Carnegie Mellon's Best Major - Information Systems

If you’re new to the channel: welcome ~ I’m Michael and I'm a junior at Carnegie Mellon University studying Information Systems. I make new videos every week about college and tech

Ps: If there's anything else you want to know about my experience in Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon, or interning for big tech (FAANG) please let me know in the comments below and I'll address it in a future video!

Contents
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0:00 Intro
0:38 1 - Flexibility
1:28 IS Requirements
2:31 2 - Curriculum
5:07 3 - Career Outcomes

[topherlions]

I dropped my general business major sophomore year and picked up information systems. Best decision I ever made.

I got a normal IT internship (little to no coding), supplemented the lack of CS major coding with personal projects…. And got hired as a full time software developer before I even graduated.

Great video! Your schools plan is identical to mine down to the capstone group project. It was a lot of database stuff, but if you learn the data structures and algorithms yourself you’re set. there’s no classes for these types of knowledge in Info Systems. And interviewers enjoy a candidate who is savvy and versatile in the business of tech, can communicate, AND can code.

[puduhari]

Thanks for sharing the career outcome website. It is very useful. I wish someone collates all such sites from all colleges.

[stevenaceti]

Great video! I'm also a CMU junior, in International Relations and Politics, and it was interesting to hear about another major on campus. It sounds like a great program

[jaysenquan]

Hi Michael, thank you for making this informative video.

I am currently a prospective student (Fall 2023), who is looking to apply to CMU early decision. Originally I planned on applying to SCS, but after attending a CMU information session, I was introduced to the information systems major. If I choose to apply to CMU for information systems this fall, how would I go about adding computer science as a double major?

Also, is there any way that I could reach out to you (discord, email, etc) to ask further questions? I would greatly appreciate any help you could provide me in this process! Thanks :)

[spektriye]

Could I take the IS major but still learn CS and AI very in depth ?

[ryanrodriguez]

I worry that if I choose this path it might be come irrelevant due to Ai. How true is this sentiment?

[justStardust]

it's the best major if you're not smart enough to do computer science. otherwise, just do computer science. IS just screams "i want to work in software, but I'm not smart enough to major in computer science". everything an IS major can do, a CS majors can do better. CS provides you greater flexibility because you can work as a SWE if you want to, but you can't with IS degree. also, even for IT roles, CS major is preferred because of the rigor, especially at smaller companies because you could wear multiple hats.