<p>Thanks for the hint about the RPI medal. I was vaguely aware of the program (our school does participate) but didn’t realize that it was for juniors. I’ll have my son check with his guidance counselor as to whether there’s a special application for it or anything, which should double as expressing his interest in RPI. If the student who is awarded the medal doesn’t go to RPI, is the award just “wasted” or can the high school re-distribute it? RPI is high on his list, but no guarantees. There’s another junior who is stronger than my S in math and science in our HS, but if he is not interested in RPI, maybe they’d offer it to my S. I don’t know what this other boy is interested in.</p>
<p>Re: Olin – my 2nd son is quite interested in that program. He is looking much more toward engineering, and also really likes the idea of a small school. I have a friend who teaches there. I’m sad that they had to change from offering full tuition scholarships to half though, and hope they’ll be able to get back to full before S2 (now 8th grade) is ready to apply :)</p>
<p>The Medal is awarded by the end of junior year. If the winner does not apply to RPI, the Medal is just wasted (not re-distributed).</p>
<p>Great move to have your S talk to the guidance counselor and express interest in RPI. That might be enough to get him the Medal or, if the other student isn’t interested in RPI, maybe he will get it then.</p>
<p>Did I mention earlier to apply to WPI Early Action 1, if interested in that school?</p>
<p>High acceptance rate last year (over 75%) and you find out in December.</p>
<p>I’d feel bad if he “asked for” the RPI medal and then didn’t go there. It’s too bad they do it that way. But I’ll still have him ask about it. RPI is high on his list and a very definite possibility for him.</p>
<p>Since, at this point in time, it is high on his list - “Go for it!”</p>
<p>If he ends up not going…well, things change. But, at this point in time it is high on his list, so you are acting in good faith. If things change…oh, well.</p>
<p>Every year the RPI medal at our school gets wasted on someone who won’t use it. In a way, I wish they’d give it to kids who are slightly less likely to get into the tippy-top schools. My opinion is that if you have two safeties you like, the rest of your list can be as reachy as you want. I felt the both RPI and WPI have students who are very smart, but perhaps a little less overall accomplished. A lot of kids whose first choices were MIT, but didn’t get in. (But also some who choose them because they are smaller and more personal.) I think 90% of CMU’s Computer Science School also had MIT as their first choice. They actually asked at the first meeting at orientation! </p>
<p>My son thought WPI was a little small, but I thought it would be good to have two choices if he didn’t get into any of his other schools. (Which was a possibility given his list.) Three years ago they offered my son $15,000 a year, while RPI offered $10,000. My brother who has a computer company in Boston hires a lot from WPI. </p>
<p>As to the question do you need matches? I don’t really think so. I think it’s fine to apply to two safeties and all reaches otherwise. I think WPI is low on that list because it’s not really a graduate student institution - there are advantages to that as well as disadvantages.</p>
<p>Just wanted to chime in here and say that my D is a junior at WPI and LOVES it. She participates in 3 sports (virtually unheard of in college - but the coaches allow her to work it out), is active in her sorority and has a 3.7 GPA. It was a definite safety for her (34 ACT / 90/100 UW GPA with 10 APs) and she got a $21K/year scholarship. I think it is filled with lots of smart ‘geeky’ kids. I think the EA acceptance and the accepted students weekend helped her fall in love with it (they loved her early and alot, so it was easy to love them back). They guarantee a min of $17K per year for NMF (my D missed it by one point).</p>
<p>Here’s what they say about graduate school:
Graduate Schools Admitting WPI Students
Cornell University Veterinary School
Dartmouth Medical School
Duke University
Emory University
Johns Hopkins University
MIT
New York University
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Suffolk University
Tufts University Medical School
Tulane University
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin
Wake Forest University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University </p>
<p>Also, if your son liked WPI and RPI he may not like a big school like Cornell (my D didn’t) - so be sure to vist.</p>
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<p>He didn’t love UMass Amherst but I’m not sure if that was because of the size or the lack of geekiness. </p>
<p>Oh, one more thing – we’re Jewish so any comments on the Jewish student populations and how active a Hillel they have would be useful. We didn’t ask on our visits, though at the larger schools, the existence of a Jewish student population was apparent.</p>
<p>The Jewish population at CMU is only about 10% but the Hillel [Welcome</a> to the Hillel JUC of Pittsburgh](<a href=“http://www.hilleljuc.org/]Welcome”>http://www.hilleljuc.org/) serves all local campuses; it’s halfway between CMU and Pitt and seems to be very active. They have periodic events on campus, plus in the Hillel house itself. They seem to have a core group of students that like to hang out in the building; DS is not one of them but has gone to various events, seders, high holiday services, etc. AEPi does have a house on campus.</p>
<p>Also, Squirrel Hill is the Jewish core of Pittsburgh and is only a short bus ride away.</p>
<p>I join the Hillel Parents Circle each year (have to; my dad was a Hillel director himself) and one year opted up for the Chicken Soup hotline - only used it once but they did deliver soup directly to DS’s dorm room.</p>
<p>There’s also a Chabad; [Chabad</a> of Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“http://www.chabadofcmu.com/]Chabad”>http://www.chabadofcmu.com/) DS went to one second night seder there. They only established the CMU branch a year ago so don’t know how active it is.</p>
<p>Finally, there are numerous synagogues in the area, including the beautiful Rodef Shalom [Rodef</a> Shalom Congregation, Pittsburgh, PA - Home](<a href=“http://rodefshalom.org/]Rodef”>http://rodefshalom.org/) just off campus. DS went to a seder there also (that was the year the seders fell during Carnival; since AEPi is very active in both Hillel and Carnival, the seders suffered that year).</p>
<p>So it is very easy for a student to find plenty of Jewish enrichment on and near campus.</p>
<p>You can search this thread for other schools: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/783395-hillel-house-tour-reports.html?highlight=hillel[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/783395-hillel-house-tour-reports.html?highlight=hillel</a></p>
<p>The RPI medal always seems to go to a student who chooses another school at our HS also! In my S’s class it went to a girl who chose Tufts.</p>
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<p>Drexel’s Game Design program is apparently going to be named the #3 Undergrad gaming program in the nation by Princeton Review next month (See the Drexel U Admissions Facebook fan page) so that does sound like a worthy safety to add to the list. RIT also sounds good but a bit far for not offering much “special” compared to many closer schools, unless I’m missing something.</p>
<p>Actually, I just looked up RIT and they offer a game program with co-op, so they’re on the list (well, my list – we’ll see what S thinks) now.</p>
<p>RIT has a summer sleepover that my S reallly enjoyed:</p>
<p>[RIT</a> College & Careers Homepage](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/index.php]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/index.php)</p>
<p>IMHO, RIT’s computer science facilites are very impressive.</p>
<p>I think your S would get a lot of merit money at RIT, Drexel, WPI and RPI. </p>
<p>However, with CMU computer science and MIT, it’s a crap shoot for anyone to see if they can just get in.</p>
<p>BTW, you really seem to be on top of things (especially for February of junior year).</p>
<p>My S will be working at a residential camp all summer, which cuts out a lot of good visit / program opportunities. And we’ll probably use April break to visit family in Toronto (and visit UofT and Waterloo). So that’s why I felt like we needed to get a series of visits in over February break and sort of get on top of this. I don’t know if/when we’d get a chance to visit any other schools. We’ll run up to UVM on an in-service day sometime. Otherwise if he’s applying EA, he will be applying to a lot of places sight unseen. But of course we can visit those he’s accepted to and seriously considering after we know where he’s accepted and what kind of finaid offers he gets.</p>
<p>If you go to the HILLEL website, you can get contact info for the Hillels and other Jewish groups near each school. My S is also a Junior interested in computers. Right now, he is mainly focusing on engineering schools that have computer and other majors. We just got back from a great visit to Georgia Tech. At the end of March, we are going to Boston (MIT, Olin, WPI) and LA (CalTech and Harvey Mudd). In the Fall, we’ll visit Rice, CMU is a maybe. We are traditional Reform Jews.</p>
<p>Contacting the Hillels is a way to find out what they provide, but not really to get a feel for what the Jewish community is like there (welcoming, active, how varied the attendance at events is, etc.). That’s why I was hoping for more “on the ground” feedback versus just talking to the Hillels. But it’s certainly a step in the process. Good luck with your visits as well!</p>
<p>mathmomvt - The gamepro.com website has an article listing the 8 best game design colleges - USC, DigiPen Inst of Tech, Drexel, RPI, Becker, Art Inst of Vancouver, WPI, MIT.</p>
<p>Re: Hillels - If you ask, they may have students contact you so you can get some feedback that way.</p>
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<p>Do you have a direct link to that article? I couldn’t find it on the gamepro site. Looks like we’re looking at the right places, though :)</p>
<p>Good point about having a student call us from the various Hillels.</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>2 ideas. Has he looked at any LAC? When he will need the heavy duty programming courses is in grad school. Have a look at Williams and Swarthmore. Swat has a strong CS department and is also in a consortium with Bryn Mawyr, Haverford, and more importantly, Penn. I know the most about Swat which which is in the top ten percentage of students to receive PhDs in Math and Science for any school (LAC and University) in the country. </p>
<p>My second suggestion is to persue Canadian citizenship ASAP if there is even a thought of Canadian colleges. It took about 6 months for my kids. We registered them when they were babies.</p>