Is Carnegie Mellon or Tufts better for interdisciplinary study?

The central tradeoff is structure versus flexibility: Carnegie Mellon has unusually strong, purpose-built intersections of computing, design, psychology, and policy, but crossing its separate schools can involve more planning; Tufts more readily lets undergraduates sample and combine fields across a liberal-arts-oriented curriculum. At CMU, computer science, the School of Design, the Dietrich College psychology department, and Heinz College policy programs create a rich ecosystem for human-centered technology. At Tufts, students can take CS through the Department of Computer Science while pairing it with psychology, political science, civic engagement, or other Arts and Sciences work with relatively fewer school-based boundaries.

CMU is especially compelling when the intersection itself is your intended academic focus. Its Human-Computer Interaction offerings, design-and-technology culture, and BXA programs, which connect the arts with other disciplines, give students recognizable pathways and peers working across fields. The limitation is that a formal double major, dual degree, or extensive coursework in another CMU college may have prerequisites, space constraints, and approval requirements, particularly alongside the demanding CS curriculum.

Tufts is likely the easier place to construct an individually tailored combination such as CS plus psychology and public-policy-related coursework. Its Arts and Sciences setting makes it more natural to move among departments, and its engineering and liberal arts options support students who want technical study without making every second field part of a formal professional program. Tufts also offers applied public-facing opportunities through Tisch College, although it does not have the same concentrated technology-policy infrastructure as Heinz.

For your specific mix, Tufts is the better answer if your priority is broad undergraduate freedom to combine CS, psychology, design-related work, and policy. Choose Carnegie Mellon instead if you want your interdisciplinary work to be more explicitly centered on human-computer interaction, product design, or technology policy and are comfortable navigating a more structured academic environment.