ASk HN: Best schools for Human-Computer Interaction degrees?

I looked into this a while back, and here's what I still remember. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

* CMU has a good range of research, along with good aid.

* MIT (CSAIL or Media Lab) is good for novel interfaces.

* University of Washington also has a fairly well known program.

Those 3 are the top programs, from what I remember. Here's a list of the rest of the schools that have something relevant: Georgia Tech (UbiComp), University of Michigan (school of information), UCI (UbiComp at school of information), Univeristy of Toronto (graphics and HCI), Stanfard (HCI and tangible computing), Northwestern (InfoLab), Iowa State University, University of Waterloo, and Texas A&M.

This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope it's a good starting point for you. It also depends on what areas of HCI you're interested in. Hope this helps!

From what I've heard from some people working in industry, a lot of human factors (the superset of HCI) jobs, like to see graduate level degrees. It's largely an artifact of most HF programs actually just being a specialization tacked onto something else (like systems engineering). I can't actually vouch for how accurate this information is though. (Currently at UofWaterloo System Design Eng, may be on track for a HF specialization...).

Though if you want to learn stuff for yourself, then it's a whole different ballgame (and don't get suckered into the programs which offer it as a specialization. just wasting time then).

MIT is undergoing a dramatic change in their AI philosophy. They are dissatisfied with the state of AI today and the slow (near-zero) progress on fundamental problems of AI over the last 3 decades. They are about at the point of throwing everything out and starting over. So right now, CMU might be better if you want to see the state of the art in HCI, whereas MIT might be better if you want to get in on the ground floor of a potential revolution in HCI.

any recommendations on the best way to become self taught? (books, tutorials, ect?)