Carnegie Mellon

I visited Carnegie Mellon this week. I've seen so many PACM prospective students come by, and it was fun to be a prospective student myself. I stayed with some EPP students who were really nice. They took me out to a thai restaurant in Squirrel Hill. The next day, I began my two days of interviews. I had a good time and met some really interesting professors. I found some projects I want to work on and identified professors who I want to work with. I'll find out about funding in a few weeks. While I was there, I also met up with my brother Jeff who just started his rotation at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Rich and I took him out to Sushi Kim. (Rich stayed at my brother's place while I mingled with CMU grad students.)

I also discovered that the "cuisine" of Pittsburgh is french fries or "grease" as some other people described it. They put fries on top of salads and they put fries in your sandwich. Luckily, the food scene has been evolving.

Strengths: The Strip District, an area of wholesale food merchants. On weekends, it becomes one huge outdoor Farmer's Market. (Hooray for local produce!) Next, Polish food. There is a Polish Hill neighborhood, which means I'll be able to get more of those periogie that I mentioned before. There's also one Ethiopian restaurant Abay, so I'll be able to get my Ethiopian fix. Based on my conversations with current EPP students, there's a pretty strong EPP social scene. They like to have house parties and hang out. Sounds like my kind of scene! There's also a Pittsburgh Critical Mass. I hope they are as cool and laid back as Chicago Critical Mass! (Bikes are fun!)

Weaknesses: I hear that Pittsburgh lacks good Mexican food, Greek food (oh, how I miss Chicago's Greektown), and Dim Sum. In fact, Pittsburgh will be the first city that I've lived in that doesn't have a Chinatown. (Well, it did, but got demolished around 1960.)