<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I got onto the priority waitlist and I need some clarification on it.
Alright, so if I do happen to get in through the waitlist and pay the 800 dollars, am I obliged to go there, or can I still choose the college that accepted my before May 1st?</p>
<p>Also, does CMU offer any financial packages for those on the waitlist? (The ones who got accepted from it)</p>
<p>If you agree to be on the priority waitlist, you do not have to pay $800 and do not have to say that you will accept their admission offer if they accept you from the priority waitlist (it is non-binding and there is no way they can force you to pay anything). They just want to know how serious you are about considering them, plus you find out from them sooner (May 6th) on the priority waitlist. If you choose regular waitlist (or you move to regular waitlist from not being accepted off of the priority waitlist), you will not find out until June 1st.</p>
<p>Also, students on the priority waitlist receive financial aid packets from CMU as soon as they become available. Hope this answered your questions!</p>
<p>First, congrats on making it this far at CMU!</p>
<p>You need to first choose one college from among your accepted schools to submit your intent to enroll with a deposit by May 1. You likely will not hear if you got off the wait list at CMU until AFTER May 1. If you are offered a spot in the class in early May and decide to take the offer (and you’ll have to give a deposit within 48 hours I believe), you then have to withdraw from the original school you put a deposit down at prior to May 1. You loose that deposit at the original school. If you deposit at CMU, yes, you have to attend. Don’t deposit there if you get off the wait list unless you are going to attend. </p>
<p>CMU does offer financial packages to wait listed students. The year my D was on the Priority Wait List at CMU, she received a SEPARATE mailing for her financial aid package, including scholarships after she was notified she was put on the wait list but before she would ever hear if she was given a spot in the class. They do this so that you have the aid package in hand already and can weigh it because if offered a slot off the wait list, you will have to commit within 48 hours and so should have in mind prior to early May what you would decide if that happens.</p>
<p>I cross posted with mrm4052 and he/she is absolutely correct. If you are seriously considering CMU, you can opt to stay on the Priority Wait List and if accepted, decline the offer. NO money is involved in opting to stay on the Priority Wait List. But if offered a spot in the class, you will have very little time to decide (this is around May 6) and if you decide to enroll, you will have to give a deposit at THAT juncture.</p>
<p>Not saying this will happen, but in theory if I do decide to go to CMU and they offer me no money (I am relatively poor), I will have to resort to bank loans right?</p>
<p>[The</a> Waiting List - Frequently Asked Questions](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/enrollment/admission/waiting/faq.html#1]The”>http://www.cmu.edu/enrollment/admission/waiting/faq.html#1)</p>
<p>check out this website for information on priority vs. regular wait list.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering most of my questions so far guys, but I have one more question (adding on from my previous one): So according to what I have researched so far, it looks like CMU offers you money only a week after if I decide to go to CMU from the waitlist (If I get accepted that is). This also means that all the money I received from my previous college will go down the drain if I choose to accept the offer. Is it worth it to take that money gamble? Like the best case scenario is if I get a full ride (which would be awesome), and the worst case is if I get nothing.
Tell me what you guys think.</p>
<p>I believe you would receive the financial aid offer BEFORE you would get an acceptance, so you would already know what you have to work with if you do get an offer. You could weigh all your offers at that time. So it wouldn’t require a gamble, just a quick decision, since you only have 2 days to decide. (I would double check this with a call to the admissions office.) However, if you have put down a deposit at another school, but then change your mind, you may lose that deposit.
I haven’t heard of anyone getting a full ride, but they are generous with their grants if there is demonstrated need. Best of luck!</p>
<p>To be clear, you should get your financial aid letter within a week of getting your wait list notification…in other words, quite soon and well before you MIGHT get offered a spot in the class off the wait list, which usually doesn’t happy until the first week of May. So, you will be able to weigh the financial part in advance of any decision. If you take CMU’s offer (IF it ever happens) to enroll, which will be after May 1, you will lose your deposit at your original school.</p>
<p>Now I feel a lot better!</p>
<p>Anyways here are the few final questions I have:
<p>I have a question…</p>
<p>If i am on the Priority Waitlist and get accepted and then i pay the deposit, is it possible for me to reject my offer at CMU and forfeit my deposit? or is it now compulsory for me to attend, since i have paid the deposit???</p>
<p>Anyone at any college who pays a deposit and opts later to not attend, can back out and forfeit the deposit. It is not binding to attend. </p>
<p>There is something called “summer melt” at colleges whereby some accepted and deposited students back out over the summer. </p>
<p>HOWEVER, it is unethical to deposit at more than one college. Do not do that please.</p>
<p>My daughter just got on the CMU priority waitlist and although I see notes saying it’s not binding, the form says she has to put a checkmark against the option that says CMU is my first choice and if accepted I will deposit $800. DOes signing the form make it binding? Do you know if people have signed the form and then not accepted the offer of admission? Does CMU send a collection agency in that case?</p>
<p>I have talked to the admissions office at CMU and they are working on the Financial Aid packages for wait listed students and will start mailing them out within the week.</p>
<p>ophelia123, if you back out, you will lose your deposit, but they won’t come after you for full tuition, if that is what you are asking.</p>
<p>My D was also offered a spot this week on the priority or regular waitlist (whichever option we choose to go with)…just got the financial package today in the mail. So now we need to decide if she will accept the offer of the wait list or not. The letter also mentions that a person should go ahead and deposit at another school in the meantime so that at least there is a definite plan. Then if we get off the CMU waitlist, at that point we would have 72 hours to pay the $800 deposit at CMU. Does anyone know the answer to this question: is there more money available? Let’s say the person who does not accept their spot had some CMU scholarships, does that scholarship money get offered to the person moving up off the waitlist??? Just trying to figure out the financial end of things…my D was offered an undergraduate grant from CMU but it is less than the scholarships she was offered at other schools so we’re wondering if there might be other funds available anywhere???</p>
<p>You do get that 72 window to decide whether to hold the spot with a deposit and so keep that in mind. Right now, you are not fully committing as no deposit is required at this juncture.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if we can be on multiple priority waiting lists? It says on the FAQ that “If you’re on the waiting list for more than one college at Carnegie Mellon, you’ll receive separate admission decisions for each college.”</p>
<p>But that doesn’t specify priority waiting lists…</p>
<p>First of all, congratulations! They auditioned about 2,000 students. They offered spots to 5 females and 7 males. To be on the priority waitlist, it’s an educated guess that your student landed somewhere around #6-#9 ish. Wow! You should be very very proud!!</p>
<p>On point: I would suggest you place a call to CMU and ask that very specific question. It is an excellent question that you should not in any way shy away from asking the right person for a correct answer (I believe that would be Senior Academic Advisor Ari Blackford, but I’m not certain. She could certainly direct you to the right person.) </p>
<p>Let me add this little insight. My child was offered admission and was given a fairly substantial scholarship. However, even something substantial with the price tag at CMU was more than we could afford. I don’t recall the exact correspondence (email, fat package, etc…) but we were told that if she was offered a better financial package at an “equally situated” institution, they would revisit her award. We later learned that state schools with out of state tuition costs did not count as “similarly situated” as they were not private institutions. Read that, schools like NYU, Syracuse, Northwestern, etc… We had to provide them with proof of the written offers that were better than their original offer. It was submitted to a committee for review. It is a ONE TIME review, so make sure you have all your offers in before taking this step…we received another better offer one just a day after applying for this review. </p>
<p>Good luck!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, catchastar!</p>