Congrats…I don’t know Steven’s but sure it is a great school if it is your #1. Congrats also on the FA , seems like you get the worst packages from the schools you most want. Haven’t received the FA from RPI yet, but I guess my s will go either way to RPI as that was his #2 and he was waitlisted at his #1. At least you don’t have to deal with all these questions now…Congrats again and best of luck! Guess you won’t be rooming with my son!
Re: rooms - there is significant turnover of rooms from year to year at RPI and housing is not guaranteed for JRs and SRs. These upperclassmen get an allocation of say 20% (completely made up number) of the rooms. A certain percentage will only be there for Fall semester (Coops, Dec grads, dropouts, etc). That, plus the one semester and dropout freshmen, is where the rooms for the Jan admits come from.
Re: Being behind - one of the great things about RPI as an engineering school, as compared to many large universities with smaller engineering schools within, is that a very high percentage of the required classes are offered both semesters. That makes it much easier to stay on target for graduation on whatever schedule you are on. Both of my kids are engineering majors, one at RPI and one at Penn State. They both entered college with the same number of credits, where my son could graduate a semester early, due to extremely high number of Spring only or Fall only classes in D’s major, there would be no way to organize her schedule to finish in seven semesters.
Re: RPI being greedy offering Jan admits - I understand it is a bit of a slap in the face, but would you really prefer an outright rejection? Jan admit gives those for whom RPI is first choice the chance to go, if you have better options, then it doesn’t apply to you just like admission to your safety if you get into better schools.
Lastly, @rhandco - if you do actually decide you do want Jan admission, your son could email admissions and see if they would hold his spot for a semester. It isn’t totally unheard of and the worst they can do is say no.
Stevens is very good, has a reputation for being expensive (more expensive to live in Hoboken than Troy), but good FA should negate that mostly.
The downside of Jan. admission I think was mentioned - not going off to college when his classmates do, and possibly not graduating the same semester. Maybe I am being greedy because I want another semester of unpaid babysitting?
I like the point about classes being offered both semesters, most people don’t get how important that is.
It is possible that a lot of students are graduating in December as well - maybe five-year program students who took an extra semester or a semester less to graduate too?
(I do have to admit a bit of jealousy about people being mailed items upon acceptance - however: I ordered my son an RPI T-shirt for the holidays (his first RPI gear), and paid for “2nd day” shipping and they sent it next day morning to arrive on the 24th!! I wonder if the bookstore looked up that he was admitted!!)
My guess would be most December grads are kids who came in without a significant number of AP credits and a) did a coop for a semester b) couldn’t handle a full ~18 credit engineering load a couple of semesters c) failed/dropped a couple of classes.
Don’t pay too much attention to the tone of the letter, you are let down because of the Jan Admission, not by the tone of the letter, I suppose.
Write a nice letter to the admissions office and seek the opportunity to get in this Fall or let the kids enjoy themselves and maybe learn something on their own if they truly want to go to RPI.