Short Feature with Men's Soccer Rising Sophomore Reed Peterson

Rising sophomore Reed Peterson, an undeclared major from Mamaroneck, New York, answers a few questions about student life at Carnegie Mellon, what he's excited for next semester, how he decided on his major, and what he enjoys about Pittsburgh.

1. What do you enjoy about campus life?

My favorite part about campus life is just being around my friends and teammates practically 24/7. It allows you to really build a strong bond with your peers since we are all living together, eating together, and training together every single day. 

2. What do you get involved in outside of soccer?

Outside of my sport, I spend a lot of time and focus on my academics, focusing heavily on computer science topics and statistics. Something that I've taken up in my free time this summer is writing computer programs to predict outcomes of sports games as they pertain to sports gambling, for example over/under totals in baseball games. I am also a member of the CMU sports analytics club, and next semester a few friends and I plan to join the poker club. 

3. Tell us about your internship experience.

This summer I am interning at Harold, Salant, Strassfield, and Spielberg, which is a law firm (abbreviated as HSSS) located in White Plains, NY (30 minutes north of NYC). So far during the internship I shadow the lawyers when they go to court, I file papers in the office, I deliver papers to be filed in the county courthouse as well as in NYC courthouses, and I write up statements of financial information for clients. 

4. What are your summer plans?

This summer, in addition to my internship with HSSS, I am playing with Manhattan Soccer Club's U23 Men's Soccer team to stay in shape and improve for the fall. 

5. What are you excited about next semester?

I am most excited for the start of a new season for CMU Men's Soccer. The beginning of a new season is always exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the team can accomplish this year. I am also excited to be taking an Italian class next semester; I have lots of extended family in Italy and it has always been a personal goal of mine to become fluent in the language so taking a college course in Italian is a big step towards reaching that goal.

6. Why did you select your course of study – what class have you enjoyed the most?

I haven't yet declared a major, but as I stand now I plan to pursue a degree in Statistics and Machine Learning. I came to CMU as a very undecided, and the class that really pushed me towards Stats and ML was 15-112, an introductory course in programming. That has been my favorite class so far at CMU.

7. What class would you recommend someone take?

The one class that was strongly recommended by classmates was 15-112, and after taking the class, I too would strongly recommend incoming students to take the class at some point in their CMU careers, regardless of their major. CMU is one of the top computer science schools in the world, so I definitely recommend taking advantage of that at least a little bit, even if your major is unrelated. 15-112 is the best class for that as it is a very well organized course and you get a lot out of it.

8. What have you enjoyed about living in Pittsburgh?

My favorite part about living in Pittsburgh, and more specifically pertaining to CMU, is that upperclassmen can live off campus. Most of the upperclassmen on the soccer team have houses off campus, so it's fun to be able to go over there and get out of the CMU bubble a bit. Many of my classmates and I are also planning on living off campus next semester, which will be an exciting change. 

9. What has been a memorable moment as part of the team?

So far the most memorable moment for me on the team was our entire trip to Italy over spring break. It was a lot of fun to be able to tour some of the most famous places in the world with the whole team. It was definitely a memorable experience that I am very grateful for.