Applying to the Undergraduate Major

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The HCI undergraduate major is currently available only as a second major. Because space is limited in the major's required courses, enrollment in the HCI undergraduate major is currently limited to 25 students in each graduating class. Applications to the major are processed once a year. They are due by the beginning of Spring Break (see below), and decisions will be made by a committee in time for spring pre-registration. Decisions are based on QPA, the number of slots available, the statement of purpose, the feasibility of completing the major, the proposed schedule, and the discretion of the committee.

Students in any graduating class can apply to the major. First year students can only be pre-admitted, but are automatically admitted in their sophomore year if they carry a QPA of 3.0 or higher.

Pre-admittance

Freshman only

The threshold for freshman pre-admittance is a QPA of roughly 3.0 or better and a good statement of purpose. We will pre-admit approximately 3 freshmen who are above this threshold in Design, H&SS, and SCS, and fill up to 4 additional slots with any other freshman above this threshold. We limit freshman admittance to half of the available slots because we only have one semester to go on and we want to retain slots for students who have not decided to apply for the major in HCI until their sophomore year. If you have applied as a freshman, but did not get in, do not take this as a good reason not to apply as a sophomore.

Pre-admission entitles you to pre-register for HCI courses, and guarantees full admission in the sophomore year with a QPA higher than 3.0.

Full admittance

Sophomores and up

Students who were pre-admitted as freshmen are automatically fully admitted as sophomores, provided they have a QPA of 3.0 or higher.

Available Slots

Since HCI work involves multi-disciplinary teams that include designers, implementers, evaluators, and those with content expertise, each graduating year will be balanced in background and expertise. In each graduating class, we will hold 6 slots for Design students 6 slots for H&SS students 6 slots for SCS students and we will leave 7 slots unconstrained This means that for each of Design, H&SS, and SCS, we will admit the best 6 candidates (above threshold) from primary majors in these schools, and we will then admit 7 additional applicants from any primary major. The current situation with respect to majors and the slots available is given in the following two tables.

Total Majors

Slots Available

updated 5/2009

Application Process

Application Deadline

Applications are due by the Friday before Sping break (March 5, 2010). For those interested in applying, please submit the following materials by email, in a single MS Word document enclosure, to Robert Kraut (robert [dot] kraut [at] cmu [dot] edu) and the Academic Program Coordinator (hciibachelors [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu). You will receive email confirmation of your submission.

Application Materials

1. Full name, student number, and email address
2. Home College, year you intend to graduate, and list of all declared Majors and Minors
3. Statement of Purpose (Maximum 1 page, single spaced)
4. Proposed Schedule of Required Courses

In the Statement of Purpose, articulate why you want to pursue the HCI major. What is it about the major that attracts you and why? Communicate your vision for how the HCI major fits into your longer range educational and career goals. Do not exceed a single page. In the Proposed Schedule of Required Courses, which is NOT a contract, you should specify a plan for when you can fit the courses required for the major into your schedule. Make a table that looks something like the Sample Plan of Study given in a previous section. Include your primary major obligations as well, whenever they might conflict with HCI courses. The idea is to show that you have thought through, in some detail, whether you can actually do this major. For example:

Decisions

Decisions on admittance to the major will be made in time for fall registration week. You will be notified by email no later than the Friday before Fall Registration Week.