Is It Easy to Get Into U Mich Hci

How did I Got HCDE/Umich/HCI Program Offer

          Index
            A. Application Result
            B. Background Information
            C. Application Process
            D. Test for Public Funding in Taiwan
            E. SOP/CV/Portfolio

After having received so much help from those who have walked this road before me, especially with regards to the 2019 publicly funded master's program, I feel that it is important for me to do something in return. Currently, there are more and more people who want to enter the UX field and the UX field itself is becoming increasingly robust. Therefore, I would like to share a little about the HCI application process. Hopefully, this will be of help to those who apply in the future.

Research Interest

HCI, Human-Computer Interaction

Admission

UW/MS in Human Centered Design & Engineering

UMich/MS MSI

Decision

UW/MS in Human Centered Design & Engineering

Education Background

MA/ Applied Linguistics / University of College London / 2016–2017 Merit

Certificate/ User Experience (UX) Design/ University Arts London 2017

Test Score

GRE

Due to the fact I did not have time to take the GRE, the schools I chose to apply to do not require the GRE. At this point I have to recommend Mason GRE.

Originally, I had prepared to take the exam, but as I did not take the exam in the end, I finally set my sights on a school which does not require the GRE. Another plus was that my master's degree from England was able to prove my language proficiency, so, in contrast with other applicants, I was able to put more time into my SOP and portfolio.

(I should also note: I also asked Admissions and they noted that this situation does not necessarily result in a higher rate of admissions. Additionally, in order to verify language ability, an Admissions Officer might contact you and request an interview via phone during the application process, so it might be wiser to simply take a language certification exam and be done with it directly.)

IELTS R8.0 L8.0 S7.5 W7.0 Overall 7.5

Academic Experience

HCII2019: ─ Awarded and Completed Publications Sep 2019

Thesis: Investigating Language Use in Taiwanese-English Bilingual Families (University College London (UK)

Recommendation Letter

1 from UCL Applied Psychology // NLP

1 from NTU Insight// PM & UX Research

1 from In-house Digital Company// Digital Marketing Manager (UX)

█ Forward

This is really going to be a little long, so please bear with me! At first having gotten home from England, I took Chung-Ching Huang's online course with my coworkers, and he became a guiding light for me.

After UX became gradually more and more popular, on the Internet and in the (interview room??) more and more courses with keywords such as #UI/UX #Design #UX Researcher, and etc. started to appear.

The field is immense and varied and full of numerous voices and opinions. Luckily, I choose to auditChung-Ching's college-level course. At the time, the course was designed to introduce students to make a submission to CHI2019.

The course content was extremely rich. Even better, you could really do things yourself, have constructive discussions with teammates, and finally finish the project together — it was exactly like doing a capstone course overseas.

I think it wouldn't be too much to say this course was a 3-birds-1-stone situation: there was hands-on experience, it looks great on one's resume, and it provided a greater understanding of user-oriented UX design. Currently, he has already moved on to teaching at National Cheng Kung University, so for those interested I suggest they can search for her courses. And it was also due to this course that I was able to get into the UX industry via a research background.

█ Motivation

I've felt a lot of motivation to get into this field because I've had the chance to get to know so many of the top talents in this field the last few years. A lot of companies are also starting to have positions available for UX researchers. Since it was a good fit for my original field, I decided it was very much worth researching.

█ Publicly Funded Study

【Ergonomics and Design】

Necessary Reading: Ergonomics: Human Factors Engineering

〖Human Factors Engineering (6th Edition) Tsang Hai Publishing〗

This book is basically a great reference volume. I cut out every unit and then I found all the available test questions for the publicly funded study exam and National Chung Gong University's Institute of Applied Arts. I did all of them twice. Doing all this together ended up being a huge help.

【Industrial Design Theory】

Compared with ergonomics which has a specific book available to consult, industrial design theory is a much harder nut to crack. So I decided to use guerrilla tactics, combing through all associated materials and books to fill out my basic understanding of the concepts. The following reading list was created by consulting the thoughts and experience of students who admitted in the last few years.

Design Of The Times: Using Key Movements And Styles For Contemporary Design

Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated

Universal Methods of Design

Interaction Design-beyond human-computer interaction

【Thoughts on the Interview】

At first since I wasn't from this department, I felt an extreme lack of confidence in myself. That's when Xiaoou showed up and were really there for me as I prepared for the interview. Whenever I got questions I really couldn't answer, I just coolly told the interviewers honestly that I wasn't that familiar with that topic, but that I was very willing to start learning about it from the angle of ____.

Regarding Basic Information and the Research Plan, apart from the importance of research itself, please don't forget it's quite important to recommend yourself during this process. Tell them why you are someone who could do good things for this field, what the importance of your contribution might be for Taiwan, etc. If you can get a handle on this point, you'll do fine! The interviewers are all very nice people, but after getting past the first hurdle, your time for preparation before the interview is really quite short.

So as soon as you get the notification that you're going to be able to take part in the interview, get working right away!

█ SOP

A few years ago I had the same question as many people which was that

How exactly should I apply to UW HCDE

If I'm not from that department, can I apply?

I previously happened to have the happy chance of going to UW's conference and heard their admin staff talk about how to write an SOP and they pointed out there were 3 main points to focus on:

Design Background

Research Background

Engineer Background

So as you're writing your SOP, you really have to focus on these 3 points. I happen to be someone who really enjoys research, and I've also worked on submissions before with many friends, so I went into my SOP with a focus on my research background. So as you're writing your SOP, think of this as your chance to promote what makes you special and find out what you want to be doing in the future.

█ In Conclusion

I've always been a bit of a moody person, so thanks to all of my friends who have helped me through this process. I am quite happy to be able to pass down this reading list, I hope everyone can continue to pursue their academic passion without having to worry about pecuniary difficulties!

Even though the pandemic has created a less than optimistic situation, there are a lot of fellow travelers on Facebook or Medium who are more than willing to help out everyone. My experience is not nearly as extensive as some others from UX Pacer, but I hope that I will be able to help others who want to shine in HCI. I hope that everyone's applications go well!

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Source: https://cindykjuang.medium.com/how-did-i-apply-for-hcde-umich-hci-program-2aa3ff8e2a83