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Sorry to double post. In #4 on job prospects, when I meant "don't really think you need to worry about unemployment" I was referring to the idea of another recession causing the UX/HCI job market to shrink. Finding a position that suits you is a different matter

I haven't seen interviews being posted in previous years. They also recruit like 40-50 people a year right? Can't imagine them doing interviews for every single person, but I didn't get one.

Hi! Fellow CMU HMCI admit here. Also applied to UW HCDE and planning to move with my SO for school. We're probably in similar situations, although I have 3.5 years of working experience. Sorry for the long post, especially if these are things you've already thought about. 1) 2 vs 1 year and what you can do in that time You mentioned that you want to make things, so do you mind if I ask you what your undergrad background is and how much working experience you have? Even if you get a Masters degree, if you're trying to break into a field and don't have any professional experience, quite honestly 2 years of school will be barely enough to make you competitive. For example, if we're talking about design, other designers that have been doing their craft in a professional environment and/or went to design undergrad will have strong portfolios, and HR at companies also like seeing working experience. In other words, 1 year at CMU will give you a lot less time to bring yourself up to speed compared to people who are using it to enhance the career path they're already on. 2 years might be better for you since it gives you an opportunity to intern at a company during the summer, which can help enhance your resume/portfolio significantly. This point segues into... 2) Curriculum Curriculum will not be the main reason you get a job after graduation, I think. Very few recruiters will necessarily care about the classes you take or what you learn. They'll be interested in what you did for projects and how you applied what you learn, especially if you have research publications or a design portfolio or a github. I've met very successful people who came out of not-so-highly-ranked CS/HCI departments that ended up getting fantastic jobs because, while they were at school, they focused on taking courses that allowed them to work on projects or publish research. Instead of overloading on courses, they spent time in labs, working over the summer, etc. that really ended up being more useful than just courses. CMU's capstone project is a fantastic way to get applied experience, but just because you go to a research/thesis-oriented grad program does not mean you can't find tons of projects to work on. Even more importantly, (back to point 1) a 2 year program can provide more opportunities to seek extracurriculars that can really boost your resume. UW or UMich can equally provide just as many opportunities to do hands-on work making stuff, but it will definitely be less structured since both programs are not centered around hands-on experience in comparison to CMU's. 3) Prestige It's true that CMU's program is well regarded, but I have a hunch most recruiters/HR teams will be familiar with both schools. CMU's will probably look slightly better, but going to UMich is not a death sentence in terms of how well regarded the program will be. It's not the same as Ivy vs State School for undergrad, so that's one less thing you have to worry about. 4) Job prospects What kind of job do you want out of college? Honestly, even if the economy gets worse UX jobs will still be around. It's a strong trend in the tech industry, with big name companies and small startups all recruiting for UX positions. Now, with an economic downturn certain jobs might be less valuable (e.g. pure UX researchers, which only the bigger companies hire anyway). If you can build a flexible enough toolkit that includes research + design + programming, I think your prospects of finding a job won't really be a big problem. Plus, if you've ever taken a look at the listings for "UX Designers" on LinkedIn or Indeed, you'll realize that companies want very different skills and the requirements can range from a pure graphic designer to a system architect. In the end, I don't really think you need to worry about unemployment after graduation. 5) Cost vs Earnings I know a lot of people on these forums don't recommend going into a lot of debt. One think you can do is go check out how much you'll be earning from the jobs you're aiming for, and see how long it might take you to pay for tuition at CMU if you were to get an average salary in that field. Let me know if you would like to talk more over PM or something if you have any questions.

CMU was around 1pm EST. Not sure about UMD.

I'm lucky to have been doing a bit of traveling and had time to visit family after submitting my applications. I can't imagine being anxious and having to work through it for months on end! Best of luck to you!

I'm guessing by MHCI (design track) you're referring to GaTech's program? I'm not aware of any other program that requires application for a specific specialization since several schools simply allow you to choose electives freely after admission. On the results page, some people posted that they've received acceptances for Georgia Tech already, so you might want to check if historically they release results all at once or if they do it in waves. As for HCDE, no news has shown up on the results page so I don't think decisions have been sent out yet. Previously the program started releasing for its Masters around this time of year so it should be soon.

Congrats!!

I know this isn't the healthiest thing but alcohol has probably been my best friend for the past two months.

Looks like there was a GeorgiaTech HCI acceptance! Hope those of you who applied got good news in the mail today [Edit] Looks like there were also some UMich/IUB results for HCI earlier this week as well.

deep mind

I live in Asia so the time zone difference really screws with me sometimes. Last night, went to bed around 2 am (which is when East Coast US starts getting to work) and checked email, woke up at 4:30 am and checked email, woke up at 7:00am and checked email, woke up at 9:00am and checked email. While I was probably equally as anxious while job hunting, at least the turn over tends to be around 1-2 weeks for companies to receive a response. Not sure if I can handle another month of poor sleep. Congrats!!

no music

MHCID at UW seems like it might have more emphasis on prototyping. You may want to compare HCIM's coursework with MHCID's, particularly in areas like interaction design. If the design courses at HCIM don't seem like they would be enough, you might consider asking if you can do more design work on the side if that's the route you're planning on taking. Seems like both programs do a good amount of research/job placement stuff though

Yeah, I tried to look around on their webpage but couldn't really find a good alumni page or information on students who've graduated. Since you've already applied, your best bet might be to go contact the program manager/contact person and just give a brief introduction, describe your academic/career goals, and if any current students or alumni are willing to let you send an email to ask a few questions about job placements after graduation.

Did you apply already or are you planning to apply? Also, what is your primary interest in HCI, if you don't mind me asking? I did my undergrad in psychology/philosophy so I'm not an expert about CS or Information Science programs in general, but a quick Google search showed that UMD's iSchool is fairly well ranked overall in Library and Information Sciences. As for the HCI program, Gary Perlman has a small page of what he considers some of the best places for HCI on the HCI Bibliography resource website and UMD's on there. Although I would love to answer more in detail, I didn't feel I had a compelling enough technical background (and not enough passion for actual programming) to fit in at iSchools like UC Berkeley, UW, UMich, or UMD, so you might want to ask the opinion of someone who's doing HCI from a engineering perspective.

I've been accepted to CMU's HCI program as well and am currently waiting on a few other schools, so I feel like I understand where you're coming from. Tuition's expensive! I don't have a comp sci background, but my understanding is that CMU's robotics is really top notch, and ranks highly along with the rest of the computer science department with institutions like MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc. One thing that interests me about CMU is how well integrated it is to industry, with lots of people coming out of the Masters and PhD programs working in industry. This is perhaps the #1 biggest point for me, since I'm planning to work before possibly pursuing a PhD myself. As an American, I might be biased towards CMU but I would agree that it has a strong reputation in CS. As for ETH, although it's a fantastic school I remember a Swiss friend of mine saying a lot of students in Switzerland end up going to Germany to look for work because opportunities can be more scarce in and around Switzerland. However, he's not an engineer/computer scientist so he may mostly be referring to jobs in areas like sales, marketing, management, operations, etc.

@bellis Just to clarify, UW's HCDE M.S. program has part time as an option so there are professionals who don't really have the time to take the GRE and do well on it, thus making the holistic approach very suitable for that particular program. On the other hand, UW's MHCI+D does consider GRE scores and portfolios, so as @123abc mentioned it could possibly be a factor in admissions. They may sort of treat it as a way to differentiate between applicants that are relatively similar, or it may just be a different way of getting past a minimum academic performance threshold. Who knows?

Hi there! First of all congratulations and I just want to say I'm waiting on my own round of results for Masters programs. While I can't answer any of your questions about the two schools themselves, I noticed you didn't mention if you want to build connections in the EU or the U.S. and which place you'd prefer to job search. You also mentioned a PhD afterwards, so if you do decide to go directly into a PhD it won't matter as much, but if you decide to work for a couple years afterwards for any reason, it's always safer to make sure you take a look at the tech scene in both communities as well.

Thank you! Fingers crossed for you as well! +1 for Pittsburgh then Already started checking out the area on Google Maps.

Interesting! I also wonder if HCI programs are starting to become more well known and more students are also choosing options not purely based on school ranking (i.e. location and convenience). I wouldn't be surprised if people working want to do a program closer to home or online programs since Masters in HCI-related fields and working experience go really well together. Also, as @bbobear mentioned, it's a really good way to learn new skills and get a leg up in the UX field, so I'm not surprised if undergraduates might be gunning for these programs more now that UX itself is also a more well known in general.

CMU's MHCI program! I've never been to the East Coast and have no idea what life in Pittsburgh might be like.

Thanks! Didn't expect to get into this particular program to be honest... Of course, extremely happy!

@bbobear UC Irvine's Informatics program is great from what I've heard (their PhD level research is arguably on par with places like UW's HCDE & CMU's HCII in terms of their research), which is why I was interested in their M.S. Informatics program, not their HCI program. You also get plenty of work with research experience through that degree. Definitely agree with you about the pros/cons of a low-residency program like their MHCI+D degree though.

Bear in mind that acceptance rate is not necessarily indicative of the general pool of applicants, so we can never know what a ton of the apps look like. Plus, with the diverse background of people straight from academia/undergrad and those with several years of work experience, it's really hard to compare people's profiles.

I know CCA and SVA's interaction design are really well regarded in the tech industry for people more oriented towards design and less engineering/quantitative research. They're both great programs that someone like me wouldn't be able to apply for since I'm not a designer. Hope you get into the one you want to fit in to! Quantitative research is pretty hot right now in the tech industry, so I'm sure your math background will come in handy I wish I was better at math sometimes.