<p>I want to apply ED to Carnegie Mellon, but I'm not sure whether to apply to Tepper or H&SS (for economics). I'm definitely going to apply to both schools, but I can only designate one as my ED choice. Now I know that there are a couple of threads on this, but I think my situation is somewhat unique. </p>
<p>I finished my senior year in HS and I'm going to take a gap year. During the gap year, I plan to work as an intern at a Financial Services company. I haven't decided on where I'll be working yet, but I know a few companies that would be willing to hire me. In addition, I'll probably do some volunteering and/or service work abroad.</p>
<p>My intended major is Finance, or possibly Computational Finance, and I really, really like Tepper. I do like the H&SS Economics program, but Tepper is definitely my favorite of both schools. The acceptance rate at Tepper is pretty low though, so I don't know if my application will be good enough (even with the ED boost). I feel like I'm definitely a match for ED to H&SS (for economics), but the competition at Tepper is much stiffer.</p>
<p>As far as chancing is concerned, I really don't like posting all of my stats online. If you're interested in chancing me, please send me a PM and I will send you my entire app. For context however, I'll post a few of my stats.</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]</p>
<p>[<em>]SAT I: 2320
[</em>] ACT: Didn't take
[<em>]SAT II: 800's on two tests, including Math II
[</em>] Unweighted GPA without Freshman Year (out of 4.0): 3.85 (very strong upward trend and extremely rigorous courseload)
[<em>]AP: Taken 14 AP exams, none of which were self-studied (this should give you some idea of my courseload). I took 8 exams in junior year alone.<br>
[</em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): My school doesn't rank, but probably top 10-15%
[<em>]Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, US Physics Olympiad Semifinalist, many state-level awards in physics and finance
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: M
[</em>] High School Type: Public
[/ul]</p>
<p>Your stats seem to be a match for the Tepper School, so you shouldn’t worry about applying ED. </p>
<p>The master’s degree in computational financial (MCSF) at CMU was ranked # 1 in the US in the latest [Quantnet ranking of financial engineering programs](<a href=“2023 QuantNet Ranking of Best Financial Engineering Programs | QuantNet Community”>2023 QuantNet Ranking of Best Financial Engineering Programs | QuantNet Community). I assume the undergraduate concentration should be equally strong.</p>
<p>Thanks bruno123, any other opinions?</p>
<p>If your intention is to read finance or CF, why not apply directly to tepper through ED. after all you’d still have to apply to transfer to tepper if you were in hss. i remember reading somewhere that tepper’s BA program doesn’t accept transfer or additional major application until your junior year (check that though, i could be wrong) - which means you would have to compete with all other majors for a seat in the popular BA classes that you need to take and would likely be waitlisted a lot, coz unlike BA majors you won’t have registration priority for those classes. as for ED acceptance rate being a “boost”, it’s actually lower than regular accepance rate. At least during my application year, the regular acceptance rate was like 36%, whereas for ED it was around 29%.</p>
<p>Your stats appear very strong but keep in mind that ED locks you in and CMU is a very expensive school. If your parents can pay for it and CMU is without at doubt your top choice then do it.</p>
<p>Tepper’s acceptance rate is relatively low but this is relatively a misleading statistic. The caliber of acceptances is not much more impressive than those of CIT and MCS when looking at SAT and GPA. [Admission</a> > Admission Statistics](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University) Don’t be too insecure; a solid app all-around will get you in.</p>
<p>As for computational finance, if you know you really want to do the program here [Bachelor</a> of Science in Computation Finance](<a href=“http://www.math.cmu.edu/~bscf/]Bachelor”>Bachelor of Science in Computation Finance) I would actually recommend that you pursue it as an MCS math student. I believe only 2 of 8 acceptances to the computational finance program this year were from Tepper and historically speaking that is out of the ordinary. Tepper doesn’t have the “real” math foundations that computational finance requires, so a lot of the admissions spots go to CS, Math/Physics, and engineers.</p>
<p>@TSBKid, thanks. Any other opinions.</p>
<p>Also, while I am interested in the computational finance program, I’m not sure whether to mention it in my supplement essay. Its impossible to apply directly to computational finance, so I feel like I’m wasting space by writing about it. That said, this major is one of the reasons that I really like Tepper, and I’d like to write about it to explain why I want to study at Tepper and MCS. What do you guys think, is it worth mentioning the computational finance program?</p>
<p>UPDATE: Thanks for the responses, I found them really helpful. I do have some new questions though.</p>
<p>My current gap year plan is as follows:</p>
<p>Work in a local finance company - 6 moths
Work abroad in a finance internship - 6 months</p>
<p>I thought this plan was a good fit for me and that it would look good to the colleges I’m applying to. I realized however that it might work against me if I apply ED to H&SS. I’m afraid the admissions officers will think that I’m not a fit for H&SS, or that I’m using it as a back-door to Tepper. As I said in the original post, I do have a strong interest in Economics, I’m just like Finance more. </p>
<p>Do you think it would look bad to apply ED to H&SS if I spend my gap year doing finance internships? I’ve been trying to find internships in economics, but there aren’t that many available. The econ. programs that I’ve found are for serious research, so they only take people with grad. or undergrad. degrees. My counselor said that my plans are just fine because colleges understand that aren’t many internships in economics. Do you agree or disagree?</p>
<p>Also, let me know if you have any suggestions on places where I could work in economics.</p>
<p>I don’t know if its ok to have this many bumps, but I just wanted to say that I’ve settled on a strong gap year plan. Thanks for all the advice thus far.</p>