Information for Incoming Students

Master of Science in Learning Engineering: Incoming Students

Welcome to the MSLE program! We are excited that you have decided to become a member of our program – it is a special collection of staff, faculty and students. If you have any questions that are not answered below, please email MSLE-help@cmu.edu.

Completing Your Enrollment

Submit official documentation to us no later than April 15ᵗʰ

  • Enrollment Form: All accepted applicants must first fill out this form to state their decision.
  • Prerequisite Evaluation Form: This form becomes available only after you officially accept your offer, and is used to evaluate if you are required to take an online statistics prerequisite course during the summer before matriculating to the MSLE program. Please note that your official Student ID will not be generated until this form has been successfully submitted.
  • Official Test Scores (if you have not already done this)
    • Order your official GRE scores (if included in your application) via your ETS account. Use GRE Institution code, 2074; Department code, 0402.
    • English Proficiency (required for non-native English speakers):
      • Order your TOEFL scores (if required) via your ETS account. Use TOEFL institution code 4256 and department code 78.
      • Deliver your IELTS scores to “Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science” at the address “School of Computer Science, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States”
      • Submit your Duolingo scores to “Carnegie Mellon University — Graduate Computer Science Programs”
  • Send your official transcripts to Carnegie Mellon by one of the following methods:
    • Email directly by the university (not you) to MSLE-help@cmu.edu
    • Order transcripts via WES (wes.org)
    • Have your degree granting colleges and universities mail official transcripts directly to:

HCII – MSLE
Carnegie Mellon University
3rd floor, Newell-Simon Hall
4804 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

Important Dates

Action Items

  • Health Form and Immunization Information: All new Fall 2026 incoming students must complete the health form and submit immunization information by August 11, 2026, via the HealthConnect portal. If you have questions, please contact University Health Services (412-268-2157, shinsure@andrew.cmu.edu).
  • International Student: If you are not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you will need to request an I-20 form to support your F-1 student visa application. If you already hold a valid I-20, you can transfer it from your current sponsor to CMU. Please note that it can take up to six weeks for the Office of International Education (OIE) to issue your I-20 after you have submitted your completed “New Student Initial Document Request E-Form” and the required supporting documents via the MyOIE portal.

International Students

  • International students must request an I-20 via MyOIE for their F-1 student visa application. If you are bringing legal dependents (spouse and/or children) with you, you must provide additional financial proof to support the dependents. Note that all students applying for the F-1 visa are required to pay a SEVIS fee in addition to any other required filing fees. 
  • If you are currently in the U.S. on an F-1 visa: You must request a SEVIS record transfer through your current institution’s Designated School Official (DSO) / Foreign Student Advisor rather than applying for an initial I-20. Once your current school releases your SEVIS record, OIE will issue your new CMU-sponsored transfer I-20. For detailed guidance on visa regulations and maintaining your status, please visit the Office of International Education website.
  • International students will also receive information with their I-20 form regarding the International Student Orientation program sponsored by OIE. This program is mandatory. If you have a situation that does not allow you to attend, you will be required to attend an orientation session before the end of the first week of your first Fall semester in order for your enrollment to be complete, and to maintain your valid visa status.
  • Visa Denials: During the past year some international students’ initial visa requests were denied. However, when re-submitted, most were eventually approved and were able to arrive on time if the visa request was submitted early enough. The web link from the Department of State gives a good overview of the visa application process for international students.

Classes

  • Classes at Carnegie Mellon begin on August 24, 2026, with the exception of some Computer Science (CS) Department and Machine Learning (ML) courses. Some statistics classes start the week of August 24, but most CS and ML classes do not begin until mid-September, due to the Immigration Course.
  • For the first Fall semester, full-time students should be registered  for the following three core courses plus two other distributional or general elective courses:
    • 05-823 E-Learning Design Principles and Methods
    • 05-738 Evidence-Based Educational Design
    • 05-660 Interaction Design Fundamentals
  • Info on how to register for courses: https://www.cmu.edu/hub/registrar/registration/steps/index.html
  • Complete schedule of courses: https://enr-apps.as.cmu.edu/open/SOC/SOCServlet
  • Course registration: www.cmu.edu/sio
    Note: You must be registered for at least 36 units per semester for the university to consider you as a full-time student. Most courses are 12 units. Most mini-courses are 6 units and are available in either the first or second half of a semester. You can combine two mini-courses to meet a full course requirement.

CMU Graduate Student Orientation

  • University-Wide New Graduate Student Orientation: This is for all new incoming graduate students at Carnegie Mellon on the Pittsburgh campus and will be held on August 11–13, 2026.
  • MSLE Orientation: This is for the new incoming MSLE students and will be held on August 19-21, 2026, on the CMU Pittsburgh campus. Full schedule of events will be emailed to all incoming students in the summer.
  • Mandatory International Student Orientation and SEVIS Registration: OIE offers several identical orientation sessions from which to choose. Seating is limited and registration is required via Tartan Connect using your Andrew ID. These sessions will be held on August 3, 10, 13 and 14.  

Computer Accounts

  • Student Andrew Account: This is automatically assigned within five business days after you submit your Enrollment Form and Prerequisite Evaluation Form. Your Andrew account is required to view your student account, register for courses, sign up for health insurance and access other university networks.
  • New students should expect to receive an email from it-help@cmu.edu with the subject line “Receive your Andrew userID”.  The email will contain a link for retrieving the Andrew UserID and instructions for continuing the First Pass process to set your initial password.
  • For problems with your Andrew Account: https://www.cmu.edu/computing/

Student ID Card

Health Insurance

Finding jobs on or around campus

Housing

  • Carnegie Mellon currently does not provide on-campus housing for graduate students; they typically live off-campus in nearby neighborhoods. Oakland, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill are the closest neighborhoods to Carnegie Mellon University. Visit the Off-Campus Housing Resources page to explore options in the Pittsburgh community and find valuable information about off-campus living. Public transportation and the university’s shuttle system and evening escort shuttle service make these communities easily accessible to campus.
  • If you will be looking for an apartment before you arrive, the best times are either early May or mid-July. Most leases are for one year, ending in May or August. You can sign a lease any time if the space is available, but people don’t always let the landlords know whether they will be renewing until 30–60 days before the end of the lease. There is usually a little overlap in August (old leases not over until the end of August, but you need a place by mid-August); it is often possible to “bunk in” with students in our last cohort for a few days until your place becomes available.

Tuition

Loans

  • Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible for federal and state financial aid programs. Visit the Student Financial Services website for detailed application steps.
  • Carnegie Mellon will begin processing graduate student awards in mid- to late July.

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