Any guesses why I was waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon? Chances at Rice now?

Applying to College
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<p>I'm totally not bitter about being waitlisted to CMU (applied just to CIT), but CMU was a target/low reach for me. I put effort into the application and didn't treat it as a safety school because I knew it wasn't one for me. But I'm wondering why I might've been waitlisted. Here are my stats and ECs. I'm going to try to be as unbiased as possible because I know it's not going to help me to exaggerate anything:</p>

<p>SATs:
-#1 2230: 680 CR / 750 M / 800 W
-#2 2360: 770 CR / 800 M / 790 W</p>

<p>760 Math I
790 Chem
780 USH</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0
Most rigorous courseload available, all APs</p>

<p>ECs:
Significant ones all deal with music
-Metro Youth Orchestra of NY (plays annual concerts in NYC; carnegie hall, lincoln center, etc)
-School SYmphony and Chamber orchestra
-NYSSMA 9th - 12th
-ALl County and All District Honors Orchestra 9-11th</p>

<p>-Science Research Club
-Judge for local science discovery fair
-SADD club (safe halloween and other community service)
-NHS
-Tri-M Honors</p>

<p>Essays:
-Wrote about music in one of the responses
-Long essay I talked alot about making a difference through engineering; engineers without borders, etc. Made sure to research stuff about CMU first.</p>

<p>Other:
-Gender: M
-Location: Long Island, NY
-Ethnicity: Asian
-Fin Aid: Applied</p>

<p>CMU was by no means my first choice school; maybe 2nd or 3rd choice. But I'm REALLY REALLY nervous now because I got rejected from MIT (deferred EA) and now I only have Rice and Columbia left. It is to my understanding that Rice and Columbia (School of engineering/app. sciences) are much more difficult to get into than CMU so I'm terrified I might have to settle for a school I don't want to go to (one of my safeties)</p>

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<p>Your ECs are pretty weak. Why did you apply to safety schools you don’t want to go to?</p>

3

<p>Many of them waived their application fees for me, which was a big factor. Also, some like RPI pretty much let me know that if I applied and got accepted, I’d get merit scholarship, and that was huge for me. </p>

<p>When I say “Don’;t want to go to,” I mean I haven’t been dreaming about getting accepted to them like I am about my reach schools. </p>

<p>Can you elaborate on weak ECs? I don’t think they’re amazing but I think they’re at least decent enough and concentrated. Music was pretty big for me throughout high school (violinist for 9 years and counting) and I think that shows. Though I guess the ECs should’ve been more focused around sciences since I’m going for engineering :/</p>