Son into Tepper but received 0 financial aid, not even a federal loan! Only school out of 12 that didn’t offer any aid. He’s into Emory, NYU and USC with substantial grants and case western with a presidential scholarship. Program at a Tepper seems great but is is really worth the full price tag? Tough choice.
@aglees Awesome! Your son has great choices. With 0 aid, in my personal opinion, it wouldn’t be worth it unless you have a deep pocket. Emory, NYU, USC, and Case Western are all amazing schools and it would be wise to consider those especially since your son was offered aid/scholarships. Trust me, in my experience, it will be hard on both of you guys to be in debt at such an early stage of his academic career. Best of luck though!
@aglees I feel like there is no reason to chose Tepper over Emory or NYU if you have received 0 aid.
@Jaqin123 Yes, she got off the wait list. The essay prompt mentioned how CMU does not have one specific school color but rather a combination of colors that make up a tartan pattern and what those colors signified. Then they asked the student “what would be in your tartan pattern and why?”. It was a 500 word response. I think her LOCI was about 600-700 words if I remember correctly. She got notice of acceptance on 5/5.
Does CMU accept LOCI?
Their website said that they won’t accept it but if previous waitlisted applicants got in by writing it, I won’t mind writing one
That new essay for waitlisted kids is designed to get only the supremely motivated to apply for waitlist status. Clever and mean of CMU. I guess it gets the kids ready for the overwhelming academics at CMU. GaTech is a somewhat easier school, for less money. GaTech allows students to take honors math only of they want to work that hard. GaTech does not have the world class business college, like Tepper, but it does have strong math and science, maybe a bit better than CMU. CMU is top for musical theatre, then business, and computer science. Even engineering is not ranked as well as some would believe, but depends on the exact field at CMU. Materials science is better at GaTech, and industrial engineering is also better at GaTech. Sciences are surprisingly weak at CMU, look at ranks for chemistry for instance, U of Colorado Boulder, beats CMU by a long shot.
With that, CMU is a private school, which gets a student something valuable. A tighter network and easier access to lab work and research.
However, every single CMU science and engineering student can get research work on campus and mentoring.
At Gatech, stand in line, and become a squeaky wheel! GaTech offers a three semester research degree option, and CMU offers a four semester research degree option, very similar, there.
The computer science program is over 2000 students at GaTech. They do very well with registration at Gatech, though because of the thread specialization. A and B students can get research at GaTech, and the study help is phenomenal at GaTech.
CMU offers stronger humanities and social sciences compared to GaTech. Obviously theatre and music are top
in nation at CMU.
@victoriaaaaaa May I ask which school within CMU she was accepted into?
and don’t forget, CMU has a top business program too. My engineering son is also getting a minor in business from CMU. Great combination!
If you are talking engineering and care about US News rankings then GT is hands down winner over CMU. If you are talking business then CMU better but there are many other business schools I would take over CMU for business
@jackson5123 What you are missing is the difference between a large public school and a private school. At a school like GATech, there are over 2000 CS majors, and many thousands in mechanical engineering. GT is more lopsided than CMU. CMU severely limits the number in each major, thus this waitlist discussion! So some on this list want to go to CMU for the greater care they will get at CMU as an undergraduate.
GT is very good, but a student needs to stand in line and be a squeaky wheel. Not all students are mature enough to handle the system at GT. Also class registration is tough at GT. Its by seniority, and thus freshman will usually just take linear algebra and English 1 or 2, and a health class, as well as say psychology to finish off a social science requirement to graduate at GT. Its just a bit tough in freshman year at GT. It does get better there, but students are routinely on waitlists. to get into classes. There is a huge shuffle the first week of classes at GT while students add and drop classes. It works out OK for many engineering majors though at GT.
At GT, if you pick a particular CS thread, you have priority to sign up for classes in that thread. So, if a student is taking the modeling and simulation thread but wants to take artificial intelligence at GT, he stands in line BEHIND the kids in the Intelligence thread. Each GT student picks 2/8 threads to study. They can get classes in the other threads but not always. Also GT actually has more requirements for all majors and GT does NOT allow students to easily minor in mathematics, but some can.
GT completely makes double majoring IMPOSSIBLE, as they demand a huge number of extra credits, so at least
five years to double major.
CMU also has a registration system, but its just a lot smaller and simpler, and more flexible, as I understand CMU.
does anyone know this years acceptance erate
@jaqin123 She is in MCS.
@Coloradomama The essay was given to the wait listed kids after they were on the wait list. It was not an option given to the students so they could apply for wait list status.
Have you guys received financial aid from the college yet?
My son refuses to check his CMU financial aids. He insists to go to University of Washington as a Direct Admit to Allen School of Computer Science.
@pdxtigermom CMU financial aid came out and my youngest daughter did not get that much unfortunately. We are looking at her other options.
@Jaqin123 I don’t think we’ll get any financial aids. UW it is!
@jackson5123 The latest US NEWS Engineering Rankings
======================MIT, CalTech, GATech
Engineering Prog. Rankings: 1, 4, 4
Computer Engineering…: 2, /, 5
Biomedical Engineering…: 2, /, 3
Chemical Engineering…: 1, 5, 2
Electrical Engineering…: 1, 6, 4
Aerospace Engineering… : 1, 2, 3
Industrial Engineering…: /, /, 1
Materials Engineering…: 1, 9, 3
Mechanical Engineering…: 1, 6, 2
Environmental Engineering… :4,19, 6
That says it all! Never going to beat MIT but better tan CalTech is unreal.
@victoriaaaaaa Thanks for the info. But it does not change my opinion, that using additional essays makes
no sense. The students who got in under ED, and RD did not write those, and CMU Admissions could sort out
those students with the info required. To require an additional essay at this point, is just brutal. And then some students will actually write that, and still get a reject. I sure hope everyone says NO to this game. As though another stupid essay will actually separate the deserving from the undeserving? I think wait lists often work off of geography at other schools. So student A in CA says no and student B on waitlist in CA gets selected, same gender to keep gender balance.
The waitlist is not need blind, so another factor, if you have need, not likely to get in.
By CMU’s own words, being put on a waitlist QUALIFIES students to get in if there is space. So requiring another essay makes no sense. Rolling a dice would be better. There are not enough spots for qualified candidates.