Alrighty CMU, I have about had it with you

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Yet another 12:00 A.M. has came and went and STILL NO DECISION.</p>

<p>I am extremely, extremely angry and dissappointed over CMU's decision notification process. Why can't they just let everyone know at the same time? I know the "mail bin is full" thing makes sense if you're gonna go ONLY through snail mail, but the online decisions? Come on.</p>

<p>Take a leaf from the Ivies' book (they ARE Ivies afterall) and just let everyone know on the same day, fair and square. If you want to waitlist me or reject me, fine. Don't you realize that it's the agony of NOT knowing that's what's upsetting? Getting the ACTUAL decision will not cause us as much pain as being kept completely in the dark, holding onto a flickering spark of hope that fears being extinguished at any moment. </p>

<p>I doubt that CMU is trying to see how many will reply in a week. Afterall, I'm sure the CMU Admissions office KNOWS that their selection pool has probably applied to other schools that won't be out until April. It's senseless! And if it's not deliberate, well then it's just shoddy management and organization.</p>

<p>I'm so sick of this. If decisions would've come out just now, I would've been more pacified. Because truly now, I don't think I can ever think of CMU as somewhere that is befitting for me any longer. </p>

<p>Thanks but no thanks CMU, you can take my ~$55 application fee, but I'm banking my $50K no financial aid status elsewhere. Good NIGHT.</p>

2

<p>aww
don’t get angry
Everyone understand the agony of waiting here
it’ll be fine, just wait for the weekend, it might actually be in your mail instead of online
=D</p>

3

<p>It’s disappointing, I know what you mean. However, worrying about it will do nothing but give you headaches. I’m in the same boat and the only reason I’ve checked during these two days at midnight is because I’m usually up this late on break.</p>

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<p>@Tsukasa_Girl: Woah! Are you a mind reader? This is exactly how I feel.</p>

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<p>ah sorry! moment of anger of frustration…</p>

6

<p>Hey man, I hear you.</p>

<p>Though I won’t say I’m ANGRY, all this has made my apathetic towards CMU. Whether I get in or not really doesn’t matter to me. </p>

<p>I’m planning for UIUC right now, and happily. : )</p>

7

<p>I can definitely understand what you’re saying (I applied to CMU too, so of course I understand), but I think its a little one sided.</p>

<p>They have their admissions process clearly outlined (they mail letters starting 3/20 onwards, you hear by a date in april at the latest, and they post online 4 days after your letter is mailed because they want you to get it in the mail first).</p>

<p>The REASON that its so frustrating for you and everyone else is because of what YOU make it. Nowhere does CMU say that in order to get your decision you have to stay up until midnight every night. Nowhere do they say that they’re going to tell you exactly when its going to be online. All of this waiting up every night, expecting it to be up tonight because it wasn’t up last night, etc - all of that is a construct of US, the applicants.</p>

<p>CMU’s admission process clearly isn’t perfect. I too think they should go on the system where everyone’s decision gets posted online at the same time, or close to it, but its a system that we DID know about. It’s not like they promised us something and haven’t fulfilled that promise - we want something and created a mindset of waiting for something that they haven’t delivered, and now you want to hold them responsible for that.</p>

<p>What I think is patently ridiculous, though, is that you and a few other applicants are now saying, after a lot of work and an investment of $60 on either your or your parents part, that you “no longer even want to go to CMU” because the way they post their admissions decisions online isn’t exactly what you had imagined/wanted. Obviously its up to you to choose where you want to go to school, but I find it hard to reconcile the ideas that you’re someone who is extremely talented enough to be competitive at CMU, and yet youre deciding on not going there because of the perceived failure of their admissions department to live up to a standard constructed by impatient, waiting students.</p>

<p>Now to be fair, I was just as impatient. We are impatient because we want to hear back from schools that we’ve applied to and obviously care about getting in to because we’re interested in going there. But the point is, we knew what the admissions process was beforehand. What I see all over the CMU board right now are people who are anxious, impatient, and worried - and now they’re starting to crack. This outburst of anger towards CMU is just indicative of the fact that seniors applying to college are under way too much stress right now.</p>

<p>Really, when it comes down to it, everyone needs to take a step back, wait for all the decision letters to get out, and then start making those decisions.</p>

8

<p>i think its hard not to be frustrated. the office told me that my letter was sent on the 25th, and now it is not here, i only live in chicago. its our future and we are antsy as all hell about it. I wouldnt go making snap decisions either, but it is really hard to wait.</p>

9

<p>Well yeah, thats what I meant. I’m not saying it should be easy to wait, just that its annoying to see so many people on these forums making rash decisions/statements because of the difficulty in waiting/stress it causes.</p>

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<p>Crazyshow, Absolutely, I don’t want to go to cmu anymore, not because they have not outlined their process on their site, or for 60 dollars, but what they have described is misleading. Thanks to CC we know that their letters are not going out randomly. They have seriously biased their mail bins in favor of accepts. It is that misleading aspect coupled with unnecessary waits that is frustrating and petty. Nothing wrong with favoring accepts, but just post your damn status online for rejects or send them email and be done with it. It is okay they want to impress their accepts with big fat enevelope, but rejects are more happy with a simple email, and move on.</p>

11

<p>Believe me, I understand the stress you are going through. But trust me, as soon as you get your acceptance letter you are going to forget all about it. You are just psyching yourself up for the disappointment you think you’ll have, just in case. My son got his acceptance in the second wave-via snail mail, out to the west coast, but it still is not posted. His friend who lives nearby hasn’t heard either way. I am absolutely certain that alot has to do with how fast your mail carrier is, or is random, and probably all done alphabetically or by what schools you applied to. Not by accept/reject. After reading these forums, you can really get paranoid, but I’ll bet you get your fat letter in today’s mail!</p>

12

<p>^I bet you that I won’t get anything today (if you want to make this a real bet, so much the better). </p>

<p>Anyways, I am pretty dissapointed right now. Not with staying up late (that I don’t mind, because I’m on vacation and only have to “stay up” until 11), but with what CMU has said. First, I sent in an email update and they received it one month later (Feb. 19th), even though the automatic response said it would take only a few days. They also told people their decisions would be up yesterday, and nothing was up for many of those people. Why can’t they just release all their decisions online at the same time? </p>

<p>I’m not that upset, just annoyed and dissapointed. I really don’t care anymore what happens, and I’m unlikely to visit in the offchance I do get in. Not entirely because of the process, but I just got into Cal engineering, so I’m more than fine with a rejection.</p>

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<p>@ Crazyshow</p>

<p>“Obviously its up to you to choose where you want to go to school, but I find it hard to reconcile the ideas that you’re someone who is extremely talented enough to be competitive at CMU, and yet youre deciding on not going there because of the perceived failure of their admissions department to live up to a standard constructed by impatient, waiting students.”</p>

<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re making the assumption that I’m not “competitive” enough to get into CMU based on THIS post alone, then perhaps like me and CMU, you make wild accusations about people without considering other factors. I’m not going to play the stat game or the “i got into THIIIIIS many colleges so shaddup” game with you, but that was frankly uncalled for. </p>

<p>Admittedly, this post was more a vent of frustration and anger than anything else, but like the other posters I’ve also settled on an attitude of indifference towards CMU.</p>

<p>All in all, it’s just disrespectful for the canidates that are waiting in agony for a string of grey letters saying “accept, waitlist, deny” while their peers are already getting fat packets in the mail! </p>

<p>Perhaps it’s an ego thing, but I just don’t like being kept in the dark while others get good news. And maybe I’ll be the first to admit it, CMU has wounded my ego. Fueled by the posts of “acceptances were first…etc.etc.” CMU Adcom office has made me feel less of myself. How can I appreciate/want to go to a school like that? </p>

<p>I mean let’s be reasonable here. I can totally understand if any given school has SLIGHT fluctuations between decisions. If CMU had only done snail mail, of course someone in Pennsylvania will probably get a decision letter before me. But the online decisions are just ridiculous! How can you justify the fact that it has been a week between the first online decisions to now and some people have still not gotten ANY notification? </p>

<p>I don’t believe the frustrated posters on CC are making a “mountain out of a molehill” so to speak. I think it’s all on CMU’s serious lack of organizational skills (and perhaps compassion). The class of 2009 is supposed to be the most competetive year so far, and we really want to know where we stand. Are we doomed to go to our state schools or not? Can we make it into the top 20 colleges or not? </p>

<p>A day or two or three is a reasonable discrepancy. A WEEK is totally unacceptable.</p>

<p>Plus many of us were told that decisions would be up on Saturday FROM the very office themselves. So they actually DID tell us “These are when your decisions are coming out.”
We stayed up till 12 A.M. feeling that Kingdom CMU was finally upon us. And we were jyped! Your argument is one-sided too because you are/were not in this situation. Perhaps you’ve gone through the decision process, but the CMU Adcoms didnt LIE and tell you that decisions WOULD be out when they weren’t. </p>

<p>Perhaps I need to reconsider the situation of the CMU Admissions team, but perhaps you also have to reconsider our situations as well.</p>

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<p>I didn’t call, but I’m most impressed at them telling people their stuff would be up saturday and it not being there. That’s just terrible.</p>

15

<p>Hang in there, CMU applicants. Hopefully they realize they lose people when they announce late-- my D heard on April 7 from one school, and by then she’d lost interest as other, real options tempted her. </p>

<p>It is STILL Saturday, and just think by April 1 most of you will have ALL of your decisions in hand. A day feels like a lifetime right now, I know, but trust me, this too shall come to pass.</p>

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<p>i’m with Tsukasa_Girl!! There is no excuse for the anxiety CMU’s system has caused for hundreds of hopeful applicants. Having just been rejected from one of my top schools i would really like to know ASAP if I can consider CMU as an option or just move on lol !! This just goes to say that there system is wack and they need to make revisions : )</p>

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<p>Thanks AdvisorMom!!</p>

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<p>For those of you who don’t think this is that big of a deal, imagine the situation if CMU meant the world to you and you had to keep waiting. I personally really pity those people who have CMU as their first choice. I couldn’t imagine what it feels like checking every night to see if you got accepted, only to have to wait another full day. I am really thankful that CMU isn’t my first choice and that I am already accepted in other schools I’d rather go to, because this is just insane.</p>

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<p>I like how my JHU letter came in the mail today, and i was accepted through email less than 24 hours ago. Also, my Northwestern waitlist letter came in the mail today too, and they gave me that decision on thursday, and they’re in freaking illinois. Granted, I live in maryland, but baltimore and pittsburgh are not too much different in the distance from my house.</p>

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<p>“Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re making the assumption that I’m not “competitive” enough to get into CMU based on THIS post alone, then perhaps like me and CMU, you make wild accusations about people without considering other factors. I’m not going to play the stat game or the “i got into THIIIIIS many colleges so shaddup” game with you, but that was frankly uncalled for.”</p>

<p>Actually I said the exact opposite. I said that you were obviously competitive at CMU, so I didn’t understand why you would do all the work you obviously have and then decide not to consider going there over this.</p>

<p>Please don’t accuse me of calling you stupid because I disagreed with your admissions philosophy.</p>