In 1900, industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, founded the Carnegie Technical Schools. It was renamed the Carnegie Institute of Technology when it became a degree offering institution in 1912. Then in 1967, the co-ed "Carnegie Tech" merged with the Mellon Institute to become Carnegie Mellon University.

Since its inception as a trade school, Carnegie Mellon has maintained "three primary objectives:

• to deliver distinctive, first-quality education;
• to foster research, creativity, and discovery; and
• to use the new knowledge created on campus to serve society."

Out-of-state tuition for this private university is $35,580. According to Prinecton Review, "the workload at Carnegie Mellon is pretty daunting, so it's no surprise that students say the typical undergraduate is 'extremely studious and serious about academics.'"

Out of the 22,356 undergraduate applicants for 2007, 6, 259 were accepted and 1, 486 actually enrolled. Princeton Review lists CMU as one of the Best Northeastern Colleges; however, it also appears on their "Is it Food?" list. Oh, well, you can't have everything. Fortunately, the campus is only blocks away from a variety of restaurants and only a short bus ride away from the nearest grocery store, so those lucky individuals with the wherewithal to do so can avoid the cafeteria.

What you can have at Carnegie Mellon is a high caliber education on a beautiful, spacious campus. And when you graduate, you can add your name to a list that includes such distinguished alumni as Andy Warhol (Carnegie Tech), Blair Underwood, Jack Klugman, John Nash, Ming-Na Wen, and Challenger astronaut, Judith Resnik.

As you can see, you don't have to be an engineering, science, or math major to consider attending CMU. But you should probably have a lot of math courses on your high school transcript. It could greatly improve your chances of acceptance to this internationally renowned university.