Carnegie Mellon is a national research university of about 7,500 students and 3,000 faculty, research and administrative staff. Carnegie Technical School was founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The school was renamed Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912, when it became a degree-granting institution. In 1967, Carnegie Tech merged with the Mellon Institute to form Carnegie Mellon University.

The University today consists of seven colleges and schools: the Carnegie Institute of Technology (engineering), the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, the School of Computer Sciences and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management.

Carnegie Mellon's position of leadership in the arts and in technology is unusual in higher education. Our prominence in the arts dates back to 1917 when it awarded its first degree in drama. We have also become a national leader in the technological fields such as computer science, robotics and engineering; and is recognized as a pioneer in the uses of computing in education.