<p>I got $0 in Financial Aid, so I appealed with various reasons and a $8,000 scholarship from NYU...and CMU informed me today that will still get $0</p>
<p>unfair?...why would they write to include $ from other colleges and then not give me anything at all..especially when their total cost hovers above $46,000...any ideas?...or anyone have experiences similar to this?</p>
<p>I am also curious why CMU seems to be so stingy in their Financial Aid and merit scholarships. A friend of mine got a $20,000 merit scholarship from Case Western and when he appealed mentioning this to CMU he only got $5000. So why is CMU so stingy? =(</p>
<p>Because it can. You will be enjoying some of the best faculty in the nation, super facilities and a cohort that realizes this. If you don't think so, then I'd go somewhere else. If you think the Value at CMU is better than another school then you will attend. Apparently you think that the Value could be better somewhere else. This may be true. Your choice.</p>
<p>On financial aid documents sent it shows: Reaction Letter - No Reaction. Does this mean that I did not get an increase, because I had some really good offers from other schools and other circumstances.</p>
<p>yes...i called them and asked what no reaction means...it means you didnt receive anything more than your original offer...</p>
<p>same problem here...$0 financial aid...went to request review and still got 0$...my friends got 10K-25K...how unfair is that? (i also reported schloarships from other colleges...)</p>
<p>Did you guys get it by mail? E-mail? I just faxed mine today and am hoping to get a response soon. I will also call them up tomorrow if they got all of it.</p>
<p>diggz: You'll hear a response in about 48 hours, according to CMU's financial aid presentation. Check your online status account then.</p>
<p>I found out Sunday evening that CMU is giving me $5000 more than the $9045 in grants they've already given me. I'm quite grateful, considering I have not been admitted to any of CMU's big competitors (though I did get a big merit award at a lower-tier school) nor did I have any dire financial circumstances to present. The letter I sent saying how desperately I wanted to attend CMU probably helped. But it still leaves a large gap between this and my best offer. I'll have to carefully evaluate whether the extra expense is worth it or not.</p>
<p>So I know someone posted a list of peer institutions for CMU. One of them was RPI. I just checked online and it says no reaction to my re-evalutation. I was awarded 11,000 at RPI. So it seems that it is not anywhere close to a peer institution. Does anyone know what school are then? Or does the no reaction not mean I am still left with $0 in aid?<br>
ps. I also had many other scholoarships from other private schools. Is there anything else I can do?</p>
<p>My floormates got aid by writing persuasive letters as well as appealing their case with finesse. I think they also called the office multiple times but in the end, it is CMU's decision to give more/less money. </p>
<p>Sometimes if a competitor gives too much, CMU might just cut its losses and allow you to attend that peer U. instead rather than wasting tens of thousands for 1 kid when there are many kids who need aid.</p>
<p>CMU only says it will reconsider its FA offer against others you may receive - they don't promise to up the ante for every student. Understand that CMU doesn't have nearly the endowment of many larger, older schools....Carnegie Tech and Mellon Institute were both started in early 1900s, but the schools didn't merge to form CMU until early 1960s...that leaves only about 45 years to build an endowment, compared to 150 or so for some of the other 'elite' schools.</p>
<p>Andrew Carnegie, who started the school for the <em>working class</em>, is rolling over in his grave. Not too long ago (about 50-60 years), Carnegie Tech would find students a job working something like two half-days during the week and all day on Saturday, and that job would suffice for tuition, whatever that job was. It's hard to believe it's the same place. </p>
<p>Anyway, here is the current list of peer institutions:
<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/ira/peer_institutions.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmu.edu/ira/peer_institutions.htm</a>
Cal Tech
Cornell
Duke
Emory
Georgia Tech
MIT
Northwestern
Princeton
RPI
Rice
Stanford
Penn
WUSTL</p>
<p>Skyflier asks,"I am also curious why CMU seems to be so stingy in their Financial Aid and merit scholarships."</p>
<p>Response: There are several reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>CMU doens't have that high of an endowment. Thus, they try to give aid when needed or to those kids that are super outstanding,which is tough to do at CMU.</p></li>
<li><p>CMU is a small school of around 5,500 people. Thus, they have a lot of costs to amortize over a smaller student population. This would limit how much overall aid they can give.</p></li>
<li><p>CMU is plainly cheap when it comes to aid. This is their policy because they can get away with it. I suspect that if you were interested in a school that isn't as in demand as CIT, such as HSS, you would have a better chance for aid because they want more kids. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Bottom line is that it is a seller's market for them. If you don't like it, their attitude is "go elsewhere." With 18,000 applications for 1,300 slots, they can get plenty of folks to pay the full cost. They don't need to give any aid at all.</p>
<p>I didn't get anything at first. I appealed with 26,000 from case and 22,000 from rpi, a peer institution, and they still won't give me anything. Oh well screw cmu.</p>
<p>[taxguy]
"Bottom line is that it is a seller's market for them. If you don't like it, their attitude is "go elsewhere." With 18,000 applications for 1,300 slots, they can get plenty of folks to pay the full cost. They don't need to give any aid at all."</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~
on the other hand, they have a notoriously low yield of accepted students, thus the disproportionately large waiting list, resulting in a class that includes perhaps more "second tier" enrollees than would otherwise be the case. There would seem to be a need for a sensible middle ground policy on scholarship matching if they want to insure a high quality class, and thus a continuing strong reputation (read "seller's market" status).</p>
<p>On a related point, Priority Waitlist (and general waitlist for that matter) applicants are NOT selected on a "need-blind" basis, thus allowing the possibility, at least, for CMU to cherry-pick the more affluent applicants from this group. They assured me over the weekend at the reception for waitlisted students, that financial aid status was not the basis on which PWL applicants would be ranked, but their stated policy is ambiguous at best: "Although Carnegie Mellon does follow an aid-blind policy for regular admission, our ability to admit students from the waiting list may be affected by those applying for financial aid"</p>
<p>BTW, the admissions counselor who gave the presentation claimed 19,000 applicants for this incoming class. That's a lot.</p>
<p>DGB notes,"on the other hand, they have a notoriously low yield of accepted students, thus the disproportionately large waiting list, resulting in a class that includes perhaps more "second tier" enrollees than would otherwise be the case. There would seem to be a need for a sensible middle ground policy on scholarship matching if they want to insure a high quality class, and thus a continuing strong reputation (read "seller's market" status"</p>
<p>Response: I completely agree. CMU should do a lot of things to increase their acceptance rates from their top applicants including more merit money or lower tuition. In fact, even if they just gave $2,000 to most students, we parents would feel a lot better than having to pay full tuition. From a business perspective, it seems rather idiotic to me. Their policy can only make sense ,however, if they want high paying students even at the expense of losing some higher quality applicants. This seems to be their unstated marketing philosophy.</p>
<p>You previously pointed out CMU's low endowment and then argue that CMU should give more merit money or lower tuition. Something not matching here?</p>
<p>The financial aid situation and the low yield, coupled with the waves of decision letters, make me wonder. I don't think they are necessarily trying to get the best applicants, I think they are trying to get the best applicants they can for as little cost as possible. Merit aid is simply not a priority. (It's alot like the Pirates baseball team! ;))</p>
<p>Well, at least your guys GOt your financial aid packages. I'm still waiting for mine. With what I'm hearin gon this topic, I'm not expecting much from CMU now.</p>
<p>"diggz: You'll hear a response in about 48 hours, according to CMU's financial aid presentation. Check your online status account then.</p>
<p>I found out Sunday evening that CMU is giving me $5000 more than the $9045 in grants they've already given me. I'm quite grateful, considering I have not been admitted to any of CMU's big competitors (though I did get a big merit award at a lower-tier school) nor did I have any dire financial circumstances to present. The letter I sent saying how desperately I wanted to attend CMU probably helped. But it still leaves a large gap between this and my best offer. I'll have to carefully evaluate whether the extra expense is worth it or not."</p>
<p>Would it make a big difference if I was not able to send them a letter through fax about how I desperately wanted to attend CMU? My gap was quite large though, about a 13k difference for the money that I would not ultimately pay.</p>