<p>My son is leaning toward RPI. He has received the medal scholarship of $15,000 per year but we are out-of-state and this is just a small amount of the total of close to $50,000 for tuition, room, board and misc. exp. such as travel.</p>
<p>Here is our situation:
1. He will only qualify for merit aid.
2. We need a way to finance approximately $15,000+ more of the tuition to cover current and future costs. We have about $15,000 currently covered.
3. We don't want to borrow lots of funds or do lots of student loans. Our position is we consider it silly to go in debt for college and have it hang over your head for years.</p>
<p>Here are the questions:
1. What if any extra financial aid might we receive from RPI?
2. Any suggestions on how to request/apply for additional financial aid?</p>
<p>A girl from our local high school spoke directly with admissions to let them know how much she wanted to attend ... but how much she needed more than just the medal money to be able to afford RPI. She ended up with a pretty good deal. However, she is a girl & she has a sibling who graduated from RPI last year. Her situation does show that they can be flexible, though. I would certainly begin talking to admissions if I were you. Later, you'll be talking to financial aid ... at this stage, you are giving them the opportunity to show how much they want your son to attend. It's a good time to get into conversations about the cost & your family's reality. Good luck. My FIL is a grad & helps to finance those scholarships!! He is an ardent supporter of the school.</p>
<p>Consider applying to similar or peer institutions and asking RPI if they would consider matching offers (works at some schools, not at others but I agree RPI seems positive, especially if they want you)
Don't do ED obviously if you want to compare offers from different schools.
Also I saw recently that RPI was increasing finaid this year: Rensselaer</a> To Increase Financial Aid Resources For Students</p>
<p>What does being out-of-state have to do with the cost of RPI, besides the cost of traveling to/from the school? The tuition, room and board are the same regardless of whether you live in-state or out-of-state.</p>
<p>Thank you for the above comments. Yes, owlice I am aware that out-of-state does not apply to RPI as a private school, but...there are extra costs that we will face with our son attending an out-of-state school. Transportation is going to be a major cost. Plus, there are other considerations for the future - a car if he ends up living off campus and working at coops. If he lived closer to home, we might be able to address these issues a bit easier. Then of course, there is just the general "support" aspects for young people attending college - being closer for serous illness, injury, or giving the student a chance to get away on the weekend for a break. These are things that all students face, but are generally less of a big deal for attending colleges closer to ones state.</p>
<p>Basically I am looking for a range of possible funds we might receive. I have seen anything from $0 to a total of $28,000 for medal winners. Specific examples would be great for reference. Of course this all depends on different factors, but it would give us something to think about.</p>
<p>RPI loves students who want them. I would schedule a visit and for your son to talk directly and frankly to admissions and fin aid.</p>
<p>My son got extra merit money, when he expressed his concerns with cost with his college. If a college wants you enough, they can come up with some money. </p>
<p>It still is a tough go. When you are talking about a $50K+ school, even a half award leaves a lot unpaid. My son worked hard this summer to earn $5K + to put towards his COA, had savings to put towards the cost and borrowed Stafford money, in addition to the scholarship he got. He also got an outside scholarship award. Still we are borrowing as well as paying a hefty amount. $50K is a lot of money and you do have to come up with it each year.</p>
<p>My godson is a freshman there. He was also a medal winner and showed tons of love. Family income about 70k per year, pretty much no assets.
He didn't get any other money from RPI. I've heard from other people (I know three other families with kids in various years at RIP) that it's not a particularly generous school.</p>
<p>Gotta give it a shot to see what it will give to YOU, which is all that matters. We found schools that were generous to us that were labeled stingy. Did not get anything from a school that seemed to really love him and we were expecting something. So it's really hard to say until you give it a go yourself. Make sure you have financial safeties as well.</p>
<p>That's totally true, cpt, which is why I keep telling my daughter that options are her friends. My godson was stuck because his only other two schools were MIT and CalTech. He was admitted to neither.</p>
<p>My son was able to increase his merit award because of his other options. He let the school know that those options and explained that though they were his first choice, it was difficult to throw the finances out the window. Since the schools were peer or more selective, his schools did come up with an additional award. I don't think his appeal would have had as much weight had he not had the other options in black and white.</p>
<p>You'd have to know where he went to school. A really bad school where most kids don't graduate. He was stellar in that pool, but probably around the middle at RPI. Which isn't to say that he's not special because he is, but not in the sens of merit money.</p>