Yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything about how people look on campus or whether their names are traditionally European or not. 
It’s an intense school, in my experience. People would one up each other on who had more problem sets due or who generally had the more intense workload.
Some kids (regardless of their country of origin — I know plenty of US-born kids, including myself, who were like this) thrive on an academic grind. Most kids don’t.
Most certainly, and my S19 is a rising senior who was accepted to CMU… currently nailing a 4.0 in a double degree/minor and certificate, heading for an MD/PhD.
CMU just wasn’t the best choice for him but it absolutely is for some.
BTW, he was 16 when accepted.
I am heartened to hear that retention and graduation rates are now more in line with peer institutions. That was a huge problem when I was a student. Our freshman retention rates in particular were dismal and I was a student rep on a couple of task forces that looked at that and related issues.
Those improved stats give me hope that the grind is more manageable now, too. I do think CMU students tend to be “pointier” than some others, meaning that they dive really deeply into issues. That said, Carnegie Mellon has a long, long history of inter-disciplinary research and collaboration. I had a great experience, but I am not sure that I would choose it again, and neither of my kids were suited to that environment.
CCName, My son was accepted by CMU (a big surprise, as it was a long reach), but he is worried about the stress culture there. My wife is miffed at me because over the years I would tell stories about EE’s getting 22s on circuits exams, engineers changing majors or dropping out, and Architects’ Leap. In all their communications, it appears that CMU realizes this reputation is a problem and they are emphasizing their support system, graduation rates and freshman return rates.
caz, Your son Doogie sounds like quite the bottom-feeder. Kidding aside, that is pretty impressive! Where did he end up going?
Thank you JackH! After being waitlisted at Harvard until end of June, he accepted a very generous merit scholarship at Pitt. He was the class valedictorian but did not cast his net very wide. He was waitlisted at Columbia, too.
Best twist of fate ever, as 2020 hit, Harvard went 100% online for sophomores… so that would have been an expensive cyber year…LOL. He went in-person to all labs at Pitt during the pandemic as we are local.
He’s a neuroscience/philosophy double major/chem minor with a bioethics certificate.
That sounds very intense, thanks for sharing! Congrats to your son, amazing achievement!
From a business point of view, you are right. But these are impressionable young teenagers, why give them false hope and stretch the process further?
Yes, it’s natural to be hopeful especially when your dream school waitlists you. But it’s important for us parents to set expectations.
We need to tell them explicitly that it’s a very long shot. Let them carefully evaluate each WL offer against the schools they’ve been accepted to. Do they still prefer the WL school (s) vs others they’re already in at? If truly yes, accept a spot on the WL then forget about it. Have them fall in love with one of their acceptances and fully plan to enroll there.
Later if there’s a miracle with the WL - awesome! But don’t expect it to happen.
It’s a hard message, but one that we need to deliver.
I agree with you. I was simply being sarcastic.
Read somewhere that schools like UPenn (which has high yield rates) will still WL large number of kids. They use it a soft-reject for legacies, would be donors so as to not alienate them. Not sure if it works!
We are way off topic now. Feel free to start a new discussion on waitlists.
Not to continue on a tangent but Penn rejected many legacies in both rounds this year. The ones I know are regular, if not huge, donors. And yes, they are not happy.
If you are a Penn legacy and don’t apply in ED, you can pretty much count on getting rejected/waitlisted. Penn wants to feel the ED love from legacy applicants and if they don’t, it is held against them.
I’d like to hear more about the student body at CMU. I know carnival is this weekend. I saw some videos online but it looked poorly attended? Do the kids have any fun, or is it all work, no play?
Carnival is usually very well attended, though I can’t speak specifically to this year. The one problem that might be reflected in the videos is that it almost always rains, so the video could have been shot during a wet time when not a ton of people are out.
I have always considered Carnival to be sort of the perfect representation of CMU students: It is a ton of fun, but some of the enjoyment is derived from the intensity of the preparations. Groups spend weeks building their booths. People will stay up for nights at a time to make sure they get done in time. They are often both engineering and design feats. Buggy is the same way. I was a buggy driver and we would have to go out at midnight for certain kinds of practices and wake up at 4 am on the weekends for other kinds because that’s when the streets could be closed for it. It was was so competitive and fun, but the kind of thing that requires really intense planning, organization and engineering.
I did have fun in college. There are fraternity parties, regular campus events, and all the things you expect from college. Work came first, but I do think I had a pretty typical college experience. My friends would say the same. I am not sure if we were the majority or the minority, and I am not sure the mix now, but there was also a segment of the students who didn’t do any of those things. Their nose was to the grindstone. Those kinds of kids probably exist at all schools, but I do think they are more prevalent at a school like CMU.
Data point of one, but my kid is senior there; he’s at Carnival right now, pushed buggy this morning and having a party this weekend. He’s having fun, for sure.
Nobody would classify it as a “party school” but (COVID aside) he’s found plenty to do and plenty of fun to have. He’s involved with clubs, painting the fence, etc, and has friends doing sports, arts, music, dance, etc.
He would say. it is what you make of it!
Did your student accept the WL offer in order to receive the aid response/package? Or anybody who was waitlisted would receive the letter? Thanks
This is all so hard… While CMU may not have been at the top of my D22 radar, she is still thrilled to have gained acceptance and is now deciding between a few others. We are visiting next week so hopefully we can see and feel the vibe. I’m scared though for her because if she is “stressed” now, how is she going to survive CMU if she is not exactly that specific type of student? She’s a mix - high academic, social and athletic. All we keep reading and hearing is how intense and competitive it is with very limited social options.
Does anyone know if CMU is in session on Good Friday, 4/15? If so, we plan to roll into Da Burgh Thursday night and see the campus again. Unfortunately, we were not checking for admissions on the notification day because we were away from home, and we missed registration for the admitted students’ events on 4/11 and 4/18. (I bet they filled up within an hour of notifications going out.)