You said your daughter was offered 32k. You said your son was offered 20k +11k which is 31k.
How do you know that many carried over from the pandemic?
My daughter was offered 32k yearly or 128k total and my son 11k yearly or 44k total and a 20k total award for his robotics award, so 16k per year or 64k total.
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Can you guys please post stats so we can get a general idea of what we are looking at? Thanks
As another data point, my son was offered 16.5k per year for a total of 66k over four years.
He had stats way over the average for WPI (1580 SAT, 4.0 uw, hundreds of hours community service, heavy leadership in multiple stem activities, regional awards, very good essays, plus a varsity athlete.)
I’m not sure why we’re even questioning the existence of WPI’s methodology. WPI came out a few years ago and said they were funneling more discretionary funds to female candidates to try to even-out their percentages. WPI was VERY transparent about it.
This doesn’t mean that all female candidates who pull big merit from WPI are less accomplished. But, boys do seem to get less merit money on a stat-for-stat basis. Again, no sense in arguing the point…WPI publicized that that’s what they are doing.
If WPI wants to reallocate funds to entice more female candidates, then so be it. But, in my opinion, the boys with the very high stats won’t get enough merit money from WPI to be lured away from the higher ranked engineering programs. When WPI costs the same as UMich and $10,000 more per year than Georgia Tech (#4 in the country for engineering) it becomes a financial no-brainer…at least for us.
I posted my daughter’s stats already. My son 2 years ago had a 95 unweighted average and a 1540 on SATs, with heavy Robotics participation.
I have both a son and a daughter at WPI. My son is graduating in May as an ECE (he’s doing a 4 year BS/MS program so he’ll stick around next year). My daughter is a Freshman and not sure yet where she’ll land.
I am also an alumni from the 80s back when girls were not encouraged to go in to engineering and not a lot of us were at the school which translated in to industry. We need more women and diversity in the STEM fields.
As a woman electrical engineer in my 50s I am on board to the seeding that WPI is doing. My son didn’t get nearly the money my daughter did and he had ivy league stats but loved WPI. It cost more than the higher ranked colleges but the project based curriculum and not having to take pre requisites or specified classes appealed to him. I tried to cajole more money from WPI but it didn’t work. That he’s able to get his MS EE in four years ended up making it a better deal.
When we moved my son in I was struck by all the young women around us. Morgan, where he lived, in my day was not co-ed floors, it is today. There were three girls next door and it changes the environment. Diversity in general changes the environment. Boys going to school with as many girls as there are at WPI is a valuable experience in its own because when they get in to the work place they have already learned to work with women and see them as peers in ways that wasn’t the case in the late 80s when I entered the workforce.
I know it’s aggravating and I grok why but their goal of expanding diversity in STEM is something I applaud and support.
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ADMITTED on 12/14
MAJOR: Robotics Engineering
GPA - 3.71 UW, 4.13 W
RANK - top 10%
Honors - National Honor Society, Mathematics National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society.
CLUBS / LEAGUES - Math League, Science League, Competer Science Club, Ski Club
AP Classes - AP Comp Sci A (4), AP Stats (3), AP Calculus AB, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C Mech
Honor Classes - Algebra 2/Trigonometry, Biology, World History, French 2, Precalc, Chemistry I, US History I, Chemistry II, Physics, US History 2, Intro to Robotics
College - “Jump Start Program” / “College Dual Enrollment Program” - 4 classes total; 3.85 GPA
SAT - 1370 (690 Read/Write; 680 Math)
SPORTS - Varsity 4 years Swim; Captain; School Record; planning to swim for Div III team (not yet accepted into UCSC team though). Volleyball JV. Club competitive swimmer 14 years.
JOB - over the summer; mostly lifeguard
VOLUNTEERING - some + Interact Club (Rotary)
OTHER - White, Male, Out-of-State (NJ), Public High School
Not a minority, not 1st Gen, no Vet, OOS
SCHOLARSHIP - Presidential $54k ($13.5k/year)
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I applied EA2 and was accepted last week w/ a bio/biotech scholarship.
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Is there a regular admissions thread for WPI? My son was admitted early in December but it’s waiting for Cal Poly SLO before deciding anything.
Not that I know? I think this is what people are using because it’s not very busy. Good luck to your son wrt Cal Poly SLO.
I was surprised to get deferred from EA2 to RD, with SAT of 1450 and decent rest of application…Are they not looking at SAT at all this year?
I’m not sure WPI puts as much weight in SAT scores as some schools do. I appreciate this, since the SAT is sort of a poor measure anyway, since kids who pay for prep or do extra “studying and memorization” can increase their score by hundreds of points, which defeats the entire purpose of a standard test. I am a bit biased, because I have kids who refused to “prep” for the SAT test, they did well anyway, but as a parent I knew they could do 100-200 points better if they had.
My D was admitted, most likely on her 4.6 weighted GPA in all Honors and AP classes through HS, and digital art portfolio, etc.
Sounds like 1450 falls in their higher end of their middle 50%, but not by any means in their top 25, which is 1470+. Also, the major is a factor. I would presume engineer applicants have an even higher SAT average, while 3D art or other majors might be a bit lower on average.
This has some more info as to what they are looking for (which isn’t exactly just going for the higher SAT scores):
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Exactly our thoughts. My son wanted to go to WPI so bad. The only other school was MIT and he knew that was near lottery chances. However, a degree from WPI is not going to be to the level of MIT so it needs to fit t he value equation of what the school is worth vs a dollar amount. For him, it will not be a good value.
My son was was offered very similar numbers and has a stellar resume for school with high stats all around, lots of AP classes, clubs, some sports, robotics, etc. However, he was only offered 14.5K per year. He was thankful but also realizes that merit scholarships are really just to adjust their prices. We have some savings and have committed to paying up to 100K for his education. So now, he is considering a state university where he will finish his undergrad debt free. Then, he can go to a more choice school for his graduate degree.
Overall, something is very wrong with our education systems and financial expectations. These prices are crazy. And not to discourage anyone from going but there is also a stigma that college will make you successful and kids are stressing themselves out to get into “good” schools. I am not the most successful person but I started with a community college degree and very quickly rose to successful positions because of what I did and was capable of. I only went back for more college degrees and certifications to appease the HR people.
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WPI just announced they are going test blind meaning they aren’t going to accept SAT/ACT scores anymore.
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This goes a bit toward what they claim, which is that they prefer to look at the grades, achievements, and the character of the all around kid. I will say, although my kid did well enough on the SATs, I do like this approach. I’m OK with the SAT being a part of the equation, but considering the SAT is a game people can learn or pay to master, I’m not a huge fan of relying on it. So many kids can work their way from a 1350 to a 15xx with some paid tutoring and online training. So what value does it really serve? The only value I see in it, is if you have a kid who went through some tough times in HS, and maybe has a checkered record (some strong grades, and some bad spots), but have a high SAT, showing potential.
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Well, I have to disagree. There are so many free resources such as Khan Academy out there to improve ones SAT score, and I feel SAT/ACT has been one of the only things that’s left in this whole college admission game that truly measures someone’s readiness. As for everything else, they can be easily manipulated. Grade inflation is very common, and teachers can be bias or play favoritism when comes grading. And if one thinks it’s easier for students who don’t have access to SAT tutorial to fund nonprofit, practicing in sports, arts, do researches, they must be kidding. Without SAT score, I feel it’s opened a door for college to admit the riches who can buy there way in. It’s just one of those things that sounds good, but by the end, it really only benefits the most privileged.
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In truth, I don’t entirely disagree with you. As an example, I was a student with a low GPA, and a very high SAT (without even prepping). I was a smart kid that was immature and chose to goof off, skip school. I was in honors classes, but thought it all stupid. I was wrong, but I was also a 16 year old when I started my senior year of HS. I know better now.
As for Kahn Academy and all, I think many of us uber-researchers (which is 90% of who comes to College Confidential) are aware of these things. Most Americans are not.
SAT scores almost exclusively help the wealthy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/rich-students-get-better-sat-scores-heres-why.html#:~:text=Mcardle%20from%20the%20University%20of,students%20compared%20to%20white%20students.
And this makes sense. It’s circular. Wealthy families have more resources, better school systems, better guidance counselors, more friends around them that tell them about Kahn, more friends around them achieving and pressuring them to do well.
If you think SAT is something that helps the disadvantaged more than the advantage, we can agree to disagree. That is fine. I used to really be pro SAT because of my story, but in the end, more and more I think it’s really just a wealth badge, and a rote memorization exercise.
I’ll also add, that in my work experience over many years, there is nothing about the SAT test that in any way relates to being a valuable worker. The “memorizers” I work with have a little value, but the real value is in communication, problem solving, how you respond to surprises. 90% of the math section is purely memorization of rules you have learned. Reading is a bit more intuitive in terms of understanding problems, but even those “techniques” are taught in SAT prep now. There is a curve on SATs from what I see in the working world. The 1550 people often work for the people who had a 1200-1400, since SAT isn’t the type of skill that goes with success. I think WPI believes that, too.
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Anyone have thoughts comparing WPI to RIT?
My California boy is headed to WPI!! I’m so excited, except that he’ll be so far away.
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