When a Carnegie Mellon University student wishes to transfer from their college to a CIT department, they begin the process by meeting with their current department/college advisor to discuss career, major and transfer options. Often, they will also meet with their career counselor in the Career Center for more information about career and major choices.

The student then meets with the CIT Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies to discuss their intentions and to learn about the transfer process. Next the student completes a Transfer Request Form and submits it along with pertinent grades information to the CIT Dean's Office. Applications for first-year students are accepted after mid-term of the spring semester. (See Guidelines for Transfer Students for specific information.) Applications for upper-class students are accepted on a rolling basis.

The Assistant Dean reviews the application and forwards the request to the CIT department in question to review the applicant's records. (In the case of a first-year student, in which a major has not yet been selected, only the Assistant Dean reviews the application. After the department and the Assistant Dean confer, the student is contacted by the CIT Dean's Office with one of three decisions:

1. Acceptance into the department
2. Recommendation to reapply later
3. Transfer rejection

In the first case, the student's record would be updated to reflect her new major and she would be contacted by the new department about advisement and course registration procedures.

In the second case, the student would be notified that she is not accepted for the period requested but may be considered after a determined period of time (typically one semester). In this time period the student is advised on possible engineering courses she could take to better assess whether or not transfer to the target department is a good fit. After that period of time, the student's application is reassessed.

In the third case, the student is notified that she cannot be transferred into the department. These rare situations usually occur in light of poor grades or when the department has reached its capacity for that particular class of students.