<p>I'm an incoming freshman and i have a few questions regarding H&SS in general. I read that the workload is lighter as compared to the other schools, but not for the case of Economics (since it's jointly administered alongside Tepper) , is that true? I'd love to know more about H&SS from the econs perspective. I'm planning on BA. </p>
<p>besides the workload, i'd just like to know how difficult is it to maintain good grades in CMU. everything seems so difficult and i'm starting to get a bit overwhelmed.</p>
<p>help out a worried freshie here? thanks!</p>
<p>Econ is still a relatively light (emphasis on relatively) major. A good majority of econ majors end up pursuing an econ/stat degree so if they’re complaining about the workload, it’s because of that heavier workload (essentially a special double major but it’s still a single major). </p>
<p>As a B.A. your workload is significantly lighter by CMU standards. Instead of taking further math/stat/data analysis classes you’ll end up writing more papers, which is perceived as “easier” at this school. You of course may choose to make life harder by picking some harder electives.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! Would it be fine if i were to pursue just an econs degree without stats etc? do people do that? or does everyone end up doing econ + something else</p>
<p>Double majoring is pretty common, but it’s certainly not an obligation. Yes, it is absolutely fine if you just wish to pursue an econs degree. Plenty of people do that. On a sidenote, if you major in 1) just econs, either BA or BS or 2) econs & math, you’ll be associated with the econs department as the adminstrative home to these two programs is the econs dept; whereas if you major in econs & stats, you’ll be associated with the stats department which is the admin home to econs & stats.</p>
<p>I see (: </p>
<p>What about the social life of a typical H&SS student? What’s the overall environment in H&SS like? </p>
<p>also, i was invited to join the QSSS and the SHS program but i declined it. do people actually decline it? or did i make a bad choice.</p>
<p>QSSS and SHS are programs designed to align with your interests and prepare you for grad school. But if you’re not interested in the curriculum, there’s no big deal about declining.</p>
<p>For example, for the Q in QSSS, if you’re not a math person, then the program is definitely not a fit for you.</p>
<p>As a Science and Humanities Scholar, if you’re not interested in a science, then that would not be a fun program for you. </p>
<p>They both give great opportunities but go with whatever you want to do.</p>
<p>^ thank you for the explanation! I’m still curious about the overall environment in H&SS. you know how they say SOME SCS students lock themselves up in their room either because they have a massive workload or they game all the time. what about the nature of H&SS students?</p>
<p>H&SS is the easy school full of the slowest students, along with Tepper. That being said, programs like IS and econ+math are definitely not easy but the stereotype is still rather strong. Some people are judgmental a-holes because they’re engineers/science/CS and they think anything not technical is easy, but I feel like that’s true at any diverse school.</p>
<p>Personally I’m against generalization or stereotyping of any kind, so IMO chances are you’ll find super outgoing or really antisocial people anywhere, be it SCS or HSS. Plus, given that there’re so many departments/ disciplines under the umbrella of HSS, the student group in HSS is very diverse so it’s just impossible to give an ‘overall’ kind of description of HSS students. </p>
<p>Don’t bother to be concerned with the ‘technical’ people who belittle HSS. Anyone who goes in the extreme direction of either science or humanities and ignores the other is doing so at a great loss of himself, at least IMO.</p>