Rice, CMU, MIT, etc…Was It Really True: Look to Your Right and Left, One of You Won’t Be Here Next Year?

Not exactly, but close. I just came across the numbers for CMU; and, they are probably the same for the others.

1967-68 Carnegie-Mellon student enrollment in Carnegie Institute of Technology (which at that time included what is now Mellon School of Science and the School of Computer Science) was:

Fresh     483

Soph      373

Junior    320

Senior     320

It looks like about 1/3 of Freshman didn’t graduate.  So, when, at orientation, they told us

Look at the person to the right of you and the person to the left of you.  One of you won’t be here next year, I guess they should have said one of you won’t graduate from here.

What I find interesting is that of the people I have followed up on, almost 1/3 didn’t graduate.  Yet, they all had very successful careers.