<p>i'm sorry, could someone help me out here about the way one applies to CMU?</p>
<p>First you choose a college, but are programs available to freshmen? if you look at the number of students in them, it seems very few so i thought the interdisciplinary programs are meant for more advanced study.</p>
<p>when you apply, do you have to have just one major in mind or can you have two?</p>
<p>can you want to major in something from the history and the english department and NOT be a part of a interdisciplinary program and still be able to take a diverse set of GenEd courses? that's basically what i want to do...</p>
<p>how exactly are things GenEd if they have programs available to freshmen?</p>
<p>sorry these sound like dumb questions but this is really confusing me!! help!!</p>
<p>I'm also kind of confused. Where do I choose a major not found under the common app supplement? Economics falls under the college of humanities and social sciences, but there is no selection for it under the supplement.</p>
<p>are you wanting to be in a special program for economics?
i think you have to decide the school which fits your interest first, tailor your answer toward that and then have some academic leanings toward economics (b/c i think that you are expected to know the CMU academics quite well).
there are nine departments in H&SS - one of them is economics so i'm guessing you will do some studying there but b/c of the gened requirements, you will go into other departments and possibly, interdisciplinary departments/majors.</p>
<p>^Yeah that's what the problem is. On the common app I assume I would choose Tepper School of Business right? And no, I just want to major in Econ, but the problem is that the college of arts and sciences is not an option within the supplement.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help and sorry for hijacking the thread TC.</p>
<p>If you want to major in economics, choose Humanities and Social Sciences as the school you apply to. I believe that the IS program might appear under that as an interdisciplinary program, but that is because you must apply to the IS program if you want to do that. Otherwise, H&SS is what you want and you don't have to specify the major when you select the school you apply to, although you probably want to discuss it in your supplement essay.</p>
<p>While you apply to a specific school (or multiple ones if you want- I applied to SCS and ECE, for example), you don't officially declare a major until spring of your freshman year. (Unless you're in SCS, which only has one undergraduate major, or you're in IS, because it's a special program you apply directly to. And if you're in CFA, you have to know if you're a music major or an art major to apply correctly.... but in the general case, you don't declare.)</p>
<p>During freshman year, you'll take a number of GenEd courses and ones that are specific to the major you think you want (or multiple possible majors if you're undecided). You can take classes in other schools as long as there is space available, and there usually is. You'll have to take courses in other schools in order to graduate, actually.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. I'm still wondering though, why does carnegie mellon's official site state that the major of economics is jointly administered by the college of arts and sciences and tepper school of business, when on the common app it lists the major under Humanities and Social Sciences? Thanks again for the help, at least most of my essay did not have to change.</p>
<p>Tepper is generally more well regarded than H&SS - saying that it's jointly administered probably makes it a better respected program. On the common app, it's listed under H&SS because that's the school that the actual economics department is in. I think that in the last few years Tepper has become more involved in the economics program than previously.</p>
<p>Everything KrazyKow said is correct. With few exceptions, most of which were mentioned above, it doesn't really matter what major you put on the application as long as you apply to the correct school/college for that major.</p>
<p>I'm trying to think of programs that would require special attention, and I can think of ECE, IS, drama, architecture, music (maybe?), and whatever those interdisciplinary programs are called.... all these would require you to say you are majoring in them when applying.</p>
<p>Also, if you're looking to major in math, you should not take the normal math classes. Instead, you should take the more condensed, and more difficult Analysis classes, if possible.</p>
<p>Generally, don't worry about these things too much. If you manage to be accepted to CMU in any way, you probably shouldn't have too much difficulty pursuing your major of choice, even if it's not what you put on the application. That said, don't expect to sneak into art school when you applied to engineering or visa versa, unless you are doing an interdisciplinary program.</p>