@CSinPA My S received this email:
Thank you for your continued interest in Carnegie Mellon University. You’ve requested to remain on our Priority Waiting List and we’re reaching out for some additional information from you. We’ve determined that space is available in the following programs:
College of Engineering
College of Fine Arts
School of Architecture
School of Art
School of Music
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mellon College of Science
School of Computer Science
I’ve got to say that as a CMU alum I am embarrassed at how poorly the school seems to be treating it’s applicants. I am so sorry for the way that CMU is treating those of you who have jumped through hoops to remain on their waiting lists. My donations to the school have ended.
@shortnuke Thank you for saying that. To make kids go to an information session on campus was ridiculous! I took my S on accepted students day! It lasted 10 minutes and then you could take a tour so they can show you where you could have been. Families from out of town attended, to be told the slim chance their kids have, and all the kids looked so sad. I couldn’t wait to leave. Now, to have these kids write an essay and beg to go there, and you know there is no way they can read them all, to be rejected again.
did the school require you to go to an info session? because i never did, lol. should i bother with the essay? feelin kind of discouraged reading this thread.
@shortnuke I completely disagree. CMU is an elite university that costs more than $70,000 per year. Over four years, that is a $280,000+ commitment. Most waitlist applicants, if admitted, will not receive merit aid and only limited financial aid. As part of accepting priority waitlist status, these applicants already agreed to deposit $800 within 72 hours of admission, regardless of any financial aid awards.
Requiring interested/qualified priority waitlist applicants to complete these relatively simple tasks by Thursday screens out those are truly not absolutely certain they will attend CMU if admitted.
Waitlisted students who do not want to complete these tasks have the option to be on the non-priority waitlist.
@Overtheline I totally disagree. I think @shortnuke is 100% correct as is @Andromeda10. This is absurd. The wait list is bad enough. Then kids have to write the LOCI letter. To ask for another essay to be written in 24 hours is egregious. They are just asking this to make 100% sure that anyone who stays on the list will attend. Honestly, to them, this is just about their yield rate-- no thought to the students who are being dragged along in their flotsam and jetsam. I bet anyone who writes the letter gets in. Anyone know from last year (did they even DO this last year) if kids didn’t get in after writing this 2nd essay-- which isn’t short. It’s 500 words.
My daughter’s friend essentially wrote a GFY essay, so there’s one who won’t.
If you do get off priority, is it binding?
@ricecooker420 Yes, I believe so.
@ricecooker420 No it isn’t binding. See the FAQ.
@ricecooker420 I called admissions office to be double sure on this. She confirmed that it is not binding and student will have 72 hrs to confirm. You could call them tomorrow and reconfirm if that gives you more assurance.
@psycholing @clemsongrad thank you!
My kid just wrote an essay for SCS taking a shot a certain hockey player but tying it into SCS. It is epic, so I hope a Pittsburgh sports fan reads it. They will probably whine about it just like that player.
After the 5/1 decision, he just switched to full AP study mode and is looking to throw down a slew of 5s. CMU isn’t even in his thoughts as a “what if” anymore.
I have no idea what they are doing with this essay. At best, there can only be a handful of open spots. Just rank your list and call the high school guidance counselor to see if the student will accept the offer.
@DukeShama Let’s see if that statement holds true in two days lmao
@DukeShama@davy901 Good point. The wait is short enough we can check back tomorrow.
waitlist decisions are not need blind so dont even bother unless you can pay at least 80% of tuition
We received a financial aid letter with the original priority wait-list letter. We are not close to 80% pay. Are you saying they are ranking the wait-list based on need? They must have a stack of near perfect stat kids on the wait-list so you are probably correct.
If the Penguins lose tonight, there is no way he gets in anyway, based on his essay 
I showed a Pittsburgh fan at work his essay. He said there is no way they will accept him now.
They didn’t accept him with the original SCS love letter he originally wrote, so lets go the other way and have some fun.
@NoKillli Regarding your comment “Just rank your list and call the high school guidance counselor to see if the student will accept the offer”
Why would you recommend this as appropriate when LOCI, essays and direct communications with admissions exists? Also a hs guidance counselor may likely not know each families’ financial profile and all the college financial offers received to make a determination as to what a student may decide or not.
i also received a financial aid letter with my PWL decision and got very generous projected aid. maybe it was just a nice let down, though.
also regarding LOCIs and guidance counselors and all that, CMU was very clear they don’t want any additional materials besides this essay, and were very clear they didnt want a LOCI after the original WL decision either.
They specifically told us they were accepting LOCI