easiest major to get into for carnegie?

<p>I visited carnegie mellon last summer and really want to go there. I dont have an idea of what i want to do in the future as of now (in a way, i think im suitable for almost every field). I have a 2140 SAT and 3.7 unweighted GPA. I was just wondering what are some of the easier majors to get into, because getting in is the only thing that im concerned about right now.</p>

<p>Easiest school to get into is H&SS. Then probably MCS.</p>

<p>I don't know why you'd want to lock yourself into a very technically oriented school if you don't know you want to do a technical major, though.</p>

<p>I had almost identical stats, 2160 and 3.67, and got into H&SS for econ last year. Now as a freshman I'm looking at prolly a 3.8 first semester gpa, which means i could fairly easily transfer into another college here. In my opinion unless you have stellar stats it would be retarded to apply for anything other than hss because the difference in competition from hss majors to any other school here is substantial</p>

1 Like

<p>I actually got a scholarship that added up to around $8k over the three and a half years I was at CMU from my department within CIT because I declared prior to even joining as a freshman.</p>

1 Like

<p>if you really want to go, hss is definitely the way to go. like racinreaver said though, if you don't know what you want to do i'd suggest looking elsewhere and not making cmu your only choice. i'm in the same position and have found that everyone here is incredibly career oriented, so be prepared to be in the minority if you haven't declared by the end of freshman year. </p>

<p>but within hss, i'd say that your best bets are the liberal arts majors...english (not writing, though, it's way more competitive), history, philosophy, etc...</p>

<p>Policy and Econ majors are pretty easy as far as acceptance goes and will net you a pretty nice job as well (such as consulting for a top firm or think tank firms) from the wide range of companies that recruit on campus.</p>

<p>is the computer science school the hardest to get into? What's about Heinz? Since they both have computer science related</p>

1 Like

<p>edit: I meant Computer Science and the Information systems, because on the common app there are separate choices when you choose which one is your first. Also, on the website I coudln't find any specific school about information systems.</p>

<p>I don't believe the school of information systems is open to undergrads. Isn't it only CIT, SCS, MCS, CFA, and H&SS?</p>

<p>I have this question too. He's not talking about the Heinz school. The Information Systems is a major that's under H&SS. However, on the supplement, they're listed separately, with IS all by itself. So I'm confused to which one to put.</p>

<p>Information Systems is special. It is a special program that has its own admissions and general ed requirements, but it is contained within H&SS (which is kind of stupid, it should be in CS or maybe Tepper.) You have to apply directly to the IS major. Or, if you don't think you can get in, you can apply to any of the other schools and apply for the IS major in your subsequent years. This actually happens quite often. </p>

<p>I actually don't know what happens if you apply for IS and get rejected -- if you get sent to regular H&SS or just get rejected period.</p>

<p>The Heinz school is for masters work, not for undergrads.</p>

<p>Are the requirements within H & SS higher for the IS major than for other majors in that Undergraduate school? My daughter is very interested in this major but I want to try to understand more about what it entails and the value (future job prospects) that would come with doing very well in IS. Are there any students on this board that are IS majors who would care to elaborate? Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>according to admission statistics IS has the highest admission rate and lower stats than most other departments.</p>

<p>Yes but I think there are a couple reasons for that ^^. One, most high school seniors have no idea what information systems is. They know computer science of course, but IS is less well known. Also, CMU is known for its CS program so they get a stronger and larger application base. </p>

<p>My S majored in IS (and CS double major) but I doubt if he knew much, if anything at all, about IS when he started CMU. As a freshman his big brother at his fraternity was an IS major, S noticed his projects and homework, thought they were interesting and picked it up as a major that way. I've noticed the program's gotten more selective in recent years.</p>

<p>IS program (kind of a business/technology fusion) here is heavily recruited. At graduation there was a short bio written by each graduate, activities, interests, future plans, etc...most I recall were going to top financial firms or on to MISM (S is at NYC investment bank, I think that's fairly common). CS program is harder and more work than IS (not necessarily a bad thing for IS majors).</p>

<p>"according to admission statistics IS has the highest admission rate and lower stats than most other departments."</p>

<p>And that's relevant how? Once you get into college it really does not matter at all. Just because a college (or major, in this case) admits more people says nothing about its credibility or opportunity it empowers its students with.</p>

<p>For example, look at this:
<a href="http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/infosys.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/infosys.pdf&lt;/a>
Employment/salary info for IS grads.</p>

<p>Compare that with many of the other majors and IS students do quite well for quite a bit less work.</p>

<p>I really have this aim of getting into Carnegie. Thanks for the tips there.</p>

<hr>

<p>asia</a> travel</p>

<p>ctks22: it's relevant because I was responding to the poster above me, not you.</p>

<p>2331: did your S get into IS first and then decide to double major in CS? How hard is it to do that? Thanks.</p>

<p>Whoops... sorry, my mistake, didn't realize that.</p>

<p>Silverzc, it's a long story. He didn't apply to SCS from hs, nor to IS. By senior year in hs, he had an interest in programming but not enough to major in CS. Applied to one and only major, Logic and Computation (he's more lib arts than math/physics type and thought he'd go to law school), which blends philosophy and technology, which sounded perfect for him.</p>

<p>Wasn't thrilled with first Logic and Computation courses first semester, liked big brother's IS work better, was easy to transfer into IS. Then realized he liked the programming aspect (interests were evolving, a good thing for an 18 year old) and decided he'd pursue computer science degree too, and law school was out.</p>

<p>Honestly it was fairly easy and his adviser was helpful. He took math prerequisites that CS majors take; also programming, which at the time were courses 211 followed by 212. Logistically this sounds easy, but 211 and 212 are rigorous courses. There may be more to it that I don't know but this was the gist of it. The reality: he had several friends, from other CMU schools, who couldn't make it through 211 and 212. Either too much work, or they just didn't really "get" it (his word) and got behind. These are rough courses, esp for non-CS majors. He did well in both, so that was it.</p>

<p>My son wants to apply to the computer science college, BUT they require an SAT 2 in physics, and for complex reasons, illness and an operation, he has had to repeat physics this year, and doesn't feel prepared to do the SAT2 next week in Physics. The IS apparently requires just two, so you could do math2 and English. How easy is it to change from IS to CS, my sense is that IS is business related and CS is really more knowledge and academic based which is what my son wants... any thoughts?</p>