Carnegie Mellon University

The IS-MSE Accelerated Master's Program (AMP) is a 5th year master's program for undergraduate Information Systems majors in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon. The AMP gives you a head start in earning a master’s degree while still enrolled as an undergraduate student. As a student in the AMP, you will receive your master’s degree three semesters after receiving your bachelor’s degree. Compare that to a traditional plan where a bachelor's degree takes four years, plus one and half to two years to earn a master’s degree. With the IS-MSE-AMP, you save both time and money, launching your career, ahead, above, and beyond.

Choose to Focus in One of Two Areas

MSE – Scalable Systems

Median Base Salary: $129,000
Employed by: Amazon, ANSYS, Apple, Bloomberg, Cisco, Coursera, Doordash, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Google, Intuit, Microsoft, Nike, NIVIDIA, Qualcomm, Reddit, SAP

MSE – Embedded Systems

Median Yearly Salary: $129,00
Employed by: Amazon, Aptiv, Carnegie Robotics, Clover Network, Fortinet, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, ScaleFlux, Tesla, Xilinx

Sample Plan of Study

SENIOR YEAR — Fall

95-422 Managing Digital Transformation (9 units)
Concentration Research (12 units)
Gen Ed (9 units)
17-611 Statistics for Decision Making (6 units)
17-626 Requirements for Info Systems (6 units)
17-623 Quality Assurance (6 units)

Total: 45-48 units

SENIOR YEAR — Spring

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Requirement (9-12 units)
17-636 Applied Distributed Systems (6 units)
17-635 Software Architectures (6 units)
17-646 DevOps and Continuous Integration (6 units)
17-643 Quality Management (6 units)
17-647 Data Intensive and Scalable Systems (6 units)

Total: 45-48 units

Summer Following Senior Year

17-667 Internship for Software Engineers (3 units)

5th YEAR — Fall

17-603 Communications for Software Leaders (3 units)
17-614 Formal Methods (6 units)
17-622 Agile Methods (6 units)
17-675 Software Engineering Practicum (36 units)

Total: 51 units

5th YEAR — Spring

17-604 Communications for Software Leaders (3 units)
17-612 Business & Marketing Strategy (6 units)
17-636 DevOps: Engineering for Secure Development and Deployment (12 units)
SE Free Elective (12 units)
SE Free Elective (12 units)

Total: 45 units

 

Your schedule may vary. Please consult with your academic advisors to ensure you are enrolled in the appropriate courses. Seniors will have two advisors — one for the undergraduate portion of the program and one for the MSE.

How to Apply

The following materials are required with your online application:

  1. Statement of Purpose: Your statement should include specific details about your professional goals and about your software engineering experience on teams and projects. The Statement of Purpose guidelines can be found here.
  2. Resume/CV
  3. Letters of Recommendation: At least two letters of recommendation should be submitted on your behalf from academic and/or industry personnel who have worked closely with you recently. Letters are typically written by faculty and supervisors. It is encouraged that you contact your recommenders as soon as possible in order to allow them enough time to compose your letter. The deadline for recommenders to submit your letter is approximately one week after the application deadline.
  4. Unofficial Transcripts: You are required to upload electronic transcripts from each college/university that you attended in which you completed coursework. Do not send official transcripts at this time.
  5. IS-MSE-AMP Advising Agreement: Applicants must complete this document and upload it in the application portal.
  6. Interview: Applicants are required to interview with the MSE Program Manager. Applicants are responsible to contact her prior to mid-February to set up a time to meet.
  7. Online Coding Assessment: Invitations will be sent out two days after the application deadline. Applicants have approximately one week to complete the assessment. Previously, there have been anywhere from 3-4 coding tests of varying levels of difficulty that candidates must complete. There is a time limit, but it is rare for an applicant to run out of time. Additionally, applicants may have the opportunity to complete a practice test. Tests may be submitted in any coding language. Instructions on how to access and complete the assessment will be included in the invitation.

IS-MSE-AMP Admissions Timeline

Application Opens

September 6, 2023

Application Deadline

December 13, 2023 at 3:00 pm ET

Coding Assessment Invitations Sent *

December 15, 2023

Letter of Recommendation Deadline

December 20, 2023

Coding Assessment Deadline

December 21, 2023

IS-MSE Interview (applicant is responsible for scheduling)

January-February 2024

Admissions Decisions Released

March 2024

* Invitations are sent to the email listed on your application. If you submitted an application but do not receive a coding invitation on December 15th, please contact mse-applications@andrew.cmu.edu as soon as possible. The deadline to submit a coding test is December 21st.
Carnegie Mellon considers applicants for the MSE programs without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of, gender, race, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and any additional legally protected status.