<p>I just found out that I've been accepted into SDS. Not my first choice of course, but what is it? I obviously want to transfer into MCS or CIT in sophomore year. For now, I need to make a decision between SDS at CMU for a year or just going straight to science in another school. Is SDS worth it? I've never heard of it before and the SDS website doesn't seem very appealing.</p>
<p>SDS is home to CMU’s Policy & Management major, Decision Science major (only undergraduate Decision Science major in the nation), and International Relations & Politics (IRP) major. We’re actually a highly-ranked department in our field, and we have a lot of interdisciplinary students.</p>
<p>I study Decision Science and Computer Science, and I love SDS. It’s unique and highly interdisciplinary (the professors have backgrounds in psychology, economics, engineering, physics, math), and I don’t think you’ll find a similar department at any other university. Even though it’s in Dietrich College, it can become very quantitatively-rigorous if you choose to make it so.</p>
<p>If you’re planning to transfer into MCS or CIT, then it shouldn’t matter how you feel about SDS because you can just tell your advisor that you’re planning to transfer, and take courses for the major you’re planning to transfer into.</p>
<p>Would an SDS major prep me for medical school? And would it allow me to take med school prereqs like bio, chem, physics, etc in MCS?</p>
<p>If you’re interested in Medical school, you could do Policy & Management with a focus on health policy, or Decision Science with a focus on medical decision-making (Baruch Fischhoff, the head of the program, has done substantial work in this field). The SDS majors are flexible, so you will be able to take courses to meet med school pre-reqs. Each year, we have several people get into the top med schools, so being in SDS doesn’t hurt your chances.</p>
<p>Also, if you are interested in medical school, you should check out the Health Professions Program ([Course</a> Requirements-Health Professions Program - Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/hpp/plan-your-time/course-requirements/index.html]Course”>http://www.cmu.edu/hpp/plan-your-time/course-requirements/index.html)).</p>
<p>Okay, so let me get this straight. I can do the following things all at the same time?
- Stay in HSS and major in whatever I want (ex: SDS, Econ, etc.)
- Take all the required classes mentioned by the HPP
- Pursue a minor (ex: music, computer science, etc.)
- Have credentials for med school.</p>