does anyone know when we get the acceptance letter in the mail?
S accepted, with a 21.5K Leadership Award.
Can’t remember what school he applied to, but maybe Physics?
35 ACT, 1520 SAT
4.0 UW (they don’t weight here)
Class rank 1/372 Public HS
[ size=4][ color=green][ b]Decision: Accepted **[/color][/size]
[ b]Objective:**
ACT (breakdown): 34 (34 in everything except Science w/35)
ACT superscore (breakdown): 34 (only took once)
SAT II (subject, score): 1530 (Math: 790 R+W:740)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
AP (place score in parentheses): Chemistry: 5 Physics I: 5 Physics II: 5 U.S. History: 5
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Biology, English Honors (AP equivalent), Chinese 5H, AP Psychology
Number of other EA applicants in your school: 0
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): National Merit Finalist, National Honors Society Member, AP Scholar w/Honor, Graduating with Honors.
[ b]Subjective:**
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): School’s Surgical Club member, Led carnival booth in local town junior year, Violin lessons since 6th grade, Piano since 1st grade. Completed ABRSM exams up to gr.5 w/ Distinctions
Job/Work Experience: Lead TA for 3 years at Foreign Language Immersion program
Volunteer/Community Service: 40 hours at nursing home
Summer Experience: CAPSTONE project helping homeless in China in Junior Year, took Chem Honors during summer (usually a year-long course) in the summer before Sophmore year so I could skip straight to AP Chem in 10th grade.
[ b]Writing (Subject, 1-10 rating, details):** None submitted, did the Candidate’s choice application
Teacher Recommendation #1: 10, Excellent, written by Chinese teacher who I’m very close with
Teacher Recommendation #2: 8? Written by Physics teacher. Although I wasn’t the smartest kid in the class, we got along well.
Counselor Rec: 10
Interview: None
[ b]Other**
Date Submitted App: November 2016
U.S. State/Territory or Country: Prefer not to say 
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket Range: 80K
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athelete, development): none… maybe being a National Merit Scholar?
[ b]Reflection**
Strengths: SAT, ACT, and Transcript. I took the hardest classes available at my school.
Weaknesses: Definitely extracurriculars
Why you think you were accepted: Stats.
What would you have done differently?: Wouldn’t have submitted Candidate’s choice application. I don’t think it helped me.
Where else did you apply? Duke, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, USC, BU.
[ b]General Comments & Advice:**
I was awarded only 21.5K in scholarships. Although I am grateful to have been given the scholarship, I worry that it isn’t enough for my family. My family can only afford a maximum of 21K a year, but RPI is asking us to pay approx. 37K after other federal loans. I hoped that I would be able to receive more since my SAT and ACT scores were strong (compared to the averages at RPI). Feeling a mixture of gratitude yet sadness right now. I’d love to attend RPI, but I simply cannot afford to go as of now.
Forgot to include this in an earlier post, but I also applied as a Biomedical Engineer. If you’re accepted into the school, does this mean you’re accepted into your selected major too?
SAT Subject Tests:
Math II: 800
Chemistry: 750
U.S. History: 740
Physics: 700
@math3matical i noticed you are also applying to UW? I guess we find out soon?
Accepted! 25 merit 25 grant
93 UW 96W
1540 SAT
EFC $10000
Accepted for Chemical Engineering
Merit: 25k/yr (Rensselaer Medal) Total Aid: 30k
4.00 UW, 4.4 W
ACT: 34 (36 in science)
Math Level II: 740 Chemistry: 800
AP Chemistry, AP Literature, AP Calculus AB
Strong Recommendations
4 Year Varsity Starter (Basketball and Baseball)
1,000 Pt Scorer and All-Star in Basketball (not playing basketball in college though)
Part-Time Farmhand
How is it BS when the Candidate’s Choice Application cleary stated that “We treat all of these applications [Cadidate’s Choice Application, Common Application, or Univesal College Application] equally when considering you for admission, and you will receive the same advantages (including automatic scholarship consideration) however you choose to apply.”
You must have stopped reading after the first sentence of the cover letter.
And guess what? All efforts by any college to woo your child is marketing.
I was always mildly annoyed by schools that went a bit too far IMO. Olin College sent my D multiple emails like “we’re impressed with your accomplishments!” - while it was obvious they actually knew nothing about her. (And then they rejected her.) And RPI’s candidate’s choice was vaguely implying that you were somehow special - though if you read carefully you could see that you weren’t. (In fact - aren’t there posts on this forum frequently asking “how special am I for having received the candidate’s choice app?”)
And just so that I stay relevant to this thread:
DD was accepted to CS, with $21,500 per year in merit money
GPA 3.4 UW / 3.7 W (Is this a record low? 
)
ACT: 35
Math II: 760
@thshadow spot on.
Exactly what I wanted to say. It’s a shame that this is the reality with universities now; is the numbers. A salary of 7 million for the president of a university, tuft’s syndrome, marketing letters, yield ratios, etc.
@reformedman and @theshadow - completely agree. I do think RPI is particularly clumsy with it’s marketing and “customer service” though. My D continued to get emails to apply for months after she applied. The “candidates choice” is attempting to make candidates feel special but it often backfires. And the latest for us is no notification of financial aid although we expect she will get something (based on looking at prior year’s threads).
Now that I got that off my chest, it is a GREAT school and my D is very interested in RPI:
D was accepted into Design, Innovation, Society (w/ intent to dual major in MechE)
GPA: 3.85 UW / 4.3 W with a rigorous curriculum (all honors or AP)
ACT: 35
APs: 9 APs including Calc BC, Physics 1,Bio, Stats, Lit, Lang, etc.
ECs: debate team (event leader + National Speech & Debate Leadership Committee), founded art club and established as chapter of National Art Honor Society, 12+ years piano, colorguard (captain), FIRST robotics, math tutor at Kumon, NHS, part-time job, etc.
Also visited RPI last summer and interviewed locally with admissions officer in the fall.
Son Waitlisted CS
Stats
1470 SAT (770 Math, 700 Eng)
3.8 UW 4.16 W GPA
Lots of extra curric
Good Leadership
Lots of AP/STEM focus
Congratulations to all accepted and big Hugs to those not accepted
@chel17 Clearly unexpected.
What major if I may ask?
International?
My daughter was accepted. She got $25K Rensselaer Medal Scholarship and a $7k Grant. We already knew about the $25K, she rec’d that last May. I was hoping due to her being a female-engineering student with a disability that she would have rec’d more money. Her essay from her common app clearly talks about her disability. RPI was her top choice. Has anyone ever gone back to FA and asked for more? Thank you!
Daughter is also a finalist for the Nat’l Merit Scholarship Award. Not sure if this will bring in any more FA.
@dmg2021 - You guys probably know about this already, but just in case you don’t: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/programs/microsoftdisabilityscholarship.aspx
Did your D apply to Northeastern also? They’re quite disability-friendly and often in the same merit ballpark as RPI.
@aquapt I will check that link out. I just came across it last week. She didn’t apply to Northeastern. Getting around the city would be a little difficult for her. Thank you!
@dmg2021 - RPI will accept appeals to both need and merit aid. The odds are having a successful appeal increase if you have had some change to your financial situation (for need-based aid) or some new accomplishment that warrants additional merit (an award, a better offer from a peer school, etc.).
From prior years’ CC threads, it looks like appeals are often successful at RPI, but the amount of the additional merit aid is small - $3K/year seems very common but I’ve seen the occasional larger adjustment.
I would definitely appeal. RPI has a standard appeals process to follow that you can start by contacting your admissions officer.
Waitlisted for Aerospace engineering
3.09 UW, 3.29 W
ACT: 32
SAT: 1340 (didn’t send)
From Public School in Cali
Recommendations were decent I imagine
Essays I felt were pretty good
Kinda surprised that I didn’t get straight up rejected since my GPA is obviously very low. I guess that gives me hope for other places since RPI wasn’t my first choice
[ b]Decision: Accepted **
[ b]Objective:**
SAT: 1300 (690 math, 610 eng)
Weighted GPA: 3.7
AP (place score in parentheses): Environmental sci (4), school doesn’t offer much
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, APUSH, Physics, College class in a nearby college (Comp Sci and Math), Dual Enrollment Research class with UAlbany, and the rest are just regular classes
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): honor roll and 2nd place in an essay competition
[ b]Subjective:**
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): Student to intern to worker at a 4-year program, research at NYU, 3-year commitment to school’s research club/class, and clubs here and there
Job/Work Experience: Office work, Gardening at a popular public space in NYC
Volunteer/Community Service: Sailing Summer camp, tutoring ESL kids at a church, red cross involvement etc
Summer Experience: job/internship,research
[ b]Writing (Subject, 1-10 rating, details):**
Essays: 9.5/10 spent quite some time on it and pinpointed a really specific event
Teacher Recommendation #1: APES teachers and research class/club advisor, 9/10, knew my passion for STEM really well and I accomplished a lot in his classes
Teacher Recommendation #2: chem teacher, 8.5/10 probably wrote more about my personality which balanced out rec #1
Counselor Rec: 7/10 She doesn’t dislike me but probably generic
Additional Info/Rec: Department chair of my intended major at the university I do research at, 8/10
[ b]Other**
Date Submitted App: around last few days of december
School Type: public
Ethnicity: asian
Gender: female
Income Bracket Range: pretty low…
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athelete, development): first gen, female in engineering
[ b]Reflection**
Strengths: extracurriculars, essays and rec?
Weaknesses: definitely test scores
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: idk
What would you have done differently?: my supplement was pretty bad since 100 words isn’t much to write about anything I feel like
Where else did you apply? Accepted: Stonybrook, UB, Syracuse Honors, Rutgers, Penn State UP, RIT
Still waiting: NYU, Northeastern