<p>Looking at the CC posts, it is extremely apparent that CMU is mailing accepts in the first wave, and keeping reject pile for later communication. This is in contrast to the impression they give on their site that they are posting randomly, as soon as possible, etc. </p>
<p>Here is another strong data point. Look up my chances dot net. There are 22 profiles who show accepted in 2009 at Cmu. There are zero that show rejects. Granted that rejects are less likely to post. But zero means no one has received a reject letter from cmu. Look up Rice reject list, e.g, for 2009. There are 11 rejected profiles from Rice as of this morning. That means folks do update their reject status too. </p>
<p>In short, CMU IS just holding back on rejects.</p>
<p>As of yesterday, I am already onto plan B. This email is to give more data points to folks who are still hanging on. Goodluck.</p>
<p>Unless CMU is the only school that you applied to, Why do you worry? Every school knows that unless that school is the first choice and with the proper financial package (if any or asked for) your acceptance will not happen until the last week of April if not that last day of April. </p>
<p>Come April 25th, the waiting game will be on the School’s side.</p>
<p>Thanks, longprime. I am not worried. I do have other options. Some are better than cmu in some respects, in other respects cmu will be better. What I was hoping to do is to compare them all together, plan admit days, etc. with cmu as one of the options. Because of this petty process of cmu, i have mentally written them off (perhaps they wrote me off in Feb already but have not just gotten around telling me.). Regardless, from my point of view, even if I do get cmu, because of this “writing off” process that I went through in this agonizing delay from cmu, I am fully focused on my other options, and no longer considering/waiting on cmu. CMU remains a world class fine institution, no doubt.</p>
<p>Why would you decide not to go to a school based on some clerical issue in the admissions office? This would not affect your experience there in any way. It’s not like the professors and current students got together and decided to screw with the applicants.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that what marmata is saying is that, since it’s taken so long, they have put CMU out of their mind - which, to me, is legitimate.</p>
<p>I disagree, plenty of people post online when they are rejected. Take the UCLA and UC Berkeley forums, they had reject threads hours, even a whole day, before decisions were posted. And many people posted in these threads too after decisions came out, saying they were rejected. I won’t try to contest that maybe people who get rejected are less likely to post, but saying that NOBODY posts online if they are rejected is simply wrong. </p>
<p>In this case, the fact that zero people have posted that they were rejected is a strong case for the theory that only acceptances were sent in the first wave. Not even a single person posting a rejection is just too perfect to be a coincidence.</p>
<p>When I look at Northwestern’s similar forum, I see about 5 accepts for every 1 reject. Their admission rate is like 20 something percent. Pull up some other peer institutions and compare the threads if you’re adamant about your point.</p>
<p>Post#7 by floodrush>Nobody posts online if they got rejected.
Post#10 by floodrush>When I look at Northwestern’s similar forum, I see about 5 accepts for every 1 reject. </p>
<p>You are contradicting yourself. Not all rejects will postonline. But some will (as per your post#10). Absence of rejects for cmu (as in zero) means OP is right.</p>
<p>I don’t know what CMU is doing right now. Like all of you, DD is just waiting to find out. But USC’s system is quite different. They tell some of their admits in December in order to get them enthused about the school. I’m speaking about the very top of the applicant pool. In part this is because there is a lot of merit award activity before the end of March, so you sort of have to know you’re admitted to be in the game.</p>
<p>I think the two universities have different approaches.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that they sent out acceptances to their best applicants first. I got accepted, but am defintely not an amazing applicant and didn’t recieve a merit scholarship. I think part of it might be that I sent in my application towards the start of December, and the commitee read it soon after.</p>
<p>I’d like to think that every applicant that has made the first reviews, get a very thorough review again before the applicant is either accepted or declined.
If I remember, DS’s letter was the last of the bunch. I think maybe near the end of the 1st week in Ap. or IOW, the rejections came before the acceptances. </p>
<p>I would believe that my analysis may be more positive. I think the application process is a linear process, not paralllel.</p>
<p>@ kate10662: Nope, that can’t be right. I sent my application on December 29 and they didn’t get my transcript or counselor rec until past mid Jan and my school had to fax it to them. So it’s not a time thing.</p>
<p>I guess this makes sense, but the one thing that is holding me back from believing it is I really didn’t think I would be rejected. CMU was the one non-safety school I thought I was sure to get into. First of all my stats are fairly higher than their than 50th percentile, and I went to pre-college over the summer and got A’s, including a 2nd year programming class (CS Major). I felt like my essays for CMU were even better than my other essays, and my experience at pre-college was the subject of one of them. Considering I am 5/5 so far (UCSD, UCLA, UCB, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins), and the fact that my application to CMU is stronger than my other applications, I will be surprised if they do reject me. I understand that CMU is not an easy school to get into, but I will still be kind of shocked especially due to the level of interest I demonstrated. Fortunately CMU is not my top choice, but it would be a nice option. Their admission process, however separate it may be from the school itself, is definitely turning me off somewhat from the school due to my general frustration.</p>