<p>Is 5500 applicants more than most years?</p>
<p>According to USN&WR Ultimate College Guide 2010, two years ago they had 3747 applicants and accepted 1968 (RD, EA and ED total). So, it likely has gotten harder, since the school is not expanding.</p>
<p>“since the school is not expanding”</p>
<p>Not true. Last year the number of first-year students was up by close to a hundred (on purpose–not just increased yield) and my understanding is that there are plans to again increase the size of the entering class this year. It is making for some very crowded conditions already in terms of housing (with some students unable to obtain on-campus housing, at least during the housing lottery). I believe that there are plans to build another dorm, but of course that won’t help until it is actually finsihed.</p>
<p>did they notify people if they were getting money when we got the acceptance letter or will it be mailed later?</p>
<p>They told me scholarship and financial aid letters were being mailed this week to admitted EA students.
But some folks have posted they already received scholarship news via mail or phone call. I’m not sure what to think - but hoping for good news.</p>
<p>Although I think that Amesie knows what he/she is talking about, why does the Rhodes Admissions website say the following:</p>
<p>For the Class of 2014, applications reached record numbers, as Rhodes received applications from over 5,500 prospective students. The academic qualifications of the entering class increased, as did our selectivity. The first-year class of 507 students preserved Rhodes′s total enrollment of 1,671 students.</p>
<p>So Rhodes contends that it is “preserving” the size of its student body, not increasing it. Although my math skills are not the best, it would seem that the size of the freshman class indicates that there is a large drop off in upperclassman. Anyone?</p>
<p>Aslo, anyone get FA letter today?</p>
<p>Re Dad55’s post:</p>
<p>(1) No FA letter here</p>
<p>(2) I agree, the math on Rhodes’ website does not really seem to add up; I think colleges in general are enrolling larger classes as a means to generate revenue. I cannot really see how the school coulde be “preserving [tier] total enrollment of 1671 students” when admitting 507 students.</p>
<p>@Dad55 - You’re right - “preserved at 1671” is wrong. It increased to 1712. I’ve put in a request to have that corrected.</p>
<p>Physical improvements to meet the growing student body are a new dorm being constructed (“West Village”) and an expansion of the dining hall. I have heard talk of a new science building, but I don’t know where we stand on that. Once finished, we’ll be able to house about 75% of our students (currently it’s about 73%).</p>
<p>I asked the director of financial aid and she told me that aid packages are being mailed no later than 2/10. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>got my merit aid today :)</p>
<p>My son also received his merit/aid package yesterday. Not as much as we’d hoped, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Our merit package was the lowest we have received from any school thus far. We were surprised/saddened because it may take Rhodes out of the picture for us.</p>
<p>i didnt get that much either
7k a year but its a fair amount considering money isnt an issue.
if we applied for the arts scholarship is this their way of saying i didnt get it but heres some money?</p>
<p>Got my aid yesterday. Largest amount I’ve gotten from any school so far. Rhodes is looking like a real possibility now.</p>
<p>On a side note, this is kind of a weird question but redskins1993, do you live in MD/VA/DC? I’m just wondering if you’re going to the DC reception. It seems like since they don’t have a large amount of incoming students there can’t be that many from this area, and I really don’t want to be the only person that shows up.</p>
<p>Daughter got her notice in the mail yesterday—the amount was, I thought, very fair in relation to what she has received elsewhere. My daughter appplied to 3 schools EA–all 3 are similar to Rhodes in that they are small liberal arts colleges, their tuition/room & board are all within a $1000 or so of each other, and all are in the “Colleges that Change Lives” book. Each school offered neraly identical amounts of merit aid. Guess they all have the same “formula” for calculating aid—get $X for a GPA/Class Rank of Y, add in $Z for SAT Scores of XXX, etc. I imagine they all know they are competing for the same pool of applicants, so I guess they all have to be within a similar range; otherwise, they would lose students.</p>
<p>My son’s amount was not insignificant - $13k scholarship, $8500 grant, plus a loan - just not as much as he has received from some of the other schools he’s heard from, and not enough to justify going to Rhodes over some of the others. He’s really interested in Rhodes so hoped they’d come in really big. We’ll have to weigh it all as the rest come in.</p>
<p>yea im going to the reception, i was thinking the same thing</p>
<p>I’m also from the DC area and going to the reception… there’s probably going to be more people there than you would think</p>
<p>I see several of you consider Rhodes’ package to be an outlier compared to other schools you’ve gotten packages from. I would encourage you to call Financial Aid and talk to them about Rhodes’ package compared to others. It certainly won’t hurt, and will give Rhodes a better idea of how our FA is comparing to to others’. There’s no shame in calling and saying that you’ll need more to make it affordable.</p>
<p>I’m honestly surprised to hear that your packages are low. My own experience was excellent. I pay for school on my own so financial aid was of course a huge factor. Rhodes gave me the best offer by far even though I’m not a genius and haven’t saved the world or anything. </p>
<p>Do call though. It’s a small office so you’ll actually be able to talk to someone real.</p>