<p>Hi all, I had a quick question about merit based financial aid. I received the Candidate's Choice Application in the mail, and wanted to know if I could have a higher chance of receiving more financial aid than the normal application. Also, if I don't do the Candidates Choice app, I'd be doing the early decision app. How does the merit based aid differ between these two applications? </p>
<p>Also, if anyone has stats similar to mine, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share how much merit based aid you received. Thanks so much for the help!</p>
<p>SAT: 1400
GPA: 92% (out of 100)
Class Load: Very heavy; IB diploma candidate
Extracurriculars: Very heavy, president/ VP of 2 clubs
Sports: Varsity Track and Cross Country, Co-Captain of Cross Country
Other: Finalist in several national science competitions</p>
<p>I don’t believe that there is any difference in merit aid with the Cand Choice application, but that would be something you should ask the admissions office. I think a lot of kids get them.</p>
<p>If you are not aware of it already, you should look into the Rensselaer Medal program. If your school has not already chosen one, I would get myself down to my guidance counselor ASAP and ask to be considered for it. Basically, each participating high school can choose one student to give the medal to. If that student enrolls at RPI, they get a merit award of $15K per year for four years (five for architecture).</p>
<p>I mentioned to my son’s guidance counselor that he would be interested in going to RPI, and even though there were several other good choices among his high school peers, they gave it to him. I figure the guidance counselors would rather award it to someone who might actually want to use it.</p>
<p>One thing to note is that if you are getting regular need based financial aid the medal money replaces other grant money – it doesn’t reduce your EFC. For example, our EFC is $25K. Son got the medal money plus $10K in other aid (mostly grants), so our EFC was still $25K. He should graduate with only about 8-10K in Stafford load debt.</p>
<p>Son had a similar GPA with very heavy class load (I think he took 12 AP courses), but a higher SAT (1580). His extracurriculars were probably weaker, though. A bunch of science and math activities.</p>