<p>Hey! I was wondering what my chances of getting into WPI and getting good merit aid are.
My stats are as follows:</p>
<p>gpa:
4.35/5
my school uses wierd out of 5 system. To put it into perspective, I got straight B-'s freshmen year in all honors-level classes ( I was lazy), B+'s with two A's sophmore year, all honors and one AP (ap comp sci), and B+'s and one A junior year, all honors. </p>
<p>Test scores:</p>
<p>SAT 1: 2300</p>
<p>Math: 760 Reading: 740: : writing: 800</p>
<p>SAT 2's</p>
<p>Math 1 : 790
Pysics 1: 790</p>
<p>AP:</p>
<p>Comp sci BC: 5</p>
<p>EC's:
Robotics team: very active member, getting a rec about it from teacher advisor
President Magic the Gathering club, Board game club (I'm kinda a nerd)
Out of school Russian literature/drama/culture club (I'm a russian immigrant. Go to this class to remember my heritage/ languadge)
Play Violin</p>
<p>If it matters, I want to major in comp sci or electrical engineering</p>
<p>if your grades keep trending upward _ don’t slack off - I think you will almost definitely get into WPI. You may need to get your GPA up to get the best merit aid, but you would probably get some as is (again as long as your grades don’t trend down) I would apply to one of their early decisions. (they have 2 dates for ED, 1 for RD)</p>
<p>I am not so positive on the size of the merit award. (They pay more attention to GPA than we would have expected.) But I agree, you would almost definitely be accepted and you would get merit aid. A continuing upward grade trend would seal the deal and garner a larger award. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Yeah, as others said, you are definitely in. That’s for sure if you don’t slack of for the rest of your senior year. If you can keep it to 4.6+, you would get a good merit aid, but if you keep your goa at current level, you would still get around 25-30k. So, try to keep your gpa up. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Getting in won’t be a problem, but I don’t know where al6200 and SRB2006 are getting their figures on merit aid. There is no way you’d get that kind of merit aid with your GPA, based on what I saw with my son and his friends who applied to WPI this year. I assume they are including need-based financial aid in their total figures - but even then I wouldn’t go in thinking you would get even close to those figures. Better to plan on lower numbers and then be happily surprised if they are indeed higher.</p>
<p>I had a 4.0/5.0 GPA and a 2170 SAT. I got a little over 20k in merit aid. I think that this guy will get significantly more. Although WPI is SAT optional, the reality is that they want to keep up their scores on US News by admitting people with high SATs.</p>
<p>The numbers you guys have been giving have been a bit higher than I was thinking. I know a guy with a 4.7 who got 17K in grants, witch is like half as much as you guys are saying. Can B+ students really get that much $$$ from WPI with high SAT’s?</p>
<p>None of us are sure, since we don’t work at the financial aid office. But I’d imagine that they want to attract people with high SATs because it improves their rank on USNews.</p>
<p>I agree with #theorymom - while it is likely you will receive some amount of merit aid, I think a few of the above posters are suggesting pretty high numbers.</p>
<p>al6200 - then you must have had some other award or something important to them that they took into account for your merit aid. My son had a better GPA than you and about the same SATs and got 1/2 of the aid that you mention. There is obviously more to this than SAT and GPA - including luring certain demographics into the school and other factors.</p>
<p>All work that admission office does is completely unpredictable, so it’s not that easy to make a good prediction about the scholarship that u can get. It seems that u did many things is your high school, and that’s pretty good. Now, about GPA, they will probably realize that u are better in your junior year than in freshman, so they can think of it as a progress, which actually is. Dont get discouraged by your GPA… Also if you have possibility to play some sport before applying here, it would be very helpful, so that they can see that u have music experience, sport experience, probably some community work. Also if u worked before, u should definitely mention that. That Russian thing looks cool, I think that they will like it.</p>
<p>The school is mostly interested in really skilled varsity athletes who have played for years. However, playing a sport, even for just one year, tells the admissions committee that you are socially active and not a geek. Schools want to accept people who will earn money in the future, and charismatic social people can get into management better than academically obsessed nerds. (Obviously I’m generalizing here, but adcoms have to do the same thing). </p>
<p>But yeah, I think your scholarship will be somewhere around 30-40k, mostly because of the SATs. Last year WPI dropped like 9 places on US News, largely because their CR/writing SAT averages dropped a few points. For WPI to be competitive on a national scale, they are going to have to move up on US News or at least stop dropping. So I suspect that admitting someone with a verbal SAT way above their average is going to be a priority for them.</p>
<p>so there are 3 parents here who attest to their kids’ having similar SAT stats who received less aid than AL is suggesting you will get. Long story short - don’t count on a huge award even if you might get one. And keep up the good work</p>
<p>Skithesteeps-- I had 3.85 and only 1590 SAT and still WPI gave me $41,500 with $7300 fed. loans. So, basicall my WPI merit scholarship was $34200. A lot of my friends also got a huge amount of money despite their low SATs.The OP has lower gpa, but higher SAT than I do. That’s how I am getting my figures. But I think as Whitesnake said, it is TOTALLY unpredictable.</p>
<p>SRB2006 - Wow. That is all I can say. I’m totally baffled, but I guess the answer to all of this is any discussion of what merit aid you can expect is totally moot. It would be great to see the flowchart of the process they go through for determining who gets what. Anyone want to take a stab at our version?</p>
<p>I don’t think it is all that unpredictable. They care less about SATs than they do GPA and other factors. S had vey high SATs but a mediocre GPA so received a lesser award. His GPA improved after mid-year and so his award was upped a little.
3.85 is considerably higher than a straight B- that the OP indicates was his initial GPA. He has been raising those grades steadily evey year - this will be looked on favorably. The upward trend will probably secure the OP a decent award. My entire original point was just this.
It would appear that WPI does not consider SATs over GPA - they don’t even require them. Some smart kids just don’t test well. If they are provided they do become part of the equation (else my S would not have been accepted with his mediocre 3.1 GPA)
SRB - are you female? Would also be a contributing factor for a big award. What was your “downfall” in the SATs? I assume you are adding all 3 scores?</p>
<p>^ I am male and I yes I am adding all 3 scores. I have been in the country for about 2 years. The average SAT score in my district is 1390. Compared to that, my score is way better, considering the fact the I have been in the state for only 2 years. I did poorly on SAT because of CR and WR. Those two brought my scores down. Other than that, I took 7 AP classes (4 this year), scored 5 on two of three last year, 4 on AP physics and I rank #7 out of 413 students in my class.</p>
<p>so you kind of back up my point. They looked more closely at what you are doing in school, not how you did on the SAT tests. That huge effort you showed in your studies means something to them - more than your SAT scores, and what I was trying to tell the OP - keep the effort up and show it and he will increase his chances for a stellar award.</p>
<p>^ Yup. I think colleges have started to take SAT less seriously especially when you have colleges like HC, WPI are making SAT optional and top schools are accepting students with lower SATs. I got accepted to BU, BC, HC, WPI and Williams with that score. So, I take it granted that academic [performance is more important than SAT performance.</p>