<p>foosho: is that the general waiting list or pwl</p>
<p>emmmm didn't say....I'm guessin it means for both regular waiting list and pwl combined</p>
<p>Ok, i'm really having trouble if i wanna do the PWL or the Regular one.</p>
<p>CAN ANYBODY TELL ME CLEAR AND SIMPLE.</p>
<p>IS THE PWL BINDING? Meaning if I get accepted, I MUST attend CMU.</p>
<p>answer asap since there's only 2 days till the pwl deadline</p>
<p>PWL IS BINDING.</p>
<p>Hope that answers your question.</p>
<p>foosho: Saw this in the wall street journal today - 2006 there were 3184 waitlistees. 65 of those were accepted off the waitlist. This year there are 2894 waitlistees.</p>
<p>If you need an answer to an important question like "is PWL binding?" you're probably best off calling admissions to ask.</p>
<p>dang I'm scared...lol (nervous laughter). I hope not that many people do the Priority waitlist, or even accept their wait list spots.</p>
<p>same here =O</p>
<p>uh i just got a financial aid letter packet.... do all waitlistees get this?</p>
<p>yes. they dont want you doing pwl if you cant afford it.</p>
<p>yeah, I love it.</p>
<p>They changed my EFC to make it so that it is literally more than half of what we MAKE in a year. Yes you read it right, not can afford to pay, literaly >1/2 of my moms salary!!! and on top of that, the financial aid package they gave me then consisted of about 50% loans. HA! In the end, it would cost me well over 100k in loans to go to CMU, much of which wouldn't be provided by CMU, but would come from a bank or something.</p>
<p>I am so seriously speechless, it's almost laughable. Its as if they accidentally tacked another 0 onto my moms salary.</p>
<p>PROBLEM WITH PRIORITY WAITLIST: Before you blithely accept priorty waitlist,be aware that there are problems. First, you will get last dibs on any housing since everyone else made their housing choices before you.</p>
<p>Second, You will NOT be eligible for any merit aid. This is CMU's policy. You may be very close in stats to those listed,but you will get no merit aid.</p>
<p>Third, CMU ordinarily will match offers given by "comparable schools>": Thus, if you got some merit money at a comparable school, CMU will try to match it. HOWEVER, This does NOT apply to waitlisted kids. There is no negotiation or matching for waitlisted kids.</p>
<p>Finally, although they state that they will give some need based aid to waitlisted kids, most of this money was already allocated to the kids that were accepted first. Thus, there is generally less money available.</p>
<p>damn that sucks, thanks for the info...but whatever I'll be tremendously happy if i get in</p>
<p>taxguy: they offered me about 20k in grants, but since I was pwl you are saying that its very possible that they will not follow the financial aid package I received? (of course assuming I will even be accepted)</p>
<p>Sanj8, NO, I am not saying that. If they offered you 20K in grants, they probably will follow through. Usually,however, PWL students were only given need based aid last year. I would bet that your 20K is need based. </p>
<p>Just for the record, my daughter was a PWL student , and they offered her no merit aid and no abiliity to negotiate based on what other comparable schools and programs were offering. Who knows? Maybe they changed their policies from last year due to a high rejection rate by applicants.</p>
<p>Just curious, is that 20K per year or 20K in total throughout your four year tenure?</p>
<p>yes its not merit aid. because its need-based aid, im assuming that the 20k is only for this year. Since they gave me more financial aid than my instate school, UMCP, I'd be more than happy if they accept me.</p>
<p>ehiunno: thats what University of Michigan did to me too. they doubled my EFC and cut their proposed amount of grants in half. my mom refuses to even consider michigan as a prospective college now lol</p>
<p>Merit awards are for the top applicants, or the ones that CMU really wants to snag. It makes no sense to me why any school, let alone CMU, would offer merit aid to someone who is accepted off the wait list. </p>
<p>Of course you'll get last dibs on housing! They make it clear...housing choices go by the order in which you submit your deposit to attend CMU. Sounds fair enough to me. It makes perfect sense that by May 8 most desirable housing would be taken. It's my understanding, at least it was a few yrs ago, that they are able to get most, if not all, of those temporarily housed off campus, back into campus housing within a few weeks. And most off campus housing is pretty good.</p>
<p>"Maybe they changed their policies from last year due to a high rejection rate by applicants." Gimme a break. Puleez.</p>
<p>233clk, it doesn't make sense that CMU would negotiate and try to match offers from comparable schools for ALL students EXCEPT waitlisted students! This is one policy that other top schools don't have with regard to waitlisted students. Secondly, the waitlisted kids are very close in stats to those that were accepted. They might be a minor difference among the class of waitlisted kids and those that were accepted, much of which would be debatable.</p>
<p>taxguy,</p>
<p>I can tell you that unfortunately this happens in MANY university programs. I understand what you are saying that the students may be statistically very close and it certainly doesn't seem fair, but nonetheless it happens all the time. The merit money seems to go to the best of the best and if a student is waitlisted they just don't make the cut when that merit money and scholarships are awarded. The need based money also gets divided up and those that are first to get in their FAFSA applications and send in their deposits usually do benefit more in this process. This is not a rarity at all.</p>
<p>does anyone know how we'd get notified about their decisions?</p>