

Strengths

  • School of Computer Science ranked #1 nationally, tied with MIT and Stanford.
  • The Robotics Institute is the largest university robotics research organisation in the world.
  • Genuinely elite arts programs alongside elite engineering — an almost unique pairing.
  • A 5:1 student-faculty ratio despite research-university scale.

Considerations

  • Need-based aid is weaker than peers at the same ranking tier; net price averages $31,944.
  • Workload and stress culture are intense and consistently reported as such by students.
  • Admission is by college, so the 11% overall rate is misleading for CS and drama applicants.

Who this school genuinely fits

Students with a sharply defined specialty — computing, robotics, design, drama, quantitative business — who want to go deep immediately rather than explore broadly.

What it costs

Published price, then what families actually pay after grants and scholarships.

Tuition & fees
$66,246

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported academic year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Undergraduates on Pell grants
16.0%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardShare of undergraduates, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Room & board
$18,166

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported academic year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Published cost of attendance comes to roughly $84,412 a year, but the average family pays $31,944 — a 62% difference. 16.0% of undergraduates receive Pell grants, the federal marker of low family income.

Net price varies enormously by income band, so run Carnegie Mellon's net price calculator for your own household before drawing conclusions. Why net price is the only cost number that matters.

Programs and academics

Most popular majors

  1. 1Computer Science
  2. 2Electrical & Computer Engineering
  3. 3Business Administration
  4. 4Statistics
  5. 5Drama

Standout programs

  • School of Computer Science
  • Robotics Institute
  • School of Drama
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Tepper School of Business
Student-faculty ratio
5:1

IPEDS / National Center for Education StatisticsIPEDS 2023 fall enrollment

First-year retention
98.0%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent first-year cohort, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Undergraduate enrollment
7,304

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Carnegie Mellon: questions families ask

Far harder than the university's 11% overall rate suggests. School of Computer Science admission runs in the low single digits, comparable to MIT and Stanford. Applicants are evaluated against the specific college they apply to, and CMU does not generally allow internal transfer into SCS after enrolment, so applying to a different college as a backdoor route does not work.

For computer science, engineering and quantitative business, the earnings data supports it — median earnings of $114,862 ten years after entry. The complication is that CMU's average net price of roughly $33,500 is higher than similarly ranked private peers with stronger aid. Compare your actual aid award against both those peers and your best public option before committing.

Similar colleges

Matched on institutional character, overlapping majors and comparable cross-source standing.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GAPublic

Georgia Tech delivers private-university engineering outcomes at public tuition: median earnings of $102,772 ten years after entry against in-state tuition of $12,058. Its Industrial & Systems Engineering program has been ranked #1 in the country for three decades, and the co-op program places students in paid, multi-semester industry rotations.

Acceptance rate
14.1%
Average net price
$12,116
Median earnings (10 yr)
$102,772
6-yr graduation rate
94.0%
US News · National universities#32 of 436Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#32 of 500Washington Monthly · National universities#21 of 442+3 more on profile

18,785 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 5 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MAPrivate nonprofit

MIT is the most consistently top-ranked technical university in the world, holding a top-3 position on every major U.S. list and #1 globally on QS. Its 4.5% acceptance rate makes it one of the hardest admits in America, but need-blind admission and no-loan aid mean the average family pays $20,111 rather than the $82,676 sticker price.

Acceptance rate
4.5%
Average net price
$20,111
Median earnings (10 yr)
$143,372
6-yr graduation rate
96.4%
US News · National universities#2 of 436Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#1 of 500Washington Monthly · National universities#12 of 442+3 more on profile

4,535 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 1 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

Purdue University

West Lafayette, INPublic

Purdue has frozen tuition since 2012, holding in-state cost at $9,992 for more than a decade while ranking #46 nationally and top-10 for engineering. It graduates more astronauts than any other institution outside the service academies, and at a 49.9% acceptance rate it is meaningfully attainable — rare among schools with these engineering outcomes.

Acceptance rate
49.9%
Average net price
$14,600
Median earnings (10 yr)
$72,424
6-yr graduation rate
83.1%
US News · National universities#46 of 436Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#62 of 500Washington Monthly · National universities#44 of 442+3 more on profile

44,503 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 11 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

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