We generally advise international students to arrive in late July in order to find housing, familiarize themselves with public transportation and the surrounding area, and to be in Pittsburgh for the OIE's orientation and immigration check-ins.
U.S. students should arrive no later than the first day of LTI Orientation (usually the week before the semester begins).
You may list Brianna Eriksen as your visa contact.
For questions regarding immigration, visas, the ISI form, required financial documents, please contact the Office of International Education directly-- either by e-mail, phone (412-268-5231), or see their FAQ page.
The OIE will not respond to requests for updates on the status of a student's I-20. These documents can take up to eight weeks to get to you after the OIE receives all your required materials. We recommend that you send your documents via insured mail so you know when your documents have been signed for and have a better idea of the timeframe you are facing.
If there is an issue with any of your materials, either your program coordinator or the OIE will contact you directly. If you do not hear from them, please assume that everything is progressing the way it should.
You will recieve your Andrew ID three to five business days after your student record is created (i.e., after you have accepted our offer of admission).
Yes, but space is extremely limited. Typically, graduate students secure their own apartments off-campus. You can check the Housing Web site for more information.
MIIS students may register for courses as soon as they receive their Andrew IDs and set up their Andrew accounts. It is also OK to wait until orientation if you are not sure how to register, or which courses you should take.
Please be patient. Most waitlists are cleared before the add/drop period every semester. Many courses are extremely popular (e.g., 10-601 Machine Learning) and you may not be able to take the course that semester. We recommend having a backup course planned just in case.
MIIS: Advanced Study track (or MIIS-21) offers indepth degree in one of the following areas of concentration:
- Human Language for Language Technologies
- Language Technology Application
- Machine Learning for Language Technologies
Unlike standard track (MIIS-16) that requires at least 150 units to complete the degree, MIIS-21 has the following requirements:
- At least 174 units must be taken over the period of four semesters.
- A minimum of three LTI courses must be taken from one of the area of concentration.
- Qualifying course requirements: 96 units.
- Practice requirements, such as Capstone Project, Directed Study and Summer Internship, remain the same as MIIS-16.
- Bredth requirements remain the same as MIIS-16.
All admitted students must choose their track upon accepting the offer to join the MIIS program.The program coordinator will contact each student individually. That will allow us to issue proper I-20 form for the immigration processes.The tracks can be switched after the beginning of the first semester.It is highly recommended that the students stick to their initial decision.Changing tracks more than once may have a negative impact on international student's visa status.US citizens, virtually, have no restrictions on track changes as long as it is done for a ligitimate reason.To confirm legitimacy of the reason to switch tracks all students must seek their advisor's approval.
Yes. There is a large winter break between the fall and spring semesters. This begins in early December and ends in January. For exact dates, please see the current Academic Calendar.
SCS policy dictates that a student must spend at least their first semester in the degree program into which they were admitted. Every program has different rules regarding transfer students; but you should expect to participate in an admisson process for any program you wish to transfer to.
Step-by-step instructions about how to create a student webpage on the SCS web servers can be found here. Any questions should be directed to the SCS Help Desk.
Yes. The LTI moderates a student distribution list for official announcements: lti-students@cs.cmu.edu. All current LTI students are automatically subscribed to this list. If you are posting to the D-list, please be considerate and do not spam.
Yes. You will need to complete the LTI Student Departure Form, notify your graduate program coordinator of your departure, and return any keys to Joan Axelson (GHC 5701).
You will find a list of items you need to complete at the bottom of the departure form.
There are two common printers at LTI located in GHC 5404 and in GHC 6604
For more information on how to link your computer to a printer and for more printer locations, please visit the SCS Computing page.
Contact the SCS Help Desk at 412-268-4231.
It is strongly recommended to forward your personal mail to your apartment. Otherwise, you can lease a mailbox at the University Center.
- Will I have my own office?
MIIS students have access to GHC 6404 and 6708 as a shared study space. You are not permitted to "claim" a desk. Please do not leave your things behind; take them with you. Keys will be distributed during the MIIS Directed study orientation. - Can I switch MIIS tracks? Is there a limit on how many times I can switch?
MIIS students are allowed to switch tracks after beginning their first semester at CMU. Ideally, all switch requests must be filed within the first semester of the program. It is highly recommended to not switch tracks more than once! Though not forbidden, multiple track switching may negatively impact immigration records of International students. Students also have to understand that extenton of their stay in the program will lead to additional financial obligations. U.S. citizens, virtually, have no restrictions on how many times they can switch as long as it is done for a ligitimate reason. To confirm legitimacy of the reason to switch tracks ALL students must seek their advisor's approval. - How many units should I register for per semester?
For MIIS students, units load varies individually and by semester. Typical number of units by semester are as follows:
MIIS Program structure MIIS-16 vs. MIIS-21
Legend: - MIIS-16
MIIS-21 1st year 2nd year Total number of units Fall Spring Summer Fall Spring Courses 36 units
36 units
36 units
24 units
Internship 12 units
12 units
N/A 36 units
150 units
174 units
Directed Study 12 units
12 units
12 units
12 units
- - N/A - Capstone Project - - 6 units
6 units
36 units
36 units
N/A - Total: 48 units
48 units
54 units
42 units
48 units
48 units
36 units
150 units
174 units
- Will I be automatically enrolled in required courses?
No. You are responsible for registering for all your courses every semester. - When am I expected to choose between the MIIS-16 and MIIS-21 options?
Accepted students are expected to choose between MIIS-16 and MIIS-21 as soon as they accept the offer from the program.