Ascender

With all these said, if I have to give a verdict, I would say CMU is better for the overall prestige and strong networks (especially in the valley) given your abundant experience—if you can make it through and work hard. However, there will be a lot of personal preferences going on when you are trying to make a tough decision like this (both are top programs!), so it depends on what you like and what you wanna get out of the program. And often times a lot of the pros/cons here exist only theoretically, since a person can thrive in an adverse situation as well as corrupt in an advantageous one. Given same resources different people will have different outcome.

Congrats for your admits! Since you have a significant amount of relevant work experience, the internship variable may be less critical, though I agree that getting an internship (and potentially getting a return offer) will be easier than directly applying for full-time positions. I am admitted to both programs as well, and I think it really depends on what kind of experience you want to get out of the program, for example: Intense learning (a lot of pressure, stay up late) vs. Spaced-out Learning (more at ease, but could end up wasting time if one is not disciplined or dedicated enough) Seattle vs. Pittsburgh. Though finding a job after graduation will not be a big problem for either program, I would say Seattle has more prominent IT companies to work for (and has a better overall living experience—with higher cost of living for sure). Though CMU’s courses are very project-based, they often have to rush through most of them with several projects going on at the same time. So if you care about the quality of work you can produce, CMU is probably not a good choice. Yes you might also encounter frustrations collaborating with part-time students at HCDE, but it allows more time for you to improve it. And as I heard from one of the CMU alumni, there will be a strong emphasis on selling products (lots of presentations & pitches) and less so on actual craft. This might add another perspective to your decision-making. One more thing for CMU: you probably have to look for a job while working on your capstone project, so the project may not in support of your job-seeking (as a lot of people might have expected). Hope it helps.

Congrats! In terms of choosing between MIIPS and HCDE, it really depends on what your goal is and what you value. I would say the key differences are curriculum and location (assuming your MIIPS admit is the extended one cuz the internship opportunity will then be the same for these two, otherwise time is another factor to consider). MIIPS will involve more industrial design and business classes, while HCDE focuses more on research and design. If you are to search for internship or land a job after graduation, Seattle’s location is definitely better (and for location you’re also choosing a life style). There are other things like cohort quality, HCDE’s night classes, CMU’s name etc. but they’re not as critical as curriculum and location IMO. Oh I forgot financial cost, idk the tuition for MIIPS but I guess it’s more expensive than HCDE.

According to my research, there are people who were admitted without interviews, and some even said the interviews are randomly assigned. I am not sure about the necessary connection between interview and admission, but it is surely not a dead end if you do not receive interview invitation. I would say relax!

I would say it is not as casual as a language interview where you basically just chatting/having daily conversations with interviewers. For the CMU one my interviewer told me he had a set of standard questions that he was required to ask, which (according to my fuzzy memory) are about your understanding of the program, reasons for applying, your experience and goal, and the ways you work etc. Beyond these questions, how casual it is will largely depend on the interviewer. Some are more easygoing and prefer the form of conversation, some are more rigid and take a standard Q&A. Another thing is that the interviewer won’t have your application, so have a short and sweet self-intro is important. Hope it helps! Yes I’ve also applied to GT and two UW programs.

I don’t think UW has interview for either? As far as I know the decisions won’t be out until March 15-ish. I have done the interview for CMU, feel free to ask me anything you want to know. Best of luck!

I’ve gone through interviews of CMU MHCI, CCA MDes, and IUB MHCI/d (the latter two are for language tho, I am international student). For your questions: 1. Yes. Interviews with alumni are conducted every year. 2. I don’t think so. It’s just about your experience, your understanding of the program, reasons for applying etc, kinda standard. 3. It will depend on the interviewer. The time was tight for my interview, only five minutes or so left to ask questions. But my interviewer was very nice and encouraged me to ask him anything about the program and his experience, so we ended up talking 15 mins extra of the prescribed 30 min session. Feel free to ask me any further questions regarding these interviews.

According to my knowledge, it’s fairly enough. TOEFL is more critical to non-native speaker. After your score has reached a certain level (I would say around 325), it’s no longer as important as other parts of you application. The best HCI programs like CMU-HCI, or UW-HCDE/HCID do not address too much significance on GRE, the latter two do not even require it. My suggestion would be to focus on other parts of the application, like portfolio or TOEFL instead. I also plan to apply for 20 fall HCI, I’ve been collecting historical applicants’ information and trying to generalize useful insights, and I could confidently say that there will be no one single component that could determine the final outcome (I know someone with 315+ admitted by CMU and someone with 330+ got rejected). So it’d better take a holistic view on the whole process and try your best to perfect each part. Currently your GRE is good, so I think it’s time to move on.