As a CMU grad, I can report literally no one I've ever met outside of academia has heard of CMU, despite it being mentioned in passing in several blockbuster hits including: The Core, and The Happening.

Fun fact, the bookstore wasn't allowed to make shirts that said CMU for some time because Central Michigan University had a problem with that. Eventually they came to an arrangement and now you can buy CMU shirts at Carnegie Mellon.

Same. CMU comes up a lot when talking about the BSDs (yes, I’m aware that BSD stands for Berkeley Standard Distribution. But cmu still comes up a lot)