<p>Okay, another question for my DD. She took the PSATs in October (sophomore year) and she got a 208. Now she's getting tons of e-mails from colleges, some good, some bad, some indifferent. RPI has not e-mailed her. Did anybody get an e-mail like this from them sophomore year? I'm just curious if it's better to let them come to YOU or if she should request info on their website now to show that she's interested.</p>
<p>Be proactive. If she is at all interested, contact those colleges directly. Hey it shows interest!</p>
<p>RPI didn't send me any emails until I let them know I was interested. I took a tour of the school when I was a junior in high school and filled out an information request form, and they contacted me afterwards.</p>
<p>I currently attend RPI. GREAT SCHOOL!!!!! If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.</p>
<p>Thank you both! DD wants to wait till her SAT scores come in next week. There's no rush to contact them, since she's still a sophomore. We're thinking about going up to Troy for a visit in the summer or maybe even April if we get ambitious. </p>
<p>Marines920, can you give us any advice about ECs? That's definitely DD's weak point. How important are they for RPI admission if she has good test scores and good grades? (By good I mean upper tier good, not Ivy League good: Probably SATs over 2100 and a uw GPA around 3.8.) I'm hoping you'll say not that important!</p>
<p>My son did not even have RPI on his list until he receive the RPI Medal at the end of his junior year - that provides a $60,000 scholarship if accepted and attend. Acceptance rate is relatively high and her GPA and expected SAT scores are in-line with the schools. Also, there are only about 25% femailes, so she likely would have a good chance. My son visited and liked the school. He did not like the city location, but it is still a school that he is considering.</p>
<p>What's up with Troy? Everybody complains about it, but how bad are we talking really? Boring, nothing to do? Or actually dangerous? How does it compare to Poughkeepsie, say?</p>
<p>In reply to "What's up with Troy?"
We are talking, theres nothing to do there, as in you will run out of things to do after half a day if you take a trip there. At night, you walk out of the pizza places on Route 4 and ask yourself "what the hell am I doing here? I better walk quickly so those groups of people in shaggy clothes in the alleys of those buildings dont try to steal my pizza"..... um in other words, unless you're over 21 and go to bars, I know of very few people who walk down there just for the fun of it. Most people stay on campus, which is actually not so much a bad thing...</p>
<p>wackymother, it does help to be involved in a math or science related club, but I wouldn't say it's a very essential part of the selection process. The fact that she's a girl will probably help her more. With those stats, she'll have an excellent chance of getting accepted.</p>
<p>As for the "Troylet" ....eh... some parts are bad, some parts are nice. It's not a super safe place to wander alone at night, but I wouldn't call it a very dangerous area. Students don't really do too much in Troy. Occasionally there will be trips to the pizza places and whatnot, but there's more to do in nearby Albany.</p>
<p>Yay, DD got an e-mail from RPI yesterday! At least her name came up on the long, long, looooong list of PSAT possibles.</p>
<p>Whoops, forgot to thank you all for your help! Your insights are really helpful. We'll have more questions as we go along....</p>
<p>BTW, if we do go up to Troy in April, do you think it's okay to sign up for a tour (if they're available in the spring)? Since she's a sophomore, does it look too eager-beaver? No, right? There's no such thing as too eager-beaver?</p>
<p>We have been visiting RPI and Troy for the last 7 years. Our son Graduated from RPI three years ago and is still in the area attending Graduate School.
Here's a Link to the City of Troy's website</p>
<p><a href="http://www.troyny.gov/visittroy.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.troyny.gov/visittroy.html</a></p>
<p>Eating in Troy off campus: Manory's Diner - 99 Congress St., is a busy local Diner. The Cast of "The Age of Innocence" apparently liked to eat there according to autographed pictures by the register. This place gives some local color.
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106226/%5B/url%5D">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106226/</a></p>
<p>There have been lots of improvements over the last seven years that we have observed, both in Troy and RPI.</p>
<p>wackymother</p>
<p>See if your D's High School Participates in the RPI Medal Program. </p>
<p>The High Schools Faculty can award this to a Junior Year Student that excells in Math and Science. The RPI Medal comes with a $60,000 minimum Scholarship if the student is accepted and attends RPI. There can be other awards added to this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Troy links, rich. DD's HS does participate in the Medal program--I started a thread asking about that. I have to get DD to go in and start sweet-talking the guidance office about recommending her. </p>
<p>Some of the kids who went to RPI are saying that they were nominated b/c they had the highest math/science scores in their schools. DD is nowhere near the top math/science scores in her big, competitive HS (they had an Intel finalist last year, and they have kids who go to Columbia U for advanced work in math), but I'm hoping Guidance will put her down for the medal if she expresses great interest in RPI.</p>
<p>Even if she's not the top in her HS for math and science, and doesn't get the medal. RPI has extensive Merit Aid and since she, from the stats you listed, seems to be at the higher end of their applicant pool, she should receive some nice merit aid. </p>
<p>From US News and World Report
[quote]
Female applicants: 1,265
Female acceptances: 985
Female freshman enrollment: 259</p>
<p>SAT I scores (25/75 percentile):
Verbal: 580 690
Math: 640 730
Combined: 1220 1420
[/quote]
No matter what they offer, if she is accepted and gets merit aid from some other school that exceeds what RPI offers, have her call and try to negotiate for more from RPI. My son did that and was able to get a few thousand a year in merit aid, where none was originally offered. (Important that the student, not the parent make the call.)</p>
<p>Good Luck to you and your daughter.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting those numbers. The SAT scores just came in and she's definitely within striking distance--2060 combined. She's a sophomore, so she has a year to get her numbers up. Thanks again!</p>
<p>i am a junior in high school, and i just got a letter from them yesterday. im looking to go into architecture, and i heard it is a good school for that</p>
<p>another thing to add:</p>
<p>wackymother, take a deep breath. ok. YOUR DAUGHTER IS GOING TO BE FINE. SHE IS ONLY A SOPHOMORE. she doesnt really have to start thinking about colleges until JUNIOR year. in the meantime, let her enjoy life. dont have her stress out too early, or she will be burned out before the real challenges of junior year begin. let her just relax and watch a movie or frolic through the park or read a magazine. she will get into a college.</p>
<p>Laurstar, don't worry! DD is extremely la-di-dah about the whole college thing. She's super-smart but a classic underachiever. She took the SATs in January to qualify for a summer course, not b/c she's stressed about college. She does what she does, and we don't push her to do much--even if we do, she still does pretty much what she wants! The reason for my college interest is that we're hoping if we take her to see some colleges and she really likes one, she'll work harder now and next year trying to get into it. </p>
<p>A friend's daughter just went through the whole application process last year. The girl is really a top achiever, smart, personable, very focused on doing all the right things to get into an Ivy. Well, guess what--she didn't get in. But now she's at a top college, just not an Ivy, and she LOVES it, and it's a wonderful fit for her. </p>
<p>Even when she was in HS, I was horrified by the hoops she was going to to make herself appealing to the Ivies. The stress was overwhelming. Having seen that, I totally agree with you--enjoy high school, learn for the sake of learning, do what you love to do.</p>
<p>wackymother-- I'm glad to hear your sophmore D has a relaxed attitude. The college pressure increases each year. My D is a senior. She's a high achiever, all honors classes, all A's with a lot of self inflicted stress. She's number 3 out of 260 in a very competitive High School. She opted not to apply to any Ivies. She stated very strongly that she did not want to go to college with other stressed out students. She want to be with nice smart kids who enjoy what they are doing. Sounds good to me. Stress can be damaging to anyone.
Oh, by the way, she was a RPI medalist. We're waiting to hear if she is accepted. Sounds like you are a very organized parent to be this involved in your D's sophmore year. I have a S who is a sophmore and won't think about all this until D is "in" somewhere.</p>
<p>Oh, I hope your DD gets accepted! Third in her class...wow. Certainly sounds like she will. </p>
<p>DD's average is probably in the 4.0 area weighted and she might not even be in the top 10 percent. There are just sooo many really great students out there, really hard workers and super-bright and dedicated to boot.</p>