<p>Question for current RPI students or their parents:</p>
<p>This is one of my daughter's top choices. She has been offered a good 4 year merit award that would cover more than 40% but less than 50% of the total cost (Room, board and tuition). We will receive $0 financial need money other than loans. We'd have to (daughter and us) borrow much of the rest. She has many other cheaper alternatives including one that looks interesting -- SUNY Stony Brook WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) and other scholarship offers from a bunch of other schools. </p>
<p>My questions --- I know that the RPI reputation is great in science and engineering. I have no doubt that my daughter will be a great scientist or possibly an MD someday. She truly loves science. Is it worth it to borrow extra money to send my daughter to RPI which is a great science school for undergraduate studies? Are there opportunities for increased merit scholarship money beyond freshman year (The current merit money is for a 4 year scholarship)?</p>
<p>It's getting down to the last month.....we are still confused. My daughter could go to one school for almost nothing (scholarship for full tuition and 1/2 board), another school for with full tuition and about 8 others with merit awards. </p>
<p>With the merit money RPI is definitely not the most expensive but certainly not the cheapest.</p>
<p>well this is just an opinion - but if your D will likely be an MD she may be facing a ton of debt for med school. Might be best not to start out with debt from undergraduate studies.</p>
<p>Is there a candidate school that is close in science offerings that would be much less money? </p>
<p>My bet is she will be happy anywhere that has a decent program in her interests.</p>
<p>Another option, if you haven’t done this already, is to go back to RPI’s financial aid dept and ask for more. We did this successfully and it is very common. Let them know the other options your daughter has and ask them to be more competitive. You just never know until you ask.</p>
<p>In response to the 2nd part of your question, other scholarships after Freshman year. Yes- they are out there. We were looking until my daughter’s ROTC scholarship came through so have not been in that loop for a while now.</p>
<p>Yes she does have several good options of schools. Temple University offered her full tuition (they have a med school, dental school and pharmacy school). Stony Brook’s WISE program is also a good choice for her. We also visited St. John’s in Queens (offered her full tuition plus 1/2 board) but after attending a science class with a student she was not impressed.</p>
<p>We definitely switch back in forth between — Why spend the money for undergraduate school and then we switch asking ourselves --Why shouldn’t she go to an excellent science school that with the merit money would be only slightly more than one of our in-state schools – University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Luckily we’ve ruled some schools out…Binghamton (an excellent school) would be close to the RPI cost and University of Pittsburgh Honors (another excellent science school) didn’t offer her any money and even though we’re in-state the cost would be not much less than RPI.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there are many other families in the same boat as we are…and had this decision been last year before we our very healthy retirement accounts dipped to 50% of their previous years value…it would be a no-brainer to choose RPI.</p>
<p>It’s an exciting time…but in the current economic environment…things are very confusing. Thankfully we are both employed with no immediate fear of losing our jobs. I feel sympathy for the many families that are experiencing harsh financial times.</p>
<p>kgrmom – Thanks…yes we did go back and RPI did offer a few thousand more. We didn’t spell out all of my daughter’s scholarship offers and perhaps we should have but I know that the merit award is at least better than the $15,000 we knew was coming with the Rensselaer Medal Award.</p>
<p>I assume your daughter currently attends RPI…how does she like it?</p>
<p>Well she can definitely get to wherever she wishes to go from here. Did she get into a 5 or 7 year program here? If you have any questions about Temple, let me know.</p>
<p>My daughter just applied as a Chemistry major to all of the schools she applied to…she had considered applying to schools with pharmacy or combo BS/MD programs but doesn’t know if she wants to be either a pharmacist or a Medical Doctor. </p>
<p>She has attended a wonderful summer program at Temple and she was able to visit the Med school, the Dental school and the Pharmacy school. She really liked her summer at Temple but wants to move away to a new place for college and we live in the Philly burbs.</p>
<p>Yes- daughter is at RPI and loves it. Not an easy school but it definitely was the right choice for her. We were caught in a similar situation last year although did not have a full ride to decide with but the other school was offering a LOT more. She knew she was going to pursue ROTC but did not have a scholarship so there were no guarantees at that point.</p>
<p>We actually went back to RPI a 2nd time. They did come through with a little more. She visited RPI a total of 3 times and the other school twice. We talked about the fact that she would be taking on more debt as would we if she attended RPI. In the end the 3 great visits, her comfort level, the atmosphere, better reputation won out. Yes- it is a lot of money. She also knew that if worst came to worst there was also the possibility that if ROTC did not come through that she may have to transfer after a year or two. So- she knew it all up front and still wanted RPI. She’s very happy (except for exam time:))- lol.
Her other consideration was Clarkson. </p>
<p>We fall in that “middle range” as well where the government assumes you can afford to send your kids to college without any need based assistance- yeah right. Just about fell over when I saw what they thought we could pay. Can’t wait when my twin boys reach that age- they are freshman in high school now.</p>
<p>I understand, but I’m a Main Liner who wanted to get away too, went to college in Boston, hated it, and came back ‘home’. Philly is close enough to be able to come home whenever, but far enough to be a completely different world than the burbs. I’ve been really happy here, especially being in a city with so much to offer.</p>
<p>diontechristmas - I know what you are saying…I love Philadelphia too! Unfortunately my daughter has decided that she doesn’t want to go to Temple even though she really did have a great summer there…she wants to go somewhere different. Maybe she’ll be back for post-graduate work some day.</p>
<p>I’m glad you are happy at Temple. Which school did you go to in Boston?</p>
<p>Yes we’re in that range where they come up with this funny number called an EFC – Expected Family Contribution…but how they expect that we could possibly contribute that much is hard to understand.</p>
<p>I’m glad your daughter likes RPI…we’re going to the Accepted Student Day next Saturday.</p>