<p>Not sure if this the right forum for this question.
My kid is getting suggestions to look into technical institutes in the NE. I'd like to find out how they are with providing merit scholarships and if they are likely to gap or not with aid? I've browsed through their scholarship websites and I can't get a good sense of how likely it is to get merit aid.</p>
<p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)
Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ)
University of Rochester*</p>
<p>*not really a tech inst, but in the same area</p>
<p>I just wanted to get a sense of whether it's worth visiting/applying. For reference, a probably comparable college we've visited is Lehigh, which she did not like. She says it gives her a sense of being a "closed environment."</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t know about general merit aid, but here was my experience (I applied to all of those except Stevens). I also received need-based aid.</p>
<p>WPI - decent merit scholarship, doable price overall.
RIT - decent merit scholarship, not a whole lot of need-based. Got the lowest merit scholarship here.
RPI - one of the top merit scholarships available - this was the cheapest out of any of my acceptances.
Roc - one of the top merits, pretty doable price.</p>
<p>So, for me, from greatest to least merit, it was RPI, Roc, WPI, RIT. It’s hard to say what kind of merit she should be expecting without knowing her stats, but this is just my experience.</p>
<p>Roc merit estimator: <a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx[/url]”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx</a></p>
<p>Also if you run NPCs on these schools I believe that includes how much merit to expect.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks @LaMuniv! That’s very helpful! Where did you end up accepting, if you don’t mind me asking?</p>
<p>I should have included her stats - sorry about that.
unweighted GPA, accdg to our calculations is around 3.8
SAT is CR: 700, M: 800, W:620
She takes the ACT & two SAT subjects tests this fall; no idea how those will go.</p>
<p>I actually changed my mind after applying to colleges and decided that I wanted to be an English major, so I almost accepted UR but decided to apply to colleges all over again this year and focus on small liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>Not sure about these schools, but a lot of schools don’t look at the writing score, in which case your daughter has the same SAT score as I did (1500/1600). </p>
<p>My best friend is going to UR this fall and I attended a residential pre-college programme at WPI, so if you have any further questions about those schools I may be able to help :)</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that the cost of attendance at RIT is much lower than the other schools you listed (not sure about Stevens) at $46k. The $15k+ difference in price makes up for a lot of aid.
<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html</a>
<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_need.html”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_need.html</a></p>
<p>RIT is a FAFSA-only school.</p>
<h1>3 I told her when she was studying for the SAT that the Writing was not as important, so focus on reading & math. I think she listened a bit too well, heh. Ironic since she actually loves writing creatively; I think she’s just not good at the gotcha’s on the SAT.</h1>
<p>Thanks @oldmom4896 ! That’s a great point about the $15K diff!</p>
<p>They all give a bunch of merit. How much you get from each would be idiosyncratic as some value different things like test scores, GPA, what you say in the essay, recs, various other stuff (WPI is half-tuition for valedictorians/salutatorians and FIRST Robotics). I believe full-tuition would be tough except for Stevens, which has their big full-tuition scholarships. Being female should definitely help as well, but I doubt anyone on the outside can say how much at each place.</p>
<p>Also, isn’t RIT a step down from the rest? Maybe my memory is fuzzy on alumni outcomes. It makes sense to visit each place and read student reviews. For instance, IIT in Chicago gives a lot of merit as well, but the student reviews do not paint a good picture (it’s also in a bad neighborhood).</p>
<p>Case Western gives good merit as well if you are clearly in their top quartile by scores.</p>
<p>Thanks @PurpleTitan. We should probably look into Case Western - it’s actually not that much farther a drive than Rochester, and practically the same distance as OSU, which she is also looking into.</p>
<p>BTW, not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but Olin is half-tuition for everyone, and MUCH easier to get in for girls.</p>