<p>Ask whatever you wish.</p>
<p>Hi,
How easy is it to transfer from CIT to SCS? I never applied to SCS but I was accepted to CIT.</p>
<p>And how about intercollege majors? Could I do a dual major from CIT and SCS simultaneously?</p>
<p>Same question as amantho.
If it helps, I got waitlisted for SCS but accepted to CIT for ECE.</p>
<p>I just want to point out that there is a rule in place to minimize the double-counting between ECE and SCS. So don't assume that you can have classes count for both.</p>
<p>How often do students from the various colleges get to interact (formally- as in courses as well as informally) with each other? Or do most students just get to know people and courses in their own school?</p>
<p>What's the ratio of men to women in SCS? Is it 50-50?</p>
<p>I saw a great quote from a CMU student in college p r o w l e r that said "in one of my freshman CS classes there were more guys named David then there were girls, period."</p>
<p>Men to women in SCS is about 75:25 - it varies year to year; the current junior class is about 35% female, freshmen and sophomores have fewer females. This is still closer to equal than many schools. CMU as a whole is about 40% female. There is an active group on campus, Women@SCS, which organizes events like big sister-little sister and a faculty-student dinner for women. They also have gender-neutral events like a discussion of what classes you should and shouldn't take (behind closed doors with no adults in the room). Students place into one of three or four levels of programming for the first semester, and the lower level classes (no previous programming experience, or not a 5 on the AB CS exam) tend to have a higher percentage of females- this could be good or bad, depending on your perspective. I'm a sophomore female in CS, and I've never found gender ratio to be an issue.</p>
<p>Blackeyedsusan: That's a true story from about 5 or 6 years ago. CMU changed their admissions criterea to focus less on previous programming experience and more on potential to do well in CS (strong general math/science grades) and ECs, which resulted in the percentage of females from going from under 10% to over 30% in one year, I believe.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, the class I have with the fewest number of girls (percentage-wise) is in psychology, which is supposed to be innundated with females.</p>
<p>I was looking at the admission requirements for CMU (CIT and Tepper) and realised that you'd need to take a year of Physics</p>
<p>My school either has a completely Physics track or a Chem/Bio track. In another words, its impossible for kids taking Physics taking Chem or Bio and vice-versa.</p>
<p>Also I read somewhere that SAT IIs taken in only Junior year count. Is this true ? I took all mine SAT IIs (barring Chemistry) in Freshmen and Sophomore years (and did relatively well on them).</p>
<p>I contacted the Admissions Office regarding my concerns, but no one has replied so far. What should I do ?</p>
<p>About Transferring into SCS:</p>
<p>The way to transfer into SCS is to take CS courses and do well in them. My roommate was a physics major who mirrored my CS schedule: 21-127 Concepts of Math, 15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas, 15-211 Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms. He got A's in all his CS classes (and funny enough B's in his physics classes), but then the associate dean allowed him to transfer almost immediately.</p>
<p>So in my experience, there isn't a quota or restricted number. I think enough people leave to take in transfer applicants. I have heard that you need to get an A in 15-211 in order to be considered.</p>
<p>Double-Majors:</p>
<p>Double majors simply involve taking the other major's classes. If you do that and you have enough time and you finish all the units, they will let you do that. Clearly some majors are more easy to double major in, say Business and CS is more common than ECE and CS. There are also interdisciplinary major programs that require applications like the highly competitive Computational Finance or the additional major in Human Computer Interaction.</p>
<p>Hey XuSCS,
I just have a couple of questions. First of all, I am probably going to attend for ECE and was hoping to minor in SCS, is this realistic?
Is there any student network to buy cheap used books for ECE?
Is getting and keeping a job realistic considering ECE classload, and also how much do you make at a simple job (enough to make a serious dent in tuition costs?)
And finally, how realistic is it to get a decent, respectable research internship by sophomore/junior year? Where would you suggest I look for a job in this particular manner?
Thanks for any feedback.</p>
<p>To rbanerjee:</p>
<p>Minor in CS:
Minor in CS is pretty doable. I'm not certain on the double-counting for ECE and CS minor, but you might end up taking some of the cs minor classes as part of ECE anyway. A lot of ECEs who are more interested in the computer side take up to 15-213 which is the intro to systems class.</p>
<p>Student Market:
There is a student bulletin board (misc.market) that people use to sell books (plus everything else) for the whole campus. People post books that they want to sell and people respond by email and meet up in person. Generally cash is used, and the prices are cheaper than the used price in the bookstore.</p>
<p>Jobs:
Depends on the workload, and how many classes you decide to take. This really depends on the person. Some people have simple administrative or like door attendant jobs on campus. Some people are teaching assistants, course assistants. Some get paid research positions during the school year. The last two are more common for ECE I would say. I'm not sure about the pay the more simple jobs are like around 8-10 $ per hour. Research and Teaching Assistants get paid more but I don't know how much. I have heard that the SCS pays their TA's about twice as much, so I do know an ECE major who TA'ed for 15-211.</p>
<p>I feel that ECE and CS majors in particular can get jobs fairly easily their sophomore year and certainly their junior year. There is a job fair each semester for technical majors, and a lot of reputable companies come to recruit.</p>
<p>As for doing research, labs come to the job fairs to recruit like MIT Lincoln Lawrence Livermore, Pacific Northwest, and government labs like NASA. The job fairs are pretty productive in getting you connected with college recruiters. You can also do research just by talking to professors and getting involved during the school year.</p>
<p>To Diane 500:</p>
<p>Student interaction between schools really depends on the student and the year. At the beginning there are lot of standard university wide courses that every freshman needs to take so there is certainly more interaction between majors. But eventually everyone begins to specialize so certainly I would not expect to see Humanities or Business students in my upper level CS courses. However, if you look at more general courses like the Chinese course I am taking, I see a lot more diversity.</p>
<p>Informal interaction is also just based on what organizations you decide to join or what friends you decide to hang out with.</p>
<p>What's your experience with student-prof/TA interaction in class? DS visited last week and sat in on a few classes, but would like to hear your experience.</p>
<p>How likely is my pretty shy son, likely to get to know kids outside of SCS? Did I read somewhere that kids are paired with others of the same major, or am I imagining that?</p>
<p>We just visited RPI and wondered if CMU had anything analogous to their Incubator program which provides lots of on campus opportunities to work on start-ups.</p>
<p>Also what sort of clubs and activites are there for computer geeks?</p>
<p>CountingDown:</p>
<p>With TA's it's very easy to get to know them well. They are closer in age, have gone through the same experiences. Not every TA is great, but a lot of them are amazing. Some do their office hours for only the scheduled time, but some will skip class to help you for another hour, some will meet with you personally, some will stay late hours at night to help you, so yea I think most of the TA's here are very dedicated.</p>
<p>My experience with professors has varied. It really depends on the professor. John Mackey will memorize your name and get to know you on a personal basis even in a class of over 100. You'll only get to know most other professors in classes that large by making the effort to talk them after or outside of class. With the smaller classes of 20 students, you naturally get to know them very well. Regardless, I don't know of one professor who is unapproachable, rather most will welcome you if you knock on their door.</p>
<p>mathmom:</p>
<p>I think the room assignments are based on living preferences, and that majors aren't really taken into account. I can't really remember anyone on my floor last year who was randomly assigned and had the same major. Regardless, if he lives in a dorm with a communal bathroom (as most freshman do), it is likely that he is going to interact with people on his floor.</p>
<p>CMU has research all the time, so getting involved in doing research is a matter of approaching the professors and showing some interest for the subject. In addition, emails are sent out often asking for students to fill some research positions. On campus we actually have a collaboration center where companies set up shop to do research. I have a freshman friend who is doing some research work for intel. So I would say if you're interested in research then there's a lot of opportunities to get involved. However, a lot of people don't do research because of the time commitment it involves which needs to be juggled with the course load.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you mean by computer geek, because nearly every CS major here is a computer geek in some way, shape, or form because we all have a passion for computers. So it really depends on your secondary interests. There is the infamous KGB (Keeping Geeks Busy), the Game Creation Society, and Math Club as examples of the more "nerdy" clubs.</p>
<p>Would you suggest buying a computer before coming to school or buying a computer at CMU?1</p>
<p>LOL. Your nerdy clubs sound up his alley. He does Science Olympiad, Academic Team and some collaborative stuff on the Internet now.</p>