Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
The Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences is the liberal and professional studies college and the second largest academic unit by enrollment at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The college emphasizes study through rigorous analysis and technology the behaviors, institutions, and beliefs that constitute the human experience, describing itself as “not an ordinary liberal arts school.” The college was named for Marianna Brown Dietrich, the mother of philanthropist William S. Dietrich II after his donation of $265 million to the university in 2011 – the largest single donation in Carnegie Mellon history. The Dietrich College offers more than 60 majors and minors through its academic departments and specialized degree programs. It is committed to a balance among humanistic, scientific, and professional orientations, and to an emphasis on integrating research experience into undergraduate education. The Dietrich College General Education Program combines required courses that teach key analytical skills with a wide range of elective courses to develop foundational skills essential to effective learning throughout the college career and beyond.
About the Dietrich College
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences 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 1915 and led by Walter Van Dyke Bingham and Walter Dill Scott as the first research-oriented department within Carnegie Mellon. The administrative offices of the Dietrich College are located in Baker Hall. Most of the classes offered by the Dietrich College 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 Dietrich classes as part of their program's General Education requirements. Dietrich College's general education program has been called "the most creative general education program of any American university" by The New York Times. The founding Dean of the Dietrich College was Erwin Steinberg. Past deans include John Patrick Crecine, Stephen Fienberg, Joel A. Tarr, Peter Stearns, and John P. Lehoczky. The current Dean is Professor of Philosophy Richard Scheines, who began his term on July 1, 2014. In December, 2014, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Dietrich College a $2 million grant to develop training in digital humanities for PhD students in the departments of English, History, Philosophy, and Modern Languages. On September 7, 2011, William S. Dietrich II, the former chairman of Dietrich Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Worthington Industries, Inc., pledged a gift of $265 million. In response to this gift, Carnegie Mellon renamed the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to the Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences after William Dietrich's mother.
Departments and programs
The Dietrich College manages seven departments, one institute, one center, and four interdisciplinary programs. * * * * *
s can earn a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science 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. In addition, undergraduate students can define their own major through consultation with their academic advisor.
The office of Carnegie Mellon's Pre-law Advising Program is located in the Dietrich College 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.
Rankings
Several of the Dietrich College's graduate programs have been ranked in national and international surveys. The 2019 U.S. News & World Report graduate schools national rankings ranked the graduate program in Economics 20th, English 51st, History 44th, Statistics 8th, and Psychology 17th. The graduate program in cognitive psychology is especially highly ranked at 5th in the country. The Times Higher Education Supplement ranking of world universities, the Dietrich College ranked 30th in North America and 51st in the world in the social sciences category. The Dietrich College is also ranked 20th in the social sciences among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities. A 2014 ranking of the top earning average starting salaries by graduates in colleges of humanities and social sciences ranked the Dietrich College first with an average salary of $60,723.
