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> I almost didn't major in Computer Science because in the late 90s You missed, by a few years at least, the opportunity to study and earn a degree that is no

> I almost didn't major in Computer Science because in the late 90s You missed, by a few years at least, the opportunity to study and earn a degree that is no longer available from CMU, the B.S. in Cognitive Linguistics. I got an early acceptance from CMU in late 1988, my first choice of education because I wanted that degree in particular, but I could not afford CMU tuition let alone housing, and I was ineligible for financial aid. I studied CS at Virginia Tech at about a tenth the cost and never regretted it. Though I never met him, Allen Briggs[1] was an underclassman there while I was an upperclassman. He ported NetBSD to 68k Macs while still an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, which always impressed me. A/UX licenses were not cheap, and MacBSD was free. [1] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/history.html https://www.netbsd.org/ports/mac68k/history.html

User23 4y ago
The backdoor into CMU back then was and maybe still is Pitt. Pitt students had the privilege of signing up for any CMU course and it just meant a slightly longer walk to class.
- Maursault 4y ago
  The Cognitive Linguistics degree at CMU in the 90's was an interdisciplinary combination of cognitive science, neurology, computer science and linguistics, and disappeared when the faculty member that created and sponsored it passed away in the mid-1990s. While Pitt is a quality university, I don't think they offer degrees from CMU. Pitt was on my radar and one of the few places I was accepted to, but out of state tuition at the time iirc was $7K/semester, more reasonable than CMU's ~$12K/semester, but I had moved to Virginia the year before, and Virginia Tech's in-state tuition was about $2K/semester with housing (though I was required to purchase $4500 worth of Mac and A/UX license). Today, Virginia Tech's instate tuition is as much as Pitt's out of state tuition was then, which is now about the same as CMU's private tuition was in 1989, and CMU's annual private tuition today costs a little more than an Audi Q5 Prestige.
  - User23 4y ago
    Perhaps I wasn’t clear. CMU allowed Pitt students to register for CMU classes. Your degree would say Pitt on it, but you would have attended the exact same classes as the CMU students. As in sat in the same classroom with the same professors at the same time, doing the same assignments and taking the same tests.
    - Maursault 4y ago
      Thank you, that is what I understood you to mean, but if Pitt doesn't offer the same degree, how could one graduate accumulating credits for a degree that doesn't exist? While many universities allow non-students to audit courses, and one could take every required course of a subject this way, without actually being awarded the degree one can not claim the degree. Also, as I explained, I was out of state, making Pitt tuition expensive. CMU does grant its FT employees and their children free tuition after a token number of years of employment, but, of course, even a qualified and experienced HS graduate without an undergraduate degree would not make it past HR for an interview. And unfortunately, the Cognitive Linguistics degree only existed for a very short window, about 5-6 years. Personally, my only option to attend CMU was to get about $90K worth of college loans, or conversely, $60K worth of loans to attend Pitt, but I would gave sooner accepted the appointment offered me to Annapolis, an even more selective university than CMU that costs nothing but a commitment of 5 extra years of military service. What I did instead was study CS at Virginia Tech and graduate only $10K in debt, which was not difficult to get out from under. And though I did not study any linguistics there, I did exhaust my curiosity in cognitive science and neurology via an elective in philosophy of mind. CS was itself 60 credits of CS and Math with a built-in Math minor, and was tricky enough completing without idk how many other credits in proper neurology and linguistics that I missed out on at CMU or Pitt, though fascinating, each considerably complicated subjects in their own right.

User23 4y ago

The backdoor into CMU back then was and maybe still is Pitt. Pitt students had the privilege of signing up for any CMU course and it just meant a slightly longer walk to class.

Maursault 4y ago
The Cognitive Linguistics degree at CMU in the 90's was an interdisciplinary combination of cognitive science, neurology, computer science and linguistics, and disappeared when the faculty member that created and sponsored it passed away in the mid-1990s. While Pitt is a quality university, I don't think they offer degrees from CMU. Pitt was on my radar and one of the few places I was accepted to, but out of state tuition at the time iirc was $7K/semester, more reasonable than CMU's ~$12K/semester, but I had moved to Virginia the year before, and Virginia Tech's in-state tuition was about $2K/semester with housing (though I was required to purchase $4500 worth of Mac and A/UX license). Today, Virginia Tech's instate tuition is as much as Pitt's out of state tuition was then, which is now about the same as CMU's private tuition was in 1989, and CMU's annual private tuition today costs a little more than an Audi Q5 Prestige.
- User23 4y ago
  Perhaps I wasn’t clear. CMU allowed Pitt students to register for CMU classes. Your degree would say Pitt on it, but you would have attended the exact same classes as the CMU students. As in sat in the same classroom with the same professors at the same time, doing the same assignments and taking the same tests.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Thank you, that is what I understood you to mean, but if Pitt doesn't offer the same degree, how could one graduate accumulating credits for a degree that doesn't exist? While many universities allow non-students to audit courses, and one could take every required course of a subject this way, without actually being awarded the degree one can not claim the degree. Also, as I explained, I was out of state, making Pitt tuition expensive. CMU does grant its FT employees and their children free tuition after a token number of years of employment, but, of course, even a qualified and experienced HS graduate without an undergraduate degree would not make it past HR for an interview. And unfortunately, the Cognitive Linguistics degree only existed for a very short window, about 5-6 years. Personally, my only option to attend CMU was to get about $90K worth of college loans, or conversely, $60K worth of loans to attend Pitt, but I would gave sooner accepted the appointment offered me to Annapolis, an even more selective university than CMU that costs nothing but a commitment of 5 extra years of military service. What I did instead was study CS at Virginia Tech and graduate only $10K in debt, which was not difficult to get out from under. And though I did not study any linguistics there, I did exhaust my curiosity in cognitive science and neurology via an elective in philosophy of mind. CS was itself 60 credits of CS and Math with a built-in Math minor, and was tricky enough completing without idk how many other credits in proper neurology and linguistics that I missed out on at CMU or Pitt, though fascinating, each considerably complicated subjects in their own right.