Why Carnegie Mellon

Our Reputation

Carnegie Mellon is an internationally recognized research university of more than 10,000 students and more than 4,000 faculty and staff across the globe. We are consistently named as a top-ranked university and recognized for our unique interdisciplinary environment. Our distinctive mix of world-class educational and research programs includes computer science, robotics, engineering, sciences, business, public policy, fine arts and humanities.

At Carnegie Mellon, our core values - innovation, creativity, problem-solving and collaboration - provide the foundation for everything we do. Guided by these values, Carnegie Mellon students experience a distinctive education that gives them tools to solve complex problems through leadership and teamwork.

Public Policy and Management

The Heinz School is a vibrant center for the study of urban and social issues that impact society. We approach this challenge through an educational process that integrates policy, management and information technology course work, exposing each student to faculty with expertise in a wide range of subjects. Students and faculty also participate in extensive outreach programs that provide real life experiences and allow them to address immediate needs in communities throughout the world.

Unlike many graduate schools, we are not organized along academic departments. Faculty members easily collaborate in instruction and research, an operating model we believe leads to innovation in research and a superior educational experience. Our strengths span the applied disciplines of empirical methods and statistics, economics, information systems and technology, operations research and organizational behavior.

Through skilled leadership and management, Heinz School graduates address the most difficult challenges facing society. Our success is reflected in the contributions our more than 5,000 alumni have made to society, through their work in international, national, state and local public agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and private corporations.

Our History

Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Technical Schools in 1900 for the sons and daughters of Pittsburgh blue-collar workers. The institution became the degree-granting Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912 and in 1967, Carnegie Tech merged with Mellon Institute of Research to become Carnegie Mellon University. The core values that Carnegie instilled in the Carnegie Technical Schools more than 100 years ago continue to drive the university today and will play a key role in setting its agenda for the next several decades.

Societal problems burst into public view in the United States in the form of violent urban unrest in the late 1960's. Founded in 1968, the Heinz School set as its purpose an aggressive effort to understand the causes of critical social problems and to train men and women to use new knowledge and technology to bring about positive change. In the words of our first dean, William Cooper, we "prepare men and women for intelligent action". For a more detailed history ...

In Australia

In May, 2006, The Heinz School began operations at our new location in Adelaide, Australia, which serves as the school's Asia Pacific education base. Here the School offers two master's degrees - the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management and the Master of Science in Information Technology. The core values of Carnegie Mellon- innovation, creativity, problem-solving and collaboration - provide the foundation for our programs here just as they do at all Carnegie Mellon campuses. We focus on creating and implementing solutions to solve real problems in an environment that offers a small student to faculty ratio and provides and opportunity for close interaction between students and professors.

South Australia provides an affordable, dynamic, diverse environment in which to live and study. The state is home to numerous small and mid-sized businesses and to the largest concentration of the Commonwealth's defense industry. As the capital of South Australia, Adelaide provides opportunities for students to conduct internships or project courses within the state government. Both public and private sector organizations in the region are actively seeking to employ talented professionals.

The Heinz School in Australia is located in Adelaide's Victoria Square in the city's central business district. The city is home to three other large universities, numerous cultural venues, affordable restaurants, and a warm and sunny climate. The beach is 20 minutes away by public transportation and South Australia's wine country is an hour away. Students have many activities to occupy the time they are not studying!