<p>I was waitlisted at SCS (the only school I applied to, stupid I know) and want to accept a spot on the priority waitlist. I also want to list a 2nd school to be considered for on the waitlist. From past threads however, it seems like SCS and CIT never accept people from the priority or regular waitlists at all. My only two choices therefore are H&SS (economics) and MCS (computational finance).</p>
<p>I really don't know why I only applied to SCS in the first place (and the most competitive one at that). My application is stronger in Economics than it is in Computer Science, but I didn't realize that when I applied. Of H&SS and MCS, which school is more likely to admit students from the priority waitlist? Also, what should I do to improve my candidacy at CMU and communicate my interests about H&SS or MCS to the admissions committee? </p>
<p>This is the only chance I have to get into a good university, and I really don't want to squander it. I'd appreciate any and all advice about what to do at this point.</p>
<p>You cannot apply for computational finance directly. People are accepted into the program based on their academic record at CMU (plus there are required classes you have to take before doing CompFinance).</p>
<p>HSS is more likely to accept students.</p>
<p>Improve candidacy – continue doing whatever project you are doing and send in the results of it if it’s really good.</p>
<p>If you’ve got some business going on, send them report of the profits for this quarter? (:</p>
<p>Continue to show interested – maybe come to sleeping bag weekend. Communicate your excitement and love for this college. (This is not really recommended unless you are truly able to afford to travel here with ease :/)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I have a few more questions:</p>
<p>1) Do you know how much easier it is to get off the wait-list for H&SS than MCS? I like MCS a lot more than H&SS, but I won’t list it as my 2nd choice for the waitlist if H&SS is much easier to admitted from. </p>
<p>2) Is it alright if I write to the admissions committee and express my interest in the Computational Finance major at MCS? I know that you can’t apply for it directly, but its still a B.S. degree program and its the one that I’m the most interested in at the college.</p>
<p>3) Excluding freshman grades, my UWGPA is a 3.85/4.00. I have 5 B’s total, four in sophomore year, and 1 in junior year. Three of my B’s are in math and science, one is in humanities, and another is in comp. sci. Given these terrible grades, do I have any shot at being accepted to MCS? Or will the competition on the wait-list kill me?</p>
<p>There you have it. I’m basically torn between getting waitlisted for H&SS as an economics major and MCS as a Computational Finance prospective major. My application looks better at H&SS than MCS. I would really prefer to be in MCS however, and I think I could write a better essay if I put myself on the waitlist there. Any advice would be welcome.</p>
<p>bump. I know that last post is really long, so if you don’t want to respond to those questions, thats fine. I’d appreciate any advice about getting off of the wait-list for CMU.</p>
<p>Computational Finance is in Tepper. But regardless, people apply to the program from any major, including HSS.</p>
<p>I cannot say whether or not it’d be easier to get off the waitlist for HSS than MCS (since it would depend on how many people they would be accept in general). I would list HSS and MCS as your two waitlist choices (is that possible?)</p>
<p>Otherwise, I think that if you were waitlisted to SCS, that is already very good. I surmise you could have gotten into MCS in that scenario and thus it wouldn’t really matter whether you put yourself on HSS or MCS.</p>
<p>I would put myself on HSS if I were in your position, though, simply because you look stronger as an Economics major.</p>
<p>
You can do it/it’s all right, but I don’t think it would have much of an impact, honestly D:</p>
<p>I don’t think your adcom will scrutinize your grades that heavily, given that some factor in your application must have led them to waitlist you at SCS instead of outright rejecting you.</p>
<p>The problem is, no one, including CMU, knows until May 1 if and how many places for each specific school will be available. Depends on their estimates from previous years, plus other variables that are hard to pin down precisely. Only after they tally the deposits for each school will they know if there are openings, and where. I don’t think you can predict at this time where openings might occur.</p>
<p>I recall years here on CC where people were getting priority calls right and left…check archives, but not so much in recent years. There must be a way to let them know you’d take a spot in either H/SS or MCS but that you do have a preference.</p>
<p>@First, I think the OP doesn’t have the option of listing both H&SS and MCS as his two waitlist choices. Since he only applied to SCS, my guess is that he has to choose SCS for his priority waitlist option and may select another school to be considered at. I got waitlisted at CIT and also want to stay on priority waitlist. The waitlist forms says you can “be considered” at another school, but does that mean you get priority waitlist status at that school or just regular waitlist status? I’m really confused, can someone help me out?</p>
<p>Notice that for HSS, 1.18k were admitted and 241 enrolled while in IS of 145 admitted, 62 enrolled.</p>
<p>I believe it is more likely that there will be open positions for HSS than IS, because of the yield. Additionally, many SCS majors may choose to waitlist for IS (it would make sense), so it’d be more strategic to pick HSS.</p>
<p>@First, thats a really good point. I want to choose H&SS right now, but there’s one big problem: my original CMU essay. Since I only applied for SCS, my original essay is only about computer science. If I applied to H&SS, I think it would be hard to connect the content of my essay to my interest in Economics. If I applied to Information Systems however, I might be able to use what I’ve already written to support my candidacy at IS.</p>
<p>I want to pick the school that is better for getting in. Does it matter if my previous essay has no mention of Economics? Will it look strange to the admissions committee that I’m trying to apply for Economics given that I first applied for CS, or will they be fine with it? Also, since IS is part of the H&SS school, how important are humanities credentials to the IS program?</p>
<p>Aargh, this is so difficult. I wish I could just decide already</p>
Eh. If you’ve submitted a priority deposit and list HSS, I could see you getting in. (Are you supposed to list a specific major within HSS? It’s my belief that Economics is one of the harder programs to get into since it’s jointly with Tepper.)</p>
<p>Anyway to CMU, that pretty much means that you want to enroll. So when it comes to picking priority applicants off the waitlist, I can see them picking out the stronger applicants and that could be you if you were to select HSS and you didn’t have to specify a program.</p>
<p>But the IS thing also does make more sense within the context of your essay, though I doubt adcom would go and look at it.</p>
<p>If you are required to specify a program, then choose IS over Economics for sure.
If not, I don’t know. Sorry =/.</p>
<p>@First, its fine. You’ve already given me a lot of excellent advice. If it does make a difference though, you are not required to list a specific program in H&SS (though I’ll probably write in Economics in my letter to the admissions committee).</p>
<p>@First - Comp Finance is in MCS and Tepper.</p>
<p>Students may major in Computational Finance while enrolled in either the Mellon College of Science or the Tepper School of Business. The major requirements are the same in either college, but students must satisfy the breatdth requirements of their home college.</p>
<p>Update: I’ve decided to list Information Systems as my second choice. Have some new questions though.</p>
<p>1) Should I revoke my financial aid package? I got 5k in grants and around 3k in subsidized loans. Waitlist admission is not needs-blind (for obvious reasons) so I’m afraid my financial aid package will ruin my chances of getting off of the waitlist.</p>
<p>2) As I mentioned earlier, my GPA is a 3.85/4.00 if you exclude freshman grades; 4 B’s in Sophomore year and 1 in Senior year. I got a B first semester of AP Comp. Sci (which I took in 10th grade) but got an A 2nd semester and earned A’s in my other CS classes. Given my GPA and CS grades, will I be killed by the competition on the SCS or IS waitlists?</p>
<p>CMU became desperate to increase their yield and created an incomprehensible waitlist system. They admitted less qualified students who are more likely to attend, and punted some of the more qualified students to the waitlist challenging them to ‘show interest’. How this will attract better students is probably only decipherable to the AC. Screw up if there ever was one.</p>
<p>I think its fine that they want to protect their yield (although not to the extent they did this year). But it is perplexing the type of students they seem to priority waitlist. One of the kids in my differential equations class got into harvard and stanford but did get put on the priority waitlist for CIT. What if the less qualified students choose not to go for financial reasons anyways.</p>