<p>No, I disagree with several of these posts. It is very much a numbers game, particularly for ECE or SCS, you need high numbers. BUT, it’s not just numbers, and sometimes high numbers isn’t enough. If they don’t like your essay, interview, recommendations or whatever, top numbers may not do it.If you are female, particularly for some of CMU’s colleges, you will get a distinct numbers break. That may also go for underrepresented minorities, but I don’t know (and I’m not talking Asian or Indian here).</p>
<p>Applying ED may not help you at all, especially for ECE or SCS, but you can apply early for one of the colleges and RD for the rest. Apply for AS MANY COLLEGES as you think you can show interest in (I believe they limit you to 5). Each college considers you separately. If you only apply to one or two of the toughest colleges to get into and you’re not female and your numbers aren’t high, it could be tough. It is all about strategy. My son got turned down ED for ECE, turned down for SCS and MCS in RD, but accepted for H&SS and IS. If this is your very top choice for sure, let them know it and apply for everything-but have a really good explanation of why you are interested in so many possible majors. We know people with better stats that didn’t get accepted because they only applied to CIT or SCS. You can transfer later into engineering (though it could be tough for ECE).</p>
<p>If you are truly interested, why not retake the SAT? It can only help you. And you might want to refigure what your GPA is not including your freshman year-they supposedly don’t consider that.</p>