In defense of CMU: Why Carnegie Mellon is simply built better than others
Thinking about transferring or talking badly about Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)? It’s often second nature for CMU students to contemplate this. However, consider reconsidering. CMU is a pioneer of American universities, famous for being the best and staying the best. Here are the top five reasons why CMU is still for you!
Food
CMU has a wide and diverse variety of dining and cafe options, including those with different dietary needs. There are kosher, halal, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free options available. For those with food allergies, Nourish provides grab and go options in various locations and the Nourish kitchen. Many on-campus dining options also have condiments and seasonings for those looking for extra flavor. Not to mention, the university also prides itself on not feeding its students glass, mold, maggots, or cockroaches, unlike another university in the state. Here at CMU, we like to comply with food safety standards. One complaint that often gets tossed around is people think they got food poisoning. In actuality, it’s just them being lactose intolerant. At least 80% of the student population is lactose intolerant with only about 6.5% of that percentage knowing it. So, when these students go to take a sip out of their beloved matcha lattes, breakfast sandwiches, or quesadillas, they absolutely lose it.
Mascot
A mascot is one of the most important parts of a university's identity. Some of these so-called “prestigious” universities can’t even manage that. At CMU we have a cute little dog who may be overstating his Scottish heritage. Some of these universities are using humans or something straight out of a middle school. That is just so lame. Or, they have racist caricatures that have to be unofficially replaced with a beer keg. Why not choose a more creative choice, like a bear? This is extremely creative and definitely has definitely not been used in over forty American universities. I mean even a tree is better than a bear because of how absurd having a tree mascot is. On top of that, some mascots just don’t fit the theme of the school at all. It’s been over a hundred years since our Scottish founder died, but at least our mascot and theme fits. Go name your sports team after something other than a color. Boring! Bland!
Location
The campus of our great university is beautiful and wonderful. CMU has lots of places to read books and play volleyball. It also wasn’t explicitly built on burial ground. The university itself is located in a walkable city with public transport. If you get tired of anything on campus, simply leave. Hop on the nearest bus and don’t get off until you don’t recognize any of the sights. Some other colleges are in the middle of nowhere or are near small towns instead of a city. All they can do is drink away their pain or join Greek life. That or talk to cows.
Transportation
Imagine not being able to use the public transportation system for virtually free. It’s a great deal. This isn’t a discount or anything, like some of those other colleges. It also isn’t limited to certain schools within a university. You paid for the public transportation in the tuition, might as well use it! Seriously, just go up and down inclines a few times. Call your cousin and rub it in their face that you can use the bus and the light rail whenever you want.
Enrichment
Also call your cousin to rub in the fact we get free access to many museums. Those other colleges are so boring and want you to waste away your life studying and doing papers. Not CMU, we are all about going outside and having a healthy work-life balance. There’s also just a lot of interesting things to do on campus like Spring Carnival, guest speakers, clubs, and various theatrical productions. CMU even has a totally amazing satire magazine that holds pitch meetings in DH1117 at 5pm Saturday!