I am currently in the last step of the college process and am looking at Carnegie Mellon. I was wondering how flexible their curriculum was. I am currently interested in a physics major (astrophysics track); however, I am not sure if I will stay with physics and may later switch to econ as a major. During a school tour, the counselor said it was pretty difficult to switch from one college to another, in my case the College of Science to Tepper. I was wondering how true this statement was and exactly how flexible is Carnegie’s curriculum. Can I easily take classes/have majors and minors across different schools? Thank you!
Hi! I was also admitted to mcs under the astrophysics major. It’d be nice to team up with you for problem sets or whatever, but I’m pretty sure it’s easy to double major/minor across schools if you wanted to. I’m not so sure about switching schools, but i know cmu is pretty interdiscplinary and will very likely permit you to take classes from other schools. If you’re not sure about physics, I’m also assuming you can pick a more flexible major such as math, as it would easily come in handy with any number of econ professions.
http://coursecatalog.web.cmu.edu/schools-colleges/melloncollegeofscience/departmentofphysics/#bsinphysicstext shows the physics major degree requirements, including non-technical (general education) requirements. Obviously, there is the expectation of taking courses in other divisions to fulfill those requirements.
Changing from the science division (where physics is) to the humanities and social science division (where economics is) is described at https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/advisory-center/transferring/transfer-in.html , but it does not say how difficult or competitive it is. Ask directly if you want to know more.
My roommate is a physics major, and he is taking a lot of different classes, like theater tech and playwriting, along with his required physics classes and calculus and such. CMU has a ton of flexibility within your major and with adding minors/ double majors, but there is less flexibility for switching your major if it’s outside of your college (MCS in your case.)
MCS to Tepper would be pretty hard, but Economics is an interdisciplinary program that is mostly a part of Dietrich, which would be a lot easier for you to transfer to in general. There are never guarantees though so I would talk to an admissions counselor about it. There is also a really unique and cool program called Behavioral Economics that is one-of-a-kind in the United States that you might want to look into.
Lmk if you have any more questions! (I’m a freshman in Dietrich Stats ML)