Accepted to College of Science!!
D accepeted SCS. Denied CIT
2240 (720,720,800math)
34 ACT
750 chem 760 math2
3.9 uw 5.0 w
Rank 6/970
4 years band, 2 years drum major (350 member band)
2 CS classes, 11 AP
Summer activities include marching band, leadership camps and engineering camps.
Average community service. Assume rec letters are positive. Essays 7-8/10
Visited Carnegie Mellon and went to local presentations. Brother is a senior in SCS.
White. Texas. Does not qualify for financial aid
Accepted to the University Of Texas (Turing Honors), Ga Tech.
Denied Berkeley and Stanford.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2220 (760M/750CR/6900W)
ACT: 33
SAT II: 780 Math 2, 710 Bio E, 710 USH
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 93, 99W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top decile of ~230 students
AP (place score in parenthesis): Lang (5) APUSH (4) Stat (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Gov & Politics, AP Micro/Macro Econ, AP Calc AB, AP French, STEM
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): national merit commended scholar
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Symphonic Band Member: one of the best HS bands in the state (librarian)
Varsity Tennis
Future Business Leaders of America (VP 11th grade)
French Honor Society (President)
International Empowerment (Co-President)
Interact Club (Historian)
Academic Decathlon Regular Competitor
Job/Work Experience: worked at summer camps, tennis club, ski lodge
Volunteer/Community service: Have hours with various organizations but nothing noteworthy
Summer Activities: summer program at Cornell
Essays: Overall 8/10, I thought they were pretty good.
Teacher Recommendation: 9/10 I am very close with both teachers
Counselor Rec: 7/10 my counselor is hard to read, but I should have had a good rec
Additional Rec:
Interview: 8/10 it was my final interview so I went in confidently and they really seemed to like me
Other
State (if domestic applicant): NJ
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 100-200k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
Reflection
Strengths: Scores, extracurriculars
Weaknesses: Maybe the essay, SAT 2’s
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted at BU, TCNJ, UDel, Lafayette. Waitlisted at Lehigh, American, BC, and UVa. Still waiting on GTown, Cornell, Tufts, GW
General Comments:[/noparse]
I think being a girl applying to a less competitive school helped a lot. I just got waitlisted from my match schools so this came as a total surprise! Congrats to all others accepted!
ACCEPTED
I recieved my FAT packet but did anyone get a financial aid letter a long with the FAT packet
Accepted to MCS, Rejected from CIT and SCS
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2090 (610 CR, 800 M, 680 W, 9 Essay)
ACT (breakdown): 32 (31 Eng, 33 Math, 28 Reading, 36 Science)
SAT II: 790 Math II, 750 Chem, 650 Chem (taken sophomore year, didn’t send), 570 Biology (taken freshman year, didn’t send)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.80
Weighted GPA (weighted 4.0): 4.38
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1st quintile
AP (place score in parenthesis): Chem: 4 // Physics 1: 3 // English Lang: 3
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Gym, Marching Band, Financial Lit (requirement), The Rest AP: Physics 2, Bio, English Lit, BC Calc, Java, Spanish
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): New Jersey Regional Science Fair: 3rd Place Behavioral Science Category Winner, Public Health Award. National Honors Society, Spanish National Honors Society, Science National Honors Society, Tri-M Music National Honors Society, 3rd Place New Jersey Chemistry Olympics (I was told that NHS’s count), Owner of Several Clones (DNA Sequences) in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Tae Kwon Do Instructor (2010-present), 2nd degree black belt (10 years of experience), Co-President of school-run Alateen-like club at school, community blood drive organizer/liaison/volunteer, Math/Science Tutor, Music Instructor, School Choir Section Leader, County Choir (2 years), Science League, Math League, Research Club Captain, Marching Band/Jazz Band/Concert Band Section Leader and Captain, Habitat for Humanity Leader, Varsity Lettered in Football (Quit after sophomore year), School golf team
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: Music Tutor/assistant at old middle school during summer, tutor, food pantry volunteer. About 150 hours total
Summer Activities: Biomolecular research program at nearby University, Blood Bank Volunteer, Junior Police Academy Volunteer, Tae Kwon Do Instructor
Essays: Common App: 9/10 CMU Supplement: 6/10… wrote it the day it was due
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10- Chem teacher/mentor 10/10- H Alg 2 teacher
Counselor Rec: Prolly 9/10, doesn’t know me too well but really knows how to write
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: 8/10
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Chemistry
State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: < $25,000. As in, significantly less than $25K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nothing
Reflection
Strengths: idk
What you tried to focus on in your application - any hooks you tried to make for yourself: My ability to give back, my persistency through tough times, and my overall drive and strong spirit. My dad, an alcoholic, abandoned our family our family, and I subsequently fell into a deep depression, so I wrote one of my essays on this topic, how I rebounded from it, and how I started an Alateen-club in my school to help students in similar situations.
Weaknesses: Probably spreading myself too thin. I feel like I have way too much breadth above all else. Also, test scores
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I take on too many activities, and seemingly burn myself out before getting to excel in any of them.
Wait listed for computer science:
GPA: 4.0/4.36
SAT: (non super score and super score) 2280
ACT: 35
Plenty of long term EC’s and sports, essays probably 7/10
I’m two posts above. My state was actually NJ and PA, won’t get into specifics but I’ve been forced to alternate houses between the past year. I copied and pasted my response from an earlier thread when I was in PA, but I’m currently back in NJ. and they are not considering me in-state.
DD in for CSC! We did not receive our packet yet. Can someone post when accepted student days are? Thanks.
Decision: Accepted–CIT and MCS
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2280 (750 CR, 750 M, 780 W, 10 essay)
ACT:
SAT II: 770 M2, 750 BIO E, 760 CHEM, 740 US HIST
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.69
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis): imo I don’t find these important at all in the college app process since I didnt report any of my scores on the common app; AP NSL (5), APUSH (5), AP Chem (5), AP World (5), BC Calc (5), AP Bio (5), AP Lang (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: MVC/ODE, AP Physics C: Mechanics and E&M, AP Stat, AP Econ: Micro and Macro, Hon Eng 12, Designing Tech Solutions
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):National Cancer Institute: Cancer Research Training Award (not sure if this is a major award tho), some small state and county painting awards
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Dream in Code (Co-founder) its basically a club where my friends and I teach middle school girls how to code; Steminism (founder) a neighborhood thing where I conduct science experiments and teach basic science to young girls in my neighborhood; a tutoring service I started in freshmen yr; church youth group leader; NAHS; Mu Alpha Theta; Creative Writing Club (President)
Job/Work Experience: summer intern at the National Cancer Institute
Volunteer/Community service: nurse’s assistant in the oncology department my local hospital
Summer Activities:
Essays: my common app essay was ratchet imo but my teachers who read it liked it and barely made any corrections to it ( I talked conquering my shyness by standing up for a substitute teacher) ; I really liked my supplement essay (I talked about how I was bullied when I was little for liking “typical boy things” like building legos etc and later mentioned the stem gender gap. I discussed my mother’s cancer as a major factor as to why I want to study engineering, specifically bio-medical engineering, material science, and biology. I talked about my love for art and STEM and touched upon Randy Pausch’s’ (CMU professor) dream of bridging the gap between the arts and the sciences)
**PM me if you want to read my essays
Teacher Recommendation: BC Calc: 8/10 I barely talk in class lmao but I got a 99% in the class one quarter. This teacher is also the coordinator of our school’s mu alpha theta honor society and he said that my application was the only one that “made me laugh in a good way”; AP Lang: 8/10 I had this teacher in freshmen yr when I was a ratchet-ass english student who got low B’s and sometimes C’s on almost every essay. Somehow I improved a shit ton and got 98’s on almost every essay later on in Lang. So my teacher talked about my “tremendous growth” as a student.
Counselor Rec:7/10 idk him at all. However, the counselors in my school make us write an essay about ourselves and basically copy and paste them as their counselor rec.
Additional Rec:
Interview: really nice 
my interviewer was a recent graduate and we also attended the same high school so we had lots to talk about
Other
State (if domestic applicant): MD
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: asian
Gender: female
Income Bracket: 100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): non lmao…maybe female in STEM but I heard that CMU doesn’t really care about that
Reflection
Strengths: essays, demonstrated interest lmao, gpa pre senior yr (my mid yr report was shit)
Weaknesses: SAT score (pretty low for an asian), asianess, recs, extra curriculars
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: my essays mentioned my childhood dream of becoming and engineer ( a la Randy Pausch)… my passion for studying engineering after my mother was diagnosed with cancer…idk really…
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UMD College Park–Honors College, Georgia Tech, Case Western Reserve University
Waitlisted:MIT (deferred then waitlisted), JHU, Duke (deferred then waitlisted)
Rejected: Uchicago (deferred then rejected), Rice
General Comments: CMU cares a lot about demonstrated interest. I thought demonstrated interest was bullshit until I participated in their “Turn Tartan Overnight” event. I visited the school a while before the overnight event and didn’t really like the campus, but after the overnight event, CMU basically became my 1st choice school. Through the overnight experience, I practically memorized the whole campus, learned about all of the activities the students participate in, connected with a lot of students…*insert other cheesy things. So I was able to write a lot about how my interests fit CMU and I was able to connect with my interviewer better.
Decision: Accepted at CFA – School of Design, School of Art
Decision: Rejected from CIT Objective:[ul] [] SAT I (breakdown): N/A [] ACT: 35E 32M 36R 34S 34C[] SAT II: 600 Chem 630 Math II[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 [] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 5/237[] AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geo (5), World (5), Chem (4), Art Hist (3), Lang(5)[] Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Studio Art 3/D, AP Lit, AP Physics, econ, gov, 2/D Design, [] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts[/ul]Subjective:[ul] [] Job/Work Experience: [] Volunteer/Community service: 50 hours [] Summer Activities: [] Essays: Good [] Teacher Recommendation: Good[] Counselor Rec:.Good [] Additional Rec: Good[] Interview: Good; professor at design review said my work was awesome.[/ul]Other[ul] [] State (if domestic applicant): FL[] Country (if international applicant): [] School Type: Magnet Performing/Visual Arts[] Ethnicity: Asian[] Gender: Male[] Income Bracket: <25,000 [] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): [/ul]Reflection[ul] [] Strengths: Portfolio, essays, test scores, national award [*] Weaknesses: Interview was shaky.[/ul]**General Comments: ** Show your passion and CMU will recognize it. Passion is a key factor into getting into CMU, and it should be established early on.
My son just got admitted to SFA!!!
My daughter is in MCS and CFA and the BXA program. Denied SCS.
Homeschooled grades 1-12, ACT 34, NMF, 8 APs, mostly 5’s, 2 4’s, 1 3
SAT math 2 800, chem 700, NACLO invitational round 2 years.
Many dual enrollment university classes - 2 years Russian, 3 semesters us history/gov, honors multi-variable Calc, intro to proof, abstract linear algebra, calc-based honors Physics E&M
Programming internship one summer
Self-taught art, great figure drawing from local museum classes. Large digital portfolio.
Decent essays, great ref letter from internship
Can someone please post admitted student days? Was it in the packet?
@zoemurr
You can view them here:
http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/ntia-admitted-student-visits
You can also click on each date to view the entire itinerary for that specific date. Cheers 
Decision: Accepted at CIT for any choice of major (im doing ece)
Decision: Waitlisted for mcs undecided
SAT I (breakdown): 2250 (780M 740 CR 730 W 7 essay)
ACT: 34E 35M 30R 30S 32C
SAT II: 780 Chem 800 Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): dunno
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): dunno
AP (place score in parenthesis): nada
IB: predicted = 39/42 HLs: math 6 phy 6 comp sci 7 SL’s eng A 6 Spanish B 7 Chem 7
year 1 = 36 (bad I know) , mid year = 38
Senior Year Course Load: Ib diploma
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing
Subjective:
Job/Work Experience: math internship made videos and website
Volunteer/Community service: a bunch
Summer Activities: not much
Essays: This is half the reason i got in.
- showed tons of personal interest
- focused on interdisciplinary and innovative aspects of myself
- highlighted being girl in stem
Counselor Rec: meh
Teacher rec: one was good, other was meh
Interview: uhh it was 10 mins long. Make what you will of that. But registering for the interview even tho I live abroad and doing the interview essay def showed personal interest.
Other
State (if domestic applicant): live in India
Country (if international applicant): american citizen
School Type: IB
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~120 k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): female in stem (asian = anti hook )
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: safeties + Rensselaer, case (likely), UCLA, RIT, UIUC
Waitlisted: Gatech
Rejected: UT austin, Berkeley
Reflection
Strengths: ? maybe subject SAT
Weaknesses: subpar ec’s and scores
General Comments: Show tons of personal interest, be a girl.
Decision: Accepted (MCS, DC)
Decision: Rejected (CFA Design)
Objective:
[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t take
[] ACT: 35 (34E, 36M, 36R, 35S)
[] SAT II: Math 2- 800, Chem- 790, Lit- 720
[] Unweighted GPA (4.0 scale): 4.0
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank; UC app tells me that I’m in the top 9% of my class though.
[] AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc BC (5), English Lang (5), Chinese (5), Chemistry (5)
[] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/a
[] Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Physics, AP Lit, gov/econ, studio art
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Scholar[/li][/ul]
Subjective:
- [] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): President of school volunteering club (Public relations in junior year), soccer for all 4 years, cross country for 3, local guitar ensemble (section leader), yearbook
[] Job/Work Experience: Teacher assistant at local private art studio, tutor
[] Volunteer/Community service: School’s volunteering club
[] Summer Activities: Art summer programs (CSSSA, Pratt Precollege)
[] Essays: common app was probably 8/10- I talked about how I gravitated towards humanities despite growing up in a very STEM oriented environment, and how I’ve learned to appreciate both and combine the two in my artwork.
[] Teacher Recommendation: I’m guessing around an 8/10 based on my relation with the teacher.
[] Counselor Rec: Not great. I don’t know my counselor at all.
[] Interview: It was okay? I think CMU uses their interviews mostly to see if the student demonstrates interest (or that’s my impression for CFA; I’ve heard of some people getting asked technical cs questions during interviews)
Other
[ul]
[] Applied for Financial Aid?: Eventually? I’m a bit late on this :
[] Intended Major: Not sure yet! Still juggling around my choices because things didn’t turn out as I expected
[] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[] Country (if international applicant):
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: Asian American
[] Gender: F
[] Income Bracket: >200k
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None [/li][/ul]
Reflection
[ul]
[] Strengths: Test scores, GPA, essay
[] Weaknesses: I think my design portfolio was too catered towards fine arts. Also, I completely forgot to add sketchbook excerpts. I guess for MCS and DC, I didn’t do much of science and humanities outside of taking classes and tests, because I initially did not plan to do those subjects and stuck them in for BXA
[li] Why you think you were accepted/rejected: for CFA, I think my rejection was due to too much fine art for my design portfolio, and lack of sketchbook excerpts. For MCS and DC, the only reason I was accepted is probably my test scores and GPA, because I only briefly glanced over science in my “Why I want to go to CMU” essay, and I didn’t even mention DC.[/li][/ul]
General Comments: ¯_(ツ)_/¯ still waiting on my last schools, but I’m most likely going to (attempt to) switch from design to a more academic major or CS, either at CMU or Berkeley.
Decision: Accepted MCS, physics
Decision: waitlisted for 2nd, 3rd choices CSC, CIT
(overjoyed dad reporting here)
SAT I: 2210
ACT: 35 (35E, 36M, 34R, 36S)
SAT II: Math 2- 800, Physics- 730,750
Unweighted GPA (4.0 scale): 3.72 (~3.8 excluding freshman year; 4.0 junior-senior years)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Physics (5)
National Merit Finalist
Caucasion, male, California public school, no hooks
submitted recommendation from Ivy summer course professor; submitted small digital art portfolio
other acceptances: U Rochester, RPI, NEU, WPI
rejections: BU, Cal Poly SLO, UPenn (ED), JHU
waiting: Yale, Tufts
how can i check whether i am accepted or rejected for my second choice?
cause i got my acceptance for my first choice but no information about my second one
Accepted to Engineering
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2340 800M/770CR/770W
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 Chem, 760 USH, 680 German w/ Listening
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc BC (5), Phycis C Mechanics (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Chinese, English, Math, History
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 1st Prize in local Chem competition
Vanderbilt Merit Scholarship: No
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Tennis Club(Co-Founder), Student Union (Chief Secretary), MUN (VP), Chem Research (Team Leader), Traffic Light Research (Leader), Exchange Program in Japan, I also studied 4 years of Deutsch
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: Did not put in Commonapp
Summer Activities: Bio camp at Stanford
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 8.5, talked about my Chem research
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 9/10- My teachers like me
Teacher Rec #1: 9
Teacher Rec #2: 9
Counselor Rec: 9- My counselor wrote a very good report of me
Additional Rec: didn’t have
Interview: had one, I don’t think I did well but it seems that it ends well
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?:Nope
Intended Major: Chem and Biomed Engineering
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: 200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nope
Reflection
Strengths: Test scores, interview experience, Chem research (my essays)
Weaknesses: Could have taken more APs
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected Stanford, JHU and Northwestern. Accepted- Vandy, UVa, UCB, UCLA and waiting for ivy schools including Columbia and Brown
CMU SCS
Regular Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I: First and only sitting 2390 800/800/790
ACT: First and only sitting 35C 36M 36Sc 34E 32R
SAT II: M2 800 Ch 780 Physics 740
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank: 2/550
AP: Human Geo (5) Stats (5) Comp Science (4) World History (5) Calc BC (5) Psychology (5) English Language (5) Chem (4) US History (4) Physics C (5)
Senior Year Course Load: 2 post AP Math Classes, AP Env’l, AP Eng Comp, AP Micro, AP Govt, Research & Internship
Major Awards: NM Finalist; National AP Scholar
Extracurriculars: JV Tennis 3 years, Math Team 4 years, NHS
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: 250 hours at a children’s shelter
Summer Activities: Duke TIP Camps, Internship at local research facility
Essays: Put a lot of time into them, no idea how they were received.
Teacher Recommendation: Chem Teacher, Math Teacher, English Teacher
Counselor Rec: Yes, don’t know how strong.
Additional Rec: Local professor, where I did internship. Strong.
Interview: 7/10
State: GA
School Type: Public, STEM Program
Ethnicity: White and Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: High
Hooks: None
Reflection
Strengths: Test scores and Grades, well liked by teachers & student body
Weaknesses: lack of “Wow” factor, lack of leadership
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: academic rigor, GPA, and test results
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: rejected MIT, accepted Georgia Tech, waiting on Cornell
General Comments: I put careful thought into which schools to apply, focused on Computer Science. Evaluating if CMU SCS is worth the extra money vs in state rate for Georgia Tech College of Computing. ($15k vs $67k) Any thoughts ?