<p>We will be visiting campus over Spring Break. Is it possible to sit in on a couple of courses? Does this need to be arranged through the Admissions Office or by contacting the professor?</p>
<p>How is CMU about math placement for students with coursework beyond AP BC Calc? Any math majors around who can tell us about their dept.? If one is interested in theoretical CS, is it better to apply through the CS dept. or is taking CS courses as a math major not a problem? We’ve found that a lot of theoretical CS courses are crosslisted between Math and CS, and I guess that depends on who’s teaching them, where the research monies are, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks muchly!</p>
<p>Spring Break–</p>
<p>We visited CMU over spring break last year. The admissions presentation was pretty dull and the tour basically consisted of looking at the outside of each building with the tour guide telling us what it was. It was tough to get the feel of the place. We went back this fall and S did a sleeping bag weekend. This was a much better experience. He stayed in the dorms, attended a couple of classes, etc.</p>
<p>If your spring break is the same as CMU’s spring break, you won’t have a chance to see any classes, or even many real students. If you do a sleeping bag weekend, then they give you a list of classes that you can visit on Monday, though the list is by no means comprehensive. If you don’t do a sleeping bag weekend, no one will care if you show up in a class just to listen. If you PM me what day of the week you plan on going, I can suggest a class or two to you and give you the time and place.</p>
<p>My experience is that CMU usually doesn’t give calculus placement past two semesters or discrete math placement past one. However, math majors and other people interested in math usually take analysis I/II freshman year and math studies. Analysis is a proof based courses that kind of starts from the beginning of calculus, with you proving all the theorems that you just assume in a normal calc class. Math studies counts like taking two classes, and covers all sorts of topics from linear algebra to… I don’t know what, but I can look it up for you, if you want me to.</p>
<p>I’m a computer science major, and I don’t think I’ve ever known a computer science major to have trouble getting into a math course, with the exception of one this semester that is taught by an incredibly popular professor who has promised to teach the course again. Math majors usually don’t have problems getting into CS classes, as far as I know, but sometimes might be on a waitlist for the first week or so of class.</p>
<p>The CS curriculum is structured so that you take a core of classes and have quite a bit of choice with regards to electives. You’re also required to minor or double major in something, so many students choose a math minor (only 3 more classes), math double major (if you take analysis and math studies you’re pretty much all the way there), or discrete math minor/double. Look in the course catalog here: <a href=“2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog < Carnegie Mellon University”>2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog < Carnegie Mellon University; .</p>
<p>CMU’s CS curriculum is unique in that it doesn’t involve any hardware/circuit/required physics courses like most schools. As a result, we take more discrete math than most CS majors. If you have an interest in theoretical CS, CMU is probably a very good place to attend.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask any more questions you have!</p>
<p>In terms of sitting in on classes and placement testing, you might want to contact the CS and math departments directly. When my S did a Spring Break visit junior year of HS, he got the names of some dept members from his CS teacher at HS. He emailed them; one of them referred him back to the CS admin. On the day we were there, he was able to sit in on a class, meet with a professor, meet with the admin and get detailed info on the CS major, and get a student-guided tour of the dept (along with a couple of other vistors). (I was invited to join the tour.) You can certainly make appointments to talk to the freshman advisors. The CS advisor definitely likes to talk! Explore the departmental web sites; you should be able to pick up a lot of info about majors, required courseloads, etc.</p>
<p>In the afternoon we did the official CMU presentation and tour; we did get to go into a few buildings. My S also did the SBW weekend but it was SuperBowl Sunday last year so he never did get to any of the classes he was thinking about.</p>
<p>Fortunately college spring breaks are usually several weeks before those of high schools, so HS spring break is a good time to visit campuses. Wish we had done more of it junior year, but we had scheduled a family vacation.</p>