<p>Midhelper- My S is a junior at RPI. From what he has told me and from what I have seen, your perceptions are correct.</p>
<p>So far, he has had a great education and made a lot of friends. My DW and I have been very impressed with how smart and friendly all his friends are. Genuinely good kids.</p>
<p>He did a co-op last semester and everyone at the school was very encouraging and helpful in making it happen.</p>
<p>If your D has anywhere near as good of an experience as my S has had, both you and she will be very pleased.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that I can’t help you on the scholarship and financial aid part.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Got lots of good tips here on going for more merit. We appealed via e-mail and duaghter’s aid was increase from $15,000/yr to $20,000/yr. Yahoo. It took 8 days for the appeal process to run its course.</p>
<p>Thanks cortana. She is definitely maybe attending. She has a couple of admitted student’s days to attend, but is leaning RPI based on last poll. She’s had some nice interchanges with the dean of engineering and the civil engr prof in charge of “the Bedford program”. Good vibes for RPI right now.</p>
<p>I outlined COA at two other schools, and asked for a closer match. Added other supporting information including scan/zip of other merit awards. Went over how we really enjoyed our RPI visit on the 26th. Although not worthy of need aid, I did go over the details that our son is also going to college, and they’ll have quite the overlap, so any increase in merit would be really nice to see.</p>
<p>Nice. Very astute to have them bump up the merit aid with the overlap of another kid. And all of this without saying you are definitely attending. My theory is that they are definitely in generous mood with female applicant.</p>
<p>She’s leaning towards RPI, and we told that to RPI. This makes it that much easier to go for RPI. Especially with the co-terminal option where the undergrad aid continues into the 5th year with Master’s. Really good vibes at visit and with the dean and civil prof e-mails. Also, I had other back and forth with our state’s admissions officer and met her at RPI as well. Can’t wait until May.</p>
<p>You do not need to fill out the CSS form if you are only seeking merit aid. We were successful appealing our merit aid only, and we did fill out a FAFSFA, but never did the other form. We were also successful getting several thousand additional dollars in merit aid, by sending a competing school’s offer and telling them what we could afford to pay. In the second offer they made it clear that it was the final offer. My son’s test score were very high, his GPA was about 4.3 weighted, and he has many (13?) AP classes, with high scores on AP tests he’s taken so far. My son hasn’t made the final decision, but I have to put in a plug for RPI. Every contact we have had with them so far has been excellent. I’m hoping he chooses RPI.</p>
<p>$15,000 Rensselaer Medal (Probably Screwed me over…)
After e-mailing other offers, I got another $7,000.</p>
<p>Family Income: 100-110k w/ sibling in college (18k)</p>
<p>NY Public school about an hour away - we send a handful every year.
4.0/4.0 Salutatorian at time of transcript sent
33 ACT
Major: Computer Science</p>
<p>Ultimately way too expensive for me. No way I can pay for RPI…</p>
<p>I got 10k with the leadership scholarship. Asking for ~15k more. I am a lower caliber candidate but it is my “dream school” if you will. That being said I just don’t think that it is worth double a state school’s tution no matter how much I may love it (especially when my parents salaries are only < and the tution is only >). I didn’t even bother asking for a lower amount because I know that if I do not get it down to <35k a year than I know I am not going. Otherwise it’s Geneseo for me. (Still a good school, but bittersweet after getting into RPI)</p>
<p>Thanks for all your input. Greatly appreciated…</p>
<p>I had sent an appeal on 04/13 and so far it has not been reviewed. I am hoping to hear back in the next couple of days. </p>
<p>If I accept RPI, will it diminish my chances of getting any more money? Once I accept, will they reject/overlook my appeal since I am already accepting the offer?</p>
<p>I’m not sure. It could, that would make sense. You can tell RPI, however, that you WILL definitely attend given the needed additional aid. That might get you more money.</p>
<p>parkbinky:
I would wait til the day before you have to make commitments before accepting RPI. Call them and tell them you have to make decisions, and if they have any #'s for you. We appealed our package and received $4k more in grants and $2k more in perkins loans. The package still does not beat Case Western’s. Had sent in other award letters to them to match, but they could not.</p>