<p>Mathmom - Our sons are, indeed, traveling in the same circles. I wish that UVM was more affordable for OOS. Great school and beautiful campus! We are also in the same boat with need based aid - will have 2 in school for 2 years, then just S for 1 year, then 2 again. Too complicated - makes good merit that much more appealing. My S is very disappointed in Northeastern’s changes to the NMF award. Best of luck to your son - I hope he ends up with some awesome- and affordable - choices.</p>
<p>Sorry for the off topic post. Now back to the topic at hand…</p>
<p>GSM & mathmomvt-I’ll add a third (our son) also travelling in that circle. In via EA at WPI and UVM and waiting RD on RPI, RIT, Clarkson and a few others. Was wondering if either of you looked at the later and had any opinions. Also, I gather GSM that your experience with your D a few years ago was that RPI offered much better (at least initially) merit $$ than did WPI. Do you recall what those initial amounts were at each school? Is RPI typically more generous or better endowed for these awards?</p>
<p>dextersdad, in 2011 my older son (NMF, 4th in his class of 300) got offered 26.3K by RPI and 19K by WPI. The 19K was their guaranteed “minimum” for NMFs. RPI at that time cost a couple thousand more than WPI (direct costs, not sure about official COA). RIT offered 18K which I believe was <em>their</em> minimum for NMFs. Drexel and Northeastern were at that time both guaranteeing full tuition for NMF. We believe RIT would have matched the full tuition offer, or come close, if RIT had ended up being his first choice. We began that conversation but did not pursue it because he made a different choice. (He ended up at Cornell with no merit but generous need-based aid.)</p>
<p>Hi DD - welcome to the circle! My D was not NMF but had good stats. WPI offered 18K or so merit initially and RPI offered 25K. The difference sounds bigger than it really is since RPI COA was higher. FWIW, I have heard anecdotal stories of the opposite with these 2 schools as well. </p>
<p>As far as Clarkson, no direct experience, but S has a friend that is a freshman there (left HS a year early to take advantage of an early entrance program) who absolutely loves it. </p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I assume that with both your children the awards that you indicated were annual awards and not four year cumulative totals, correct? Never sure what parents/students are reporting when they provide these numbers.</p>
<p>Yes, annual awards here as well. RPI (at least at the time) has no minimum GPA for merit renewal. At WPI, not sure of the exact details, but it’s something along the lines of not NRing more than one class per year (or passing 11 of the typical 12 classes). Grades at WPI are A, B, or C. A failed class is referred to as “No Record” and doesn’t appear on the student’s transcript. The policy is stated on merit awards.</p>
<p>Not having a required minimum GPA to keep a merit award is a great thing. I worry about that – some kids have trouble adjusting to new expectations, or hit a bump along the way, and having that result in them losing their funding would be devastating in many cases.</p>
<p>MMVt - agreed. I remember a dean at RPI telling D and I that if RPI felt a student was strong enough to offer merit to, they would do everything in their power to keep them. That really impressed me. WPI’s policy is similar in that there is no minimum GPA.</p>
<p>mathmomvt: so if my S2 gets in to WPI, sounds like your S will be elsewhere? Darn…omg, the waiting for the EA II is driving me c-r-a-z-y. My S1, like mathmomvt’s S1, is currently a junior and he applied ED! :eek:! So this waiting around is driving me crazy. Will know soon enough by Feb. 10th, but he is a borderline candidate and it’s clearly his first choice…so I REALLY HOPE HE GETS IN!!!</p>
<p>He only applied to 5 schools, but WPI is the clear front runner. We could have easily applied EA I, but had bad advice from our incredibly awful gc and I should have just gone with my gut. By applying ED, our S1 had his answer by early Dec!!! Waiting till Feb. or later is for the birds!!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure WPI is out for us. We’ll submit financial aid info and see if that bridges the gap, but I’m reluctant to rely on need-based aid because it will change his sophomore year when S1 graduates, and schools seem very reluctant to tell you by how much it will change (even if everything else stayed the same). Right now, UVM and Drexel are very affordable, and Northeastern is doable with some federal student loans (likely only needed until co-op income begins). WPI would be about 12K more than Northeastern – hard to justify. I love the school and their hands-on, project-based approach, but… well, money matters!</p>
<p>I didn’t think to post my stats way back in december, but here goes:
Accepted with 20k/yr presidential scholarship or some title like that
OBJECTIVE-
SAT:2300 combined, 2250 single score
ACT: 36
SAT II: 800 Math II, 750 Physics
97.6 GPA/100 (unweighted)
AP’s: Chem, Physics B, Lang, World, APUSH, all 5s
senior schedule: AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Lit, AP Macro/Micro Econ, AP Stats, IB French 5, Symphony Orchestra</p>
<p>SUBJECTIVE-
Varsity XC (captain) 4 years
Indoor/Outdoor track (captain outdoor) 2 years each
Area All State for Viola several years
School musical (pit orchestra)
Part time job (hostess-I basically am in charge of the other servers)
National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, French NHS,
Service trip over the summer with my church</p>
<p>I think that covers it. WPI is an awesome school (I love the sticker they sent with our acceptance stuff) but yep they’re pretty darn expensive:/</p>
<p>mathmomvt: There are calculators on the web that will let you determine your EFC (expected family contribution). You can run it with and without S1 and see the difference. Then you can decide.</p>
<p>Our financial situation doesn’t seem to fit the calculators that well. If I put in this year’s details and the calculator doesn’t match what finaid actually awarded us, then we can’t use it to predict accurately the year without a sibling either, obviously. It might give us an idea how EFC changes at that school for 1 versus 2, but I’d worry that it still wouldn’t be accurate, if it wasn’t initially accurate (or close). Some of the calculators work out pretty close for us, some not.</p>
<p>I am choosing Northeastern over WPI for CS. While the academics of WPI are certainly strong and I love the quarter system, I think Northeastern would do just as well for a motivated student.</p>
<p>I am an international student. My application decision read like this</p>
<p>“Thank you for your interest in WPI. We have completed an initial review of your application at this time, and while you have a strong academic background, you have not demonstrated your ability to meet our financial requirements for international applicants.
Although WPI offers some scholarships and limited financial aid for international students, our largest awards are equal to the cost of tuition. Therefore, families are expected to contribute between $17,000US to $61,100US to the total cost of attendance. Without further financial documentation demonstrating support within that range, we will be unable to consider you for admission and financial aid.
If you have additional sources of funding, or additional sponsors that we are unaware of, please forward us that information immediately. If you are able to supply additional information before April 1, 2014, we will be able consider your application for the Fall 2014 start date. You may reach us by email at <a href=“mailto:intl_admissions@wpi.edu”>intl_admissions@wpi.edu</a> with further questions.
The WPI Office of Admissions”</p>
<p>So what does this mean. Am I deferred for RD, rejected, or admitted? If I can show enough fund, will they offer me admission?</p>
Darn…omg, the waiting for the EA II is driving me c-r-a-z-y. My S1, like mathmomvt’s S1, is currently a junior and he applied ED! :eek:! So this waiting around is driving me crazy. Will know soon enough by Feb. 10th, but he is a borderline candidate and it’s clearly his first choice…so I REALLY HOPE HE GETS IN!!!</p>