A couple questions about the waitlist

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Hello, I have a couple questions about the waitlist.

  1. What is the benefit of the priority waitlist? I know that you receive your decision earlier, therefore more spots are open, but is that as far as it goes?
  2. Are there any ballpark numbers on how many people are offered priority waitlist?
  3. Are there any ballpark numbers on how many people admitted off the waitlist are from the priority waitlist?
  4. Are there any ballpark numbers on how many people are admitted from each school off the waitlist?
  5. What can I do to further demonstrate interest in CMU? Is there any statement/essay I'm allowed to send?
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Anyone?

3
  1. Apparently they take students from the PWL before the regular wait list. It seems there is little chance to get off the regular wait list. Does it need to go any further than that? It's not simply a matter of hearing earlier; regular wait listed applicants are not likely to hear at all, relatively speaking.
  2. Not publicly released.
  3. Ballpark in the past is that almost all off the wait list came from PWL. There are no hard stats publicly released though.
  4. This year, zero, it's too early. Past years are not indicative of anything. There are wild swings in wait list usage from year to year.
  5. Why should demonstrated interest matter to them now? They are under no obligation to release yield figures for the wait list; it has no impact on their admission stats. If they need 50 students, no one will ever know if they had to make 50 or 250 phone calls to get them. In the end, by definition, those 50 students really want to be there (or they wouldn't have canceled their enrollment elsewhere to attend CMU). Apparently though, they find some utility in making students jump through hoops with having to reassert their interest to be on the PWL. So obviously you need to jump through those hoops if on the PWL. If not on the PWL, I think your chances are really low and it therefore costs you nothing to contact them with whatever you think might help your case. They apparently like the attention.
4

@YZamyatin Thanks for the info, truly.

So pertaining to #3, if almost all of the waitlist comes from PWL, and only about 70 or so students are admitted, does that mean in some years less than 70 students are offered PWL?

I’m on the PWL, but the most reaffirmation I did was just clicking save on my waitlist decision for a second time. Is that it?

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3 means that if you don't get admitted this week you'll be placed on the top of the wait list.

The admissions office has been indicating that all pwl applicants will be required to submit a brief prompt prior to 5/6. At this time they’ve not requested it.

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Any idea how they admit people ? Say they have 150 seats. would they give offer to 300 people (assuming 50% turn down ). if more than 150 people turn down their offer, then they would pull off PWL ???

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@california32146 Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.

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@FLFather Could one assume then that they changed their minds and there is no prompt? Because if the decision comes out Wednesday how can someone write it in 2 days with them reviewing all of it in enough time?

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Also, does anyone if when they rank the PWL, the students are ranked individually or by school? As in, there’s a ranking for SCS, then Tepper, then Dietrich, etc. and they admit students based off that? Or is it just a master list of students which they rank?

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@topimpabutterfly definitely by school

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Wait, if the waitlist is ranked, why would we need to write a new essay?

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@alpha989.

Exactly! The whole exercise of even having a PWL is a little ridiculous. There is no need to fish out the applicants with the most demonstrated interest at this point in the process. No one is gonna cancel enrollment elsewhere to sign up at CMU if they aren’t truly dedicated to showing up next Fall.

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there was an email a few days ago to reconfirm interest in the PWL

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In my opinion, it’s extremely unlikely any additional writing will be asked, and if they do, it probably won’t be more than 150-200 words. Realistically, there’s almost no way they can make significant changes across the wait lists in two days.

Fingers crossed.

15

The prompt request will be delivered tomorrow.

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@FLFather Where did you get this information? And by prompt request, do you mean CMU will send waitlisted students a prompt?

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Well that’s a secret

18

I called CMUs undergrad admissions office late this PM.

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@FLFather They seriously expect students to submit a prompt within a day? How are they even going to review it in time? Or is the prompt for regular waitlist students? Because the PWL decision comes out Wednesday

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The email said they would receive instructions by this morning for PWL. I just called. They now say it will be this afternoon. I asked what they would need to do. She would not say (really?). She said you have to read the email when it arrives, but they will have to do something. Ok, then. Glad he only has school activities until 6 pm and then loads of homework.