<p>RISD put me on their Priority Waiting List. According to their letter, a large percentage of applicants get off the list.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon (Design) also put me on a waitlist status. They work a little differently though - I have the option of choosing to be on the Priority Waitlist or the Regular one. I think one year they had no one get off both waitlists.</p>
<p>Here's the twist: CMU's Priority waitlist is binding.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon has been my dream school for years. RISD was my second choice school right after Carnegie Mellon. Had I been accepted to the two, I would've compared the costs/financial aid.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure if I should go for the Priority WL or the Regular WL at CMU, though.
CMU's tuition is about $55k total. RISD's is about $40k.</p>
<p>I'm a mess. If anything, I wanted to avoid waitlist situations. Decision making is the ultimate stress/weakspot for me, which is why I feel the need to consult CC.</p>
<p>In terms of quality of the programs, you can’t go wrong in either place. If Carnegie Mellon is your dream school why not move forward on the priority list. Unless the money makes a difference. 15k per year difference is nothing to sneeze at. Did RISD give you some aid? With room and board the total cost of attendance is more like 50k there. Carnegie does let you request a review of any financial aid offers. Maybe now would be the time to get that going in case you do get in.</p>
<p>I went to RISD years ago and loved it. A plus is that you are very close to Boston and all that is available there. I even went to NYC a few times on weekends.</p>
<p>CMU’s priority waitlist means you could not also go on RISD’s waitlist? And CMU admitted no one from their waitlist last year? So the odds… not good.</p>
<p>RISD said you have a good chance to get off the waitlist, but you’d have to give up that chance to put yourself at longer odds to go to CMU–which incidentally costs $60,000 more over 4 years?</p>
<p>And more important, if you don’t get off any waitlists, do you have a school you will be attending?</p>
<p>@madbean I don’t think CMU said they didn’t offer anyone on the waitlist last year. It was just ONE year some year… as for RISD, I know there were 2 or 3 years when they admitted no one off the wait list.</p>