Appealing the decision?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>So, I was rejected from CMU (CIT-MechE) which came as a decent surprise (I wasn't 100% sure of my acceptance, but I was confident).</p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone knows anything about appealing an admissions decision?</p>

<p>Appeals are generally done on the basis of new information being available, and I have enough new info that I think I can provide something new, and quickly reiterate some points that I wasn't strong enough on with my essays.</p>

<p>If you want my stats, here they are:
SAT (Cr/W/M): 690/690/780
ACT: 30
GPA: 3.8
Rank/Percentile: n/a (My school doesn't give ranks)
Senior year classes: AP Econ Micro, AP Econ Macro, AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Physics B, AP Physics C, Teacher's assistant for AP Chem, Government, and English 12. (5.0GPA first semester, second semester finishes Friday)</p>

<p>EC: <em>deep breath</em></p>

<p>I founded a FIRST robotics team in my sophomore year and spent two years as Vice President, and this year as President. I have over 1000 logged hours of time spent in a machine shop either working on design/CAD or physically building a robot. </p>

<p>I've given presentations in front of my district board and I've personally talked with company heads to raise our accumulated (3-years) $67,000 of funding.</p>

<p>I spent last summer at Pre-College in Architecture and made it clear that I wanted to study engineering, and geared the Archie program as far towards engineering as possible.</p>

<p>The new information I would be providing would be about this year's robotics season (In which I was President) that started 2 days after the application was due.
My year as President has been the year of most growth, winning 3 awards (2 team spirit awards, and a finalist award - 3rd ranked team out of 44) at 2 competitions (Before I was president, we'd never won an award). I personally designed roughly 60% of this year's robot from structural members to a pickup, transfer, and launch system.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice about appealing? Does anyone think I stand a chance?</p>

2

<p>I believe appealing a rejection can only be done on the basis that the objective information sent to the college (i.e. grades, SATs) is erroneous. For example, your guidance counselor mistakenly sent the transcripts of another classmate with grades significantly lower than yours. </p>

<p>Either way, sending in new information is something only waitlisted applicants can afford to do. Still, if you are intent on doing this, then by all means, do so.</p>

3

<p>I’d say at least give them a call/email, or contact them in some way. Considering the strength of your interest and activity in robotics, it would seem that you would be a strong applicant. The only weaknesses I see are your standardized testing, but those should be overshadowed by your ECs, I’d think. The worst thing you could do if you want to attend, is to do nothing, so don’t be afraid to give them a call.</p>