My friend is priority waitlisted. Oh does priority waitlist not make a difference either? I heard there’s some 4 percent chance that they take you off the waitlist.
@KevinToliver We have to decide between in state GA Tech College of Computing and CMU SCS. (17k/year vs 68k/yr) We are visiting both, and giving full consideration. CMU will really have to “wow” us to command the premium tuition. Anyone else in a similar situation ?
Decision: Accepted!
School of Computer Science
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2340 (800CR, 740M, 800W), took only once
ACT (breakdown): Didn’t take
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 800 Math, 780 Lit, 770 Spanish reading, 760 US Hist, 760 World Hist, 720 Physics, 710 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): officially N/A (school doesn’t rank), unofficially top 10%
AP (place score in parentheses): Calc AB (5), English Lit (5), APUSH (5), Spanish Lang (5), World History (5), Psych (self-studied, 5)
IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Econ (combined Micro/Macro), AP American Gov, AP Physics C, AP English Lang, AP Calc BC, Leadership
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Top-ranked in USA for debate, several debate tournament awards, national scholarship winner for debate, AP Scholar with Distinction
Subjective
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Debate captain, ASB position in Leadership, CyberPatriot founder/captain, varsity volleyball, math tutor
Job/Work Experience: Internship at national laboratory as software programmer and TA for cybersecurity classes
Volunteer/Community Service: On planning committee for large American Cancer Society fundraiser for the past 2 years
Summer Activities: Study abroad after sophomore year
Essays (rating 1-10, details):: Personal statement was decent, probably a 7.
Teacher Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):: Probably 8’s or 9’s. My AP Calc AB teacher and APUSH teacher, both like me and I did well in their classes, but I know my APUSH teacher wrote hers last minute so idk how strong it was
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details):: 8, my counselor likes me but I go to a large public school and she writes hundreds of recs, so probably not too original
Additional Rec (rating 1-10, details):: 9, internship mentor, very professional, talked about work I did for the lab
Interview: She was super smart, I felt like I messed up by saying that I drive to school even though it’s a short distance away (not eco-friendly), but I saved it in the end.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid? No
State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large, public, competitive atmosphere
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 200k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Girl in STEM
Reflection
Strengths: Essays, grades, debate accomplishments
Weaknesses: Not many STEM accomplishments, no outstanding community service
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Definitely my essays, which I thought were pretty unique and creative, and very interesting to read.
Where else you are applying or have already applied: Princeton (accepted), Penn M&T (accepted), Yale (accepted), Harvard (rejected), Brown (accepted), NYU (accepted), UCLA (accepted), Columbia (likely —> accepted, C.P. Davis Scholar), UC Berkeley (accepted, Regent’s), Michigan (accepted), MIT (waitlisted), USC (Accepted, Trustee Scholar & Viterbi Fellow) Caltech (rejected), Stanford (rejected), UChicago (accepted, Dean’s Scholar), UVA (accepted, Honors), Maryland (accepted, ACES, Honors), Duke (rejected)
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: I can’t believe I got in…Just be really genuinely yourself. I believe that my essays were successful because I wrote about what I WANTED to write about, and in doing so I let them see my adventurous and goofy side. Every effort to change who you are makes your essay weaker and more basic. Just capture a raw, original slice of yourself and be unique.
@Henry_Garfield My friend is facing a similar situation. He got into CMU SCS but is planning to go to Gtech as it is much cheaper for him. That is why I was asking, because I know many people who are turning down SCS because of their price tag.
@rosegold6 Wow!!! That’s great. Where are you planning on committing? Penn M&T is <3 <3 <3
@KevinToliver Not sure yet - I’m still attending admitted student overnights. Where would you choose?
@rosegold6 I would prefer Princeton as an overall school, but after that M&T is a great dual degree program that allows you to experience the advantages of SEAS and Wharton. But for CS specifically, Berkeley would be my #1 choice.
Well, our appeal got us $0. I feel terrible. Dd worked so hard to get in here and for CS all we hear is how amazing it is. She wants to go to the admitted student day but how in the world can we do full pay? That is more than 1/2 of our salary, or all of our savings. And we have another kid to pay for. There is no way we can justify a $100k loan even for CMU.
@zoemurr I’m assuming 100k over 4 years?
Yes, about I guess. We’re not comfortable paying more than $35k a year. That would leave a gap of over $100k to worry about. Any ideas? It’s like we’re being punished for having a good job and savings. But this would totally wipe us out. She got $16k-$25k merit everywhere else.
Hmm, well at this point it’s what you value more I suppose. Personally, my family would also struggle paying that much. However, I think it would be a worthwhile investment. Essentially, your daughter would be attending arguably the best computer science school in the world. Some of my friends who graduated from their currently make 6 figure salaries, so there is a possibility of making it back in the future. Mark Zberg visited 3 schools (Harvard, MIT, and CMU) in a tour and he noted the amount of CMU graduates feed into companies like Facebook, Google, and etc. Of course, there is also a chance of not making it back. 100k in loans is rough but I would want to take that risk. The loan itself may even push me harder to make full use of CMU.
We’re you a student there? Not sure why our EFC is 50% but it is.
@zoemurr no I am still deciding among Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Emory and CMU. I also have a lot of waitlists. However, a lot of my close friends committed there and a lot of my older friends and outer family graduated from there. CMU gave me similar offers to a lot of the other schools so I am not sure. It should not be too different from your daughter’s other schools.
I don’t know why… RPI gave her $22k and they are supposed to be a peer school. She got in to 9 schools and they are the only one to give her nothing. All are merit though as our EFC is $63k. Do you think a series of begging letters to anyone that would listen would help? 
You could but I do not think it would change anything. I’d say just go to CMU.
@XAtlas Ok, I can’t claim to understand @zoemurr 's situation, but how the hell can you really encourage someone to just take out a $100k loan. That’s a ridiculously absurd amount of money. If she has decent offers from those other schools, she should definitely look into them. Hopkins, Emory, and Vanderbilt are all fantastic schools.
@Flurite I am just saying what I would do. If I wanted to study CS, then there is no place better than CMU. 100k is huge amount of money. But, it is over 4 years which makes the situation slightly better. Furthermore, I feel as though a CS degree in CMU would most likely pay for itself in the future. Of course, I do not know what other specific schools other than RPI and the offers for each school @zoemurr 's daughter have. My financial situation is definitely worse than @zoemurr but if I wanted to study CS I would do it even if the best offer I got was that I have to loan 100k over 4 years. Unless of course, I got better offers in comparable schools.
I am the parent of a CMU SCS student and I completely understand the debt issue (I didn’t pay off my own student loans until my children were in preschool) but I do think XAtlas has a very valid opinion. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars that my child has been able to go there. CMU has taught, mentored, and given my D/S many great opportunities. I have another child at a different top university and the academic guidance at CMU has been far better. Even before my child arrived as a freshman a CMU academic advisor had been assigned. The advisor has emailed my child at 1 am over winter break trying to help with class selection. My child has told me that the number of job recruiters is overwhelming, and the internships have been fantastic. While at those internships my child told me that the CMU preparation was so strong that he/she would finish some projects in a few hours when they were given days to do them. Their training is that good. One of those top tier internships told my child that they consider CMU SCS the best program there is. If your child isn’t really into CS, then it won’t matter so much where he/she attends, but if your child is really a computer kid, and mine was a hacker from childhood, then I would think really, really hard before you pass up CMU SCS. I know you don’t want to hear this and some people will think it is wrong of me to suggest the financial sacrifice, but I’ve seen how happy and inspired my child has become there. I work hard and drive an older car to pay the bills but for me it’s been worth it.
Thank you everyone. I am the parent, so I am taking all of the advise with a grain of salt. She has decent offers from WPI, RIT, RPI, Northeastern, Case, and Binghamton. Some would cost half as much. She is leaning toward RIT. she wants to go visit CMU this weekend but we’re not sure it is a great idea to get her hopes up. CS is an interest, as she has enjoyed her HS class and some hackathons, but I would not say it is her passion. Also, while she is a strong, motivated student she can get overwhelmed. I’m concerned that the amount and difficulty of the work might be too much. @racetrack does your child participate in any clubs? DD wrote to a CS advisor last night and the answer was that she would be way too busy to hold a job for a few hours a week. But then I’m also worried we’re all going to think “what it?” For a long time.
@zoemurr you said you got the answer back for your appeal, how did you find out this information? we appealed and have not heard back yet and are unsure if we should go ahead and submit the deposit or not