Application guide · updated 11 October 2026
The materials are similar. The filters are not.
Six forms, one portfolio, and a calendar that piles up in January. This page is the cross-program view. Program pages hold the essay strategy for each prompt.
Deadlines
| Program | When | GRE |
|---|---|---|
| Carnegie Mellon MHCI | 15 January 2027, 3:00 p.m. Eastern, for the 2027–28 cohort. Decisions by 15 March. No early deadline. | Optional. Not required. |
| Georgia Tech MS-HCI | 1 February, 11:50 p.m. Eastern, for fall entry. The admissions process page states this deadline and says review starts after it. Confirm the calendar year on the live portal. | Not required and not considered. |
| UC Berkeley MIMS | 6 January 2027 for an August 2027 start (admissions page). | Not required. Holistic review. Do not send a score unless the live form asks. |
| UW MHCI+D | 18 January 2027. Applications open 1 October. Confirm both on mhcid.washington.edu/apply. | Not part of the published requirements reviewed for this site. |
| UMich MSI | Confirm on si.umich.edu for your cycle. An April 2026 school news post told fall 2026 applicants to apply by 15 May. Do not reuse that date blindly for the next fall. No GRE. | Not required. |
| UT Austin MSIS | 5 January, 11:59 p.m. Central. All three recommendations, transcripts, statement, resume, and English scores if required must be in. Decisions typically March or April. Fall only. | Optional. |
Michigan’s date moves by cycle. Do not reuse a May date from a news post without checking the live form. Georgia Tech’s February 1 date is stated on the process page; confirm the year in the portal.
What every file should contain
Resume
One page if you can. Projects with your role, the users, and the decision. A tool list is not a resume.
Recommendations
Three is the safe number (required at CMU and UT). Ask people who saw you collaborate. Give them the pathway you are claiming.
Transcripts
English translations where the school asks. A 3.0 is the stated floor at Georgia Tech and Michigan. It is not the competitive center.
English scores
Georgia Tech prints a TOEFL floor of 100 and notes recent admits nearer 110. Berkeley’s admitted average is 111. Check every other cutoff on the live form.
Portfolio
Required for UW, and for Georgia Tech’s design and media tracks. Optional at CMU, still useful. Bring one for Michigan UX and for UT if you want an HCI or UX read.
Video
Required at CMU (one minute, on camera) and UW (one minute). Georgia Tech asks for a video too. Do not read the essay. Show one decision.
Where the forms diverge
Carnegie Mellon MHCI500 words
Statement of Purpose. The published prompt asks what impact you want in HCI, what responsibility practitioners have, which people you want to serve, and why MHCI is the next step. Answer that. Do not recap the resume.
Full essay notesGeorgia Tech MS-HCIAbout 1,000 words. Confirm on the form
Statement of Purpose. Give one full paragraph to how you work with other people. The program asks for community because the degree is joint and studio-heavy. A solo-genius essay is a miss.
Full essay notesUC Berkeley MIMS500–1,000 words each. Confirm on the form
Statement of Purpose + Personal History. The strategic question to answer: how you will advance the future of technology and design engineering. Berkeley wants a point of view about systems, not a tour of your Dribbble.
Full essay notesUW MHCI+D500–800 words
Statement of Intent. Lead with a human problem you worked through prototypes, not with a tool list. The program’s center is human-centered making in physical and digital form.
Full essay notesUMich MSIAbout 1–2 pages and about 500 words. Confirm
Statement of Purpose + Personal Statement. Split the narrative. The SOP carries the professional goal: design engineering, UXR, or PM, and the pathway that matches. The personal statement carries how you got here. Overlap reads as padding.
Full essay notesUT Austin MSISAbout 1–2 pages. Confirm
Statement of Purpose. Write about information environments and interactive systems, not a generic design-school dream. The degree lives in an iSchool. Show you understand that.
Full essay notesPortfolio, without the folklore
Two or three projects. Each one needs a person who is not you, a constraint that was not “make it pretty,” and something you changed after evidence. Visual polish without that loop fails UW and the Georgia Tech design tracks. It also fails CMU’s video, which is a thinking test wearing a time limit.
Michigan and Berkeley will read product judgment and research even when the pixels are plain. UT will believe whatever concentration your projects support. A human-centered AI claim with only marketing mockups is a mismatch, not a vibe.
Password-protect only if you must, and put the password in the form where they ask. A locked deck that reviewers cannot open is a rejection you wrote yourself.
January is one month
UT on the 5th, Berkeley on the 6th, CMU on the 15th, UW on the 18th, Georgia Tech on 1 February. Recommenders do not experience these as separate deadlines. Ask in November.
Do not send six identical essays
The facts of your life can repeat. The bet cannot. CMU wants impact and responsibility in 500 words. Berkeley wants a systems future. UW wants a prototype loop. If the paragraphs swap cleanly, none of them is finished.