Humanities and social sciences library

Carnegie Mellon College of Humanities and Social Sciences

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS) is the liberal and professional studies college and the second largest academic unit by enrollment of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The college emphasizes the study of the human condition through rigorous analysis and technology.

The college admitted its first freshman class in 1969, following the announcement of the pending closure of the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, although roots of the college can be traced to the Division of Applied Psychology, founded in 1916 as the first research-oriented department within Carnegie Mellon. The administrative offices of H&SS are located in Baker Hall. Most of the classes offered by H&SS are held in Baker Hall and Porter Hall, but some classes, particularly the smaller recitation classes, are held in various locations throughout the campus. All undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon are required to take several H&SS classes (at least two, but usually more) as part of their program's General Education requirements. The founding Dean of H&SS was Erwin Steinberg and the current Dean is statistician John Lehoczky.

Departments

H&SS manages the following eight departments and three interdisciplinary programs:

Department of English
Department of History
Department of Modern Languages
Department of Philosophy
Department of Psychology
Department of Social and Decision Sciences
Department of Economics (jointly with the Tepper School of Business)
Department of Statistics
Information Systems Program
Global and International Relations Program
Humanities Scholars Program

Areas of study

Undergraduates can earn a B.A. or B.S. in the following fields of study. Additional majors and minors are available in most fields as well. Graduate programs at the master and doctorate levels are also available through the college.

Anthropology and History
Chinese Studies
Cognitive Science
Creative Writing
Decision Science
Economics
Economics and Statistics
English
Environmental policy (additional major only)
Ethics, History, and Public Policy
European Studies
French and Francophone Studies
German
Global Politics
Hispanic Studies

History and Policy
Information Systems (primary major only)
Japanese
Linguistics
Logic and Computation
Philosophy
Policy and Management
Professional Writing
Psychology
Psychology and Biological Sciences
Russian Studies
Social and Cultural History
Statistics
Technical Writing and Communication

In addition, undergraduate students can define their own major through consultation with their academic advisor.

Jointly administered undergraduate degree programs

H&SS jointly administers the Bachelor of Humanities and Arts (BHA) and Science and Humanities Scholars (SHS) degree programs with the College of Fine Arts and the Mellon College of Science, respectively.

Pre-professional advising

The office of Carnegie Mellon's Pre-Law Advising Program is located in the H&SS Academic Advisory Center in Baker Hall. Because it is a university program, all interested undergraduate students of the university are welcome to make use of the services offered by the program. Similarly, all interested students of the university, not just science students, can meet with the advisor for the Health Professions Program, located in Doherty Hall.

Research

H&SS has particular strengths in the interdisciplinary fields of decision science, logic, rational choice, technical writing, history and policy, and cognitive neuroscience and manages the following research centers: