Current student answering questions (round 2)

<p>Hi guys! I'm a current freshman in SCS, and back in December when ED results came out I made this Q&A thread for newly admitted students:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-university/1430666-current-student-answering-questions.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-university/1430666-current-student-answering-questions.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you're curious about life at CMU I would recommend looking through it; there's a lot of info in there about dorms, food, classes, workload, and other random stuff.</p>

<p>If you have questions that aren't answered there, please feel free to post them to this thread! I might take a couple days to respond since it's the middle of the semester and all, but I'll do my best to get back to you when I can, and maybe there are some other students or alums on here who can answer as well.</p>

<p>Also, if you haven't joined the facebook group yet, you should! There's a few useful docs and some other upperclassmen who'd love to chat with you: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/451505648242840/%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.facebook.com/groups/451505648242840/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>How “easy” is it to transfer between colleges? E.g. H&SS to SCS?</p>

<p>CS is one of the more difficult majors to switch to. You’ll have to take a couple CS classes and do well in them before you can even apply.</p>

<p>Details here: [B.S&lt;/a&gt;. in Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.csd.cs.cmu.edu/education/bscs/transfer.html]B.S”>http://www.csd.cs.cmu.edu/education/bscs/transfer.html)</p>

<p>If you’re transferring to one of the less competitive programs, though, you typically just need to talk to a dean or advisor and maybe fill out some forms.</p>

<p>Thanks for answering all these questions!</p>

<p>I just got waitlisted for ECE but accepted to CIT in any other department. I wouldn’t mind getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering, however im willing to work my ass off to transfer within CIT to ECE. What are the chances of this happening if i dont make it through the waiting list? In the decision letter they made it sound near impossible :P</p>

<p>@Na1208: Take the Intro to ECE course and do very well. My S graduated last year and entered thinking he would be ChemE. He had to do 2 Intro courses and LOVED the ECE course. He wasn’t restricted so he had no problem getting into ECE but I have noticed over the years that if you do well in Intro to ECE you can likely declare that. No guarantees of course but if you are going to CMU anyway what is the downside?</p>

<p>For someone who was hoping to double major in music and technology and was only accepted into the CFA, what are the possibilities of being able to take courses and/or change to a double (BSA)? in the future?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Pretty good, actually. You don’t even declare until second semester anyway, so if you take (and do well in) intro to ECE I don’t think there’s anything stopping you.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Good! I know two freshmen who applied BCSA but only made CFA, and they just emailed their advisor over summer and he got them into the CS classes they needed to take essentially the BCSA courseload. You’ll need to apply again later to officially join the program, but you can certainly get into the courses, and as long as you do well in them you’ll probably be fine.</p>

<p>Ahh so I would follow a similar CFA —> BCSA route that you just described, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how to succeed in the math-y classes (e.g. 15-251). I’ve taken a discrete mathematics class before and while I’m pretty okay at stuff like set theory and whatnot but actually writing proofs is still rather difficult for me! I’ve been reading a few papers/books on algorithms/mathematical concepts for mostly computer graphics-y related stuff but I would love to know if there were any definitive books/resources for mathematical ideas in computer science. Thanks!</p>

<p>The thing about 15-251 and 151 is that they cover many different topics, each of which could take up an entire textbook (or books) on its own. The idea is to take a handful of key ideas from each that are relevant to CS and then make sure you know them backwards and forwards. I’ll PM you a list of the topics we’re covering this semester so you can research those on your own if you want.</p>

<p>Awesome, thank you so much!!</p>

<p>No problem! If you’re looking for a place to start, Wikipedia is actually a fantastic resource. The articles for most of those topics go really in-depth.</p>

<p>sorcelater, thank you very much for the information and for taking the time to keep up with the questions on this thread!!</p>

<p>You’re quite welcome!</p>

<p>bump…</p>

<p>Hi. I just posted this as a separate topic, but since you’re here and you’re a student…</p>

<p>When people say that CMU has no social life, what exactly do they mean? Are they saying that there aren’t parties every night, or are they saying that finding and keeping friends is difficult?</p>

<p>I’m not a party person. I hate parties, drinking, drugs, etc. I just want a nice group of friends who will do nerdy stuff, play nerdy games, and just hang out. Should I be worried if I choose CMU? </p>

<p>Thanks for your response and for your time.</p>

<p>“do nerdy stuff, play nerdy games, and just hang out.” Sounds like typical CMU</p>

<p>What Selena said, haha. I’m not a party person either, and I don’t think most of the people I know here would describe themselves as such (although there are certainly some who do, even in SCS and CIT!).</p>

<p>But seriously, there are loads of opportunities to hang out and have fun with your friends! First of all, most people join clubs, which is a great way to meet people from different majors and years who share your interests (whether that’s knitting, cooking, dancing, making robots, watching My Little Pony, writing, whatever it is KGB does, programming, or something else). Second, there always fun events going on around campus. For example, Activities Board (AB) organizes $1 movies at the UC every weekend and hosts performances by visiting comedians or bands at some of the campus dining locations.</p>

<p>Third, and most importantly, THIS IS COLLEGE. You will pretty much constantly be surrounded by people who also want to have friends and do fun things together (whatever their idea of fun might be). Unless you actively avoid people or somehow drive them away, you’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.</p>

<p>GaussianInteger posted something on another thread (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-university/1482201-carnegie-mellon-columbia-cs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-university/1482201-carnegie-mellon-columbia-cs.html&lt;/a&gt;) that I really agree with, so I’m going to repeat it:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Hi. I found this thread and I was so relieved. I have a question similar to some others asked but my situation is a little different. </p>

<p>I applied for BCSA, but was rejected by CFA AND SCS. However, I was accepted to CIT (ECE). I’d like to know whether it’s practical to think about transferring to BCSA from ECE. Or probably taking up CS as a minor and throwing in a few art classes (if time permits)?</p>

<p>Or any possible course of action that will allow me to pursue what I want to. I like Physics, always have. I’ve studied semiconductors, optoelectronic devices, transistors…stuff like that. So I have no doubt I’ll enjoy ECE but I’ve always dreamt of going into Computer Graphics in the future…
Thanks for all the help :)</p>

<p>I’m wondering if DS would derive any benefit from going to the April admitted student events? He was admitted ED to SCS so he already knows he’s definitely attending. Also, he did precollege NHSGA last summer, living in Morewood Gardens. However, looking at list of events, he would be interested in attending some classes as well as the SCS intro. Any thoughts on this? I can’t help thinking that on the one hand, it’s an unnecessary expense, but, on the other, that he would find out something useful.</p>

<p>I was accepted into Dietrich. MCS was my first choice but I didn’t get in. Is there any way I can declare that I was to do chemistry at the very beginning of the school year and get placed into MCS?</p>