Welcome to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and to the Class of 2013!

You have joined a community that is unique in many ways, and you should be very excited about the journey upon which you are about to embark.

At Carnegie Mellon, students are permitted to register for classes on-line each semester after considering information gathered from a variety of sources. These sources include academic advisors, university, college, and departmental websites, and written materials such as the University Catalog. This site is designed especially for you and it will take you step-by-step through the registration process. It will tell you how to set up your University email account, how to take placement tests and retrieve your results, which AP/IB course(s) you will get credit for, and how to actually construct a schedule.

But perhaps most importantly, we want to remind you of what makes being a part of H&SS so special. Here are just a few characteristics:

What Makes H&SS So Special?

• Of the seven undergraduate schools and colleges H&SS is the second largest. Our 1100 students comprise one-fifth of the entire undergraduate student population at Carnegie Mellon.

• H&SS houses eight departments and offers more than 60 major and minors, many of which represent the interdisciplinary nature of research and teaching in the College. You will recognize some names right away (economics, English, psychology, philosophy, several modern languages, and history) as names that appear in the offerings of most liberal arts schools. But then others begin to catch your eye -- decision science; ethics, history, and public policy; cognitive science; logic and computation; information systems; policy and management; global politics; economics and statistics; and technical writing and communication. You won't find such a varied and full collection of exciting, interdisciplinary majors anywhere else.

• You will not find the artificial boundaries that define many universities and separate colleges and departments from one another. Carnegie Mellon is famous for its interdisciplinary approach to education.  H&SS faculty frequently merge two or more disciplines in their teaching and research because they understand that most important problems don't have distinct, impassable boundaries. Working at the intersection of fields of research and teaching brings special challenges, but it is also where the most significant future breakthroughs will likely be made. The interdisciplinary culture of the university has enabled our majors and programs to become unusually strong, and some have even defined new fields.

• H&SS is not your traditional liberal arts school. Here, it is "liberal" in the sense that the required General Education program offerings add breadth, and encourages students to gain informed perspectives across disciplines essential for personal growth and responsible citizenship, that they might not otherwise value or explore. It is "professional" because students also receive in-depth, practical training in their chosen field. The combination prepares graduates for specific career fields as well as for graduate or professional training. Students experience real-world applications of their learning before they graduate.

• Carnegie Mellon can be a great place to discover, explore, and go in unexpected and exciting directions.  In other words, we don't expect that you will know the major you will choose before you arrive. Some students enter college with a clear idea about what will be their chosen field of study.  However, it is common for very capable students, who excelled in all areas of study during high school, to have trouble deciding on a major. H&SS is unique among other colleges at CMU, and a perfect place for these students because (with the exception of a few majors), they can explore a variety of courses during their freshman and sophomore year to discover the major that ignites their passion for learning. Students may declare a major as early as second semester of the freshmen year, or wait until the second semester of their sophomore year.
• Carnegie Mellon is committed to providing interested students with opportunities to conduct research, either as part of a research program or individually, under the supervision of a faculty member.

These are just a few of the features that make the College of Humanities and Social Sciences such an exciting place to learn and grow. Again, welcome. We're glad that you're here!