<p>I'm very interested in CMU. Specifically, I'm really interested in majoring in communication design with a minor in CS. What's the design program at CMU like? Does anyone have any advice or information that would be useful to know, going into it? How selective are they?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<ol>
<li>Unless you’re a minor god, you won’t be majoring in design and minoring in CS. Even with just a single major in design, most students get little to no sleep, pull long hours in the studio (20+ outside class) and generally kick their own butts to get things finished on time. Add to that a CS minor-- which is almost as many units as the major-- and that’s realistically too much work for a normal person to handle.</li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s take into consideration that you may be one of these super people:</p>
<p>It’s extremely selective. We’re talking <10% acceptance rate. Most portfolios have a mix of digital and traditional works, as well as some web design experience if you have any. Papercraft and physical works (3d woodcrafting for example) are also popular portfolio pieces.</p>
<p>Everything on their website is basically what they expect out of you. Check it out. 
No current design students frequent this board to my knowledge, probably for lack of time, so you’re going to be hard pressed to talk to one of those unless you know someone IRL.</p>
<p>DS took some design courses as undergrad in ME and HCI. Design course is a required course in HCI. The HCII is pretty good, very selective, and limited enrollment from each CMU college. Note that Design students have a better chance of getting an HCI slot than other colleges. </p>
<p>[Applying</a> to the Undergraduate Major | Human-Computer Interaction Institute](<a href=“http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/applying-undergraduate-major]Applying”>http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/applying-undergraduate-major)</p>