very low, i think it was around 4% recently. Varies by school
Have you seen a change to her financial aid? My financial aid has not changed! Still no aid.
Yes
It says decision will be released May 3 which is after National decision day.
How is it useful ?
I guess they just wanted to tell us more about the waitlist
2020 - Admitted students = ~4,500; applicants placed on WL = ~6,800
2019 - Admitted students = ~4,300; applicants placed on WL = ~5,700
Why does CMU place more applicants on WL than they admit? Just curious!
Because WL is just a large pool of qualified applicants that colleges can choose from, and who they choose depends on who they are trying to replace.
When the number of WL candidates getting accepted is just few hundreds (over last 5-6 years), what necessitates CMU to have have 130% to 150% buffer? (meaning, number of WL students are ~130% to ~150% of number of admitted students). I can understand a buffer of 20% to 40% (most colleges use that buffer range for WL), but does CMU require a 150% buffer to ensure they retain the “SHAPE” of their class while admitting students from WL? OR, are they trying to give the WL students a bragging right? Just trying to understand why CMU is an outlier here.
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I don’t think CMU is an outlier. As I understand all colleges have very large WL pools and only a small percentage from the WL make it in. The WL exists for colleges’ benefit not for the benefit of the applicants, so why wouldn’t they put every qualified applicant on the WL, it only increases their flexibility and choice, to have a large WL. Another thing: in rare cases colleges do need to pull a significant number of people from WL. I believe that happened in UCSB last year, for pandemic related reasons. That’s not expected to repeat this year.
I have no special knowledge on this (i.e., I am guessing), but I can think of a few reasons why a waitlist might be that large.
The first, and possibly most important, is they have little reason to make it smaller.
Beyond that, students on the waitlist are not necessarily interchangeable . . . they have to fill open slots in schools (and majors) and (ideally) fill demographic holes created when people go elsewhere. Combinations of major / gender / race / geography might (or might not) mean they would like to have many people lined-up because they don’t know what any given opening will look like.
And, while I assume they are generally good at anticipating yield, this is an odd year (I expect waiting lists to be used very heavily this year simply because of the large increase in applications) and that adds uncertainty. Also, in any year, there is a chance of surprise . . . maybe UMich adds a new major that pulls a few people that would have gone to CMU or NYU engineering gets serious and starts throwing merit scholarships at students interested in robotics and CMU is down another 5. 
Finally, I THINK CMU has a lower percentage of ED admits than most comparable schools, so they are dealing with more uncertainty come May 1.
Does CMU give music scholarships?
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I doubt it. They are need based.
What do you guys think the acceptance rate was this year? Definitely lower than last year.
We still haven’t gotten financial aid award letter yet… she contacted her rep two times and they advised she should have it soon??
Are you not able to access it through her portal? I had a financial aid package in the portal and a copy arrived with my acceptance package. Mine did not change. It is still almost full pay! I really don’t understand it!
Me either…we have nothing yet!
Do they even give merit? We have nothing as well. If it’s full pay my son won’t attend.
Did you guys apply for financial aid ? My Daughter contacted her school rep and she went to financial aid on her behalf…response was they are working on it.
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No we didn’t file a FAFSA. We wanted to wait until he decided where he was going before disclosing our finances to 15+ schools. Do they give merit awards?
Carnegie Mellon doesn’t award merit scholarships, except for limited performance-based scholarships awarded by their School of Drama and School of Music, which are included in a student’s financial aid package. *Apr 3, 2019
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