College Confidential Forums

@Jliu32472 My younger son also got a financial aid award last year, its given to all CMU waitlsted students to try to convince them to sign up for the waitlist, and to know for sure they can afford CMU. But these financial awards are one year awards, and years 2,3 and 4 one needs to reapply each year. If there are changes in your family’s status (number of children in college, salary, debt,) then the award can and will change , up or down. I do not see how a school can force anyone to take a spot, but yes, Carnegie Mellon really only wants students who are going to say yes to get onto their waitlist. (thus the name “priority”, but thats the ONLY waitlist available at CMU. )

Students can say no to this waitlist and then they are not considered, and they can move on and pay for their second choice college.

As an example of how this may work:

My older son got onto two waitlists. He was admitted on May 5 to one college, (Pomona College) and he was rejected on July 15 by the other. (Vanderbilt U ) So the problem with waitlists is you do not know
the criteria (geography, race, gender, test scores?) or how far down your child is on that waitlist. The top students get calls right away, in May, and the student needs to have his cell phone turned on and take the phone call. Schools are calling lots of kids and they are trying to reach a human, so its very important to take the phone calls with a CMU area code, if the student gets onto the waitlist.

One option is to get onto the waitlist and then if your student gets no call by May 30, get BACK OFF it. That way your student is not waiting until July.