Carnegie Mellon University Overview

Carnegie Mellon University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

What Is Carnegie Mellon University Known For?

• Students who want to work more closely with their professors have an easier time at Carnegie Mellon since the student to facuty ratio is 5 to 1.
• The 1% student loan default rate at Carnegie Mellon is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Carnegie Mellon.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 92% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Carnegie Mellon with a bachelor's degree make about $83,600 a year. That's 105% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• On average, it takes about 4.2 years for students from Carnegie Mellon to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

Carnegie Mellon University Rankings

We have ranked Carnegie Mellon as #21 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! Carnegie Mellon also holds the #2 spot on the Best Colleges in Pennsylvania ranking.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Carnegie Mellon has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#16	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Carnegie Mellon.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Physical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Public & Social Service Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#26	Best Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Carnegie Mellon has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#5	Best Physical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#6	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Schools	College Factual
#13	Best Public Administration & Social Service Schools	College Factual
#14	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#15	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#18	Best Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Schools	College Factual

Where Is Carnegie Mellon University?

Contact details for Carnegie Mellon are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Phone:	412-268-2000
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/carnegiemellonu
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/carnegiemellon

How Do I Get Into Carnegie Mellon?

You can apply to Carnegie Mellon online at: admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/apply-now

Admission Requirements for Carnegie Mellon

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Carnegie Mellon?

The acceptance rate at Carnegie Mellon is 17%, which means the school is highly selective when deciding who will be admitted and who won't. Even if you have great grades and test scores, that may not be enough. So be sure to look for ways to make your application memorable.

Approximately 47% of accepted students are men and 53% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 13%, and the acceptance rate for women is 23%.

Average Test Scores

About 76% of students accepted to Carnegie Mellon submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 700 and 760. Math scores were between 760 and 800.

Carnegie Mellon received ACT scores from 35% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 33 and 36. Math scores were between 33 and 35. Composite scores were between 33 and 35.

Can I Afford Carnegie Mellon University?

The overall average net price of Carnegie Mellon is $57,606. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Carnegie Mellon, approximately 41% of students took out student loans averaging $6,601 a year. That adds up to $26,404 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Carnegie Mellon is 0.6%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Carnegie Mellon University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 6,622 undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon, with 6,341 being full-time and 281 being part-time.

There are also 6,897 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 6,341 full-time undergraduates at Carnegie Mellon, 50% are male and 50% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Carnegie Mellon University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	2,201
Black or African American	250
Hispanic or Latino	587
White	1,568
International Students	1,038
Other Races/Ethnicities	697

Geographic Diversity

Pennsylvania students aren't the only ones who study at Carnegie Mellon University. At this time, 45 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 102 countries are represented at Carnegie Mellon. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at Carnegie Mellon University

In 2019-2020, 431 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Carnegie Mellon has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 6th most popular in Pennsylvania for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Carnegie Mellon

The following table shows how Carnegie Mellon is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
General Architecture	#13	#13
Architecture & Related Services	#22	#22
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#56	#56
Computer Engineering	#73	#73

Online Growth Rankings of Carnegie Mellon

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Carnegie Mellon University was -23.8%. This is the #2,069 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Carnegie Mellon regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Carnegie Mellon University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Computer Information Systems	62	0	674	45	781
Electrical Engineering	140	0	402	43	585
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	3	0	398	5	406
Computer Science	237	0	81	23	341
Mechanical Engineering	130	0	158	17	305
Statistics	169	0	41	13	223
Information Technology	0	0	155	0	155
Chemical Engineering	40	0	67	21	128
Public Policy	14	0	111	3	128
Systems Theory	127	0	0	0	127
Computer Engineering	0	0	117	4	121
Business Administration & Management	116	0	0	0	116
Robotics Engineering	16	0	85	15	116
Civil Engineering	25	0	72	4	101
Biomedical Engineering	42	0	45	10	97
Materials Sciences	34	0	46	16	96
Computer Systems Networking	0	0	83	0	83
Music	19	36	24	0	79
Physics	40	0	20	15	75
Computer Software & Applications	1	0	71	0	72
Design & Applied Arts	37	0	28	3	68
Architectural Sciences & Technology	37	0	25	5	67
Economics	54	0	3	9	66
Drama & Theater Arts	42	0	24	0	66
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	59	1	60
Computational Science	0	0	60	0	60
Arts & Media Management	1	0	58	0	59
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	49	0	49
Chemistry	25	0	9	15	49
General Engineering	26	0	5	15	46
Writing Studies	29	0	13	3	45
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	8	0	34	1	43
Other Engineering	2	0	36	1	39
Mathematics	26	0	9	4	39
Other Statistics	38	0	0	0	38
General Biology	29	0	2	6	37
Fine & Studio Arts	31	0	6	0	37
Engineering Science	0	0	36	0	36
General Engineering Technology	0	0	33	0	33
History	21	0	7	4	32
Applied Mathematics	28	0	1	3	32
General Psychology	24	0	2	4	30
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	23	0	0	5	28
Philosophy	15	0	8	3	26
Public Administration	0	0	23	0	23
International Relations & National Security	17	0	4	0	21
Human Computer Interaction	0	0	18	0	18
Liberal Arts General Studies	17	0	0	0	17
Cognitive Science	17	0	0	0	17
General Architecture	11	0	0	2	13
Biopsychology	13	0	0	0	13
Sustainability Science	0	0	13	0	13
Drafting & Design Engineering Technology	0	0	11	0	11
English Literature (Other)	0	0	7	1	8
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	7	0	0	0	7
East Asian Languages	6	0	0	0	6
Romance Languages	6	0	0	0	6
International Studies	6	0	0	0	6
Construction Engineering	0	0	5	0	5
General English Literature	5	0	0	0	5
Foreign Language, Literature & Linguistics (Other)	0	0	3	2	5
Environmental Engineering	0	0	4	0	4
Manufacturing Engineering	0	0	4	0	4
Science, Technology & Society	4	0	0	0	4
Engineering Mechanics	0	0	1	2	3
Operations Research	0	0	1	2	3
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	2	0	0	0	2
Management Information Systems	0	0	2	0	2
Germanic Languages	2	0	0	0	2
Behavioral Science	0	0	0	2	2
Astronomy & Astrophysics	2	0	0	0	2
General Visual & Performing Arts	0	0	2	0	2
Area Studies	1	0	0	0	1
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	1	0	0	0	1
Natural Resources Conservation	1	0	0	0	1
Other Physical Science	1	0	0	0	1
Other Social Sciences	0	0	1	0	1
Other Visual Art	1	0	0	0	1
Environmental Design	0	0	0	0	0
Architecture (Other)	0	0	0	0	0
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	0	0	0
Biological & Biomedical Sciences (Other)	0	0	0	0	0
Accounting	0	0	0	0	0
Business/Managerial Economics	0	0	0	0	0
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	0	0	0
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0
International Business	0	0	0	0	0
Marketing	0	0	0	0	0
Telecommunications Management	0	0	0	0	0
Journalism	0	0	0	0	0
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	0	0	0	0	0
Computer Programming	0	0	0	0	0
Other Computer & Information Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
Multilingual Education	0	0	0	0	0
Electronics Engineering Technology	0	0	0	0	0
Nanotechnology	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering Physics	0	0	0	0	0
Ethnic Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Natural Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0
General Physical Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
Other Psychology	0	0	0	0	0
Political Science & Government	0	0	0	0	0
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,831	36	3,256	327	5,450

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Daderot under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.