@sagitear @dmg2021 Definitely try appealing for more aid! Last year we were able to get some more merit aid for my DD by providing a copy of an offer from a peer school. You only get one appeal, so we mentioned everything we could think of, including a comparison of travel costs. If you don’t have another offer to use as leverage, just focus on your interest and financial need. Call the office and talk to them about filing an appeal and then send an email (finaid@rpi.edu). I don’t recommend using the Contact Financial Aid box on the website – both times we used that we didn’t get a response (can’t imagine why, but that was our experience); when we called or emailed directly we received immediate or quick responses.
Got accepted.
Applied for CS
New SAT: 1400 (RW: 730, M:670)
GPA UW: 3.8 GPA.
Was really afraid I wouldn’t get in because of my relatively low SAT math score.
Forgot to post my stats.
Conditional acceptance for CS
New SAT: 1280 (RW: 650, M: 630)
GPA: 3.7
I’m a female going into CS, which was probably a big hook.
@reforemedman No not international Computer Science major, although I think he may have applied for a dual Math/Computer Science major. Yes, a little painful as in fact RPI has historically had a high acceptance rate for students from S school as they have extensive STEM focus. We are guessing, and it is only a guess that the driver was the essay component of the SAT. While RPI does not require that, once they see it,I think they have a hard time not considering. In S case, he has ADHD and while he has good writing skills, timed written assignments are beyond tough for him. When he took the SAT, he said he could only complete the first paragraph of the essay component, so effectively as if he didn’t even show up for that part score wise. He wrote a letter of explanation, but sure that is just the thing that gives pause when the environment is so competitive. In fact, as I said, I am only guessing. All in, I think the college admissions counselors do a pretty good job taking a holistic approach. I don’t really envy their position culling through thousands of very qualified students.
Apologies for the lengthy reply
Providing a quick update for those who did not receive any notice of financial aid.
My D contacted admissions and financial aid today and they let her know that they are still finishing up some of the financial aid packages. They said she should receive her info in the next few days and to contact them again if she hasn’t heard in a week or so.
At this moment, do you think merit scholarships are finalized?
@math3matical I guess RPI didnt want you lol
@aandaparent Merit scholarships are not finalized until you receive your final package. I got mine after everyone else (super late) and I still ended up getting a lot of scholarship money. They work around the clock doing these things.
@joedoe - thank you - I was about to call them and ask why, I’ll wait then. He has UIUC and Purdue acceptances, so there are options. But if I would still very much like to know why they didn’t want him (and I take no scholarship=don’t want)- from what I hear his stats were very good for RPI.
@fatherofsam thanks for following up with the financial aid office.
RPI has moved to one of the top choices for my son, but he did not receive any merit $$ with his acceptance. That’s fine, we didn’t apply for any need based aid. But my son has a few other acceptance with decent merit packages and so we hope they can provide him with some to make it a more competitive offer.
When we visited the admissions presenter basically told the room that this year almost every student attending would be awarded some sort of aid/merit, except for the 5% of international students. I was surprised she mentioned this in her presentation.
So good luck to those waiting on $$ decisions.
@RightCoaster and @aandaparent - Just to be clear, if your portal/acceptance did not have a financial aid offer at all, that doesn’t mean that you will not receive any aid, it just means that they haven’t yet completed their financial aid package for your sons. My D won’t qualify for need based aid either, but I’m expecting some sort of merit aid. This is based off of what I have read from the prior 3 years posts on CC, RPI’s NPC, and what I’ve seen this year as well.
However, if you received aid information and it didn’t include any need-based or merit aid, that’s another story. In that case I think you are not receiving aid and you may wish to appeal or consider other options. From what I’ve read, RPI will listen to appeals, thought they typically don’t offer much more aid. $2-3K/year seems to be the most common increase after an appeal.
Frankly, I think RPI needs to change their process to send out aid packages to all students with acceptances. Or, send financial aid separately to all students. Their current process causes confusion and stress for those of us who didn’t get aid packages. Just wait another week or two and send out and complete the process before sending notifications. Seems obvious to me…
^^
I agree. I don’t like when the kids get accepted but then have to wait weeks to see if the school is going to be a viable financial alternative.
We could afford the COA, but when I compare the programs at other schools where he received merit and could save us over 100K over 4 years, I’d have a hard time justifying it. If he gets even a little something per year to bring the cost down it would make the school a decent value.
If you look a the collegedata website you can see that RPI is usually somewhat generous with merit $$, many kids seem to get some, even if they did not apply for financial aid.
hopefully we hear back soon, trying to make some decisions soon and wrap this process up.
Just an FYI – double check to make sure you sent them your financial aid information. I was micromanaging DS yesterday and we realize he didn’t send his forms to RPI and some other schools. I swear this child is trying to give me a heart attack! He was accepted so, I’m just going to sit over here with my imaginary mimosa and deep breath until we get a revised letter.
@TQfromtheU RPI actually sent a note to my son asking if he was going to submit a Fafsa. He replied no, and said he we did not qualify for need based aid, but would like to be considered for any merit awards. I was hoping that might entice them to offer him something, but so far zilch, lol.
I think UIUC does it in a similar way, some see a link to the scholarship info right away, some later. ED is different if I’m not mistaken.
@joedoe does RPI send an actual envelope with acceptance and merit? Some schools my son has applied have stopped doing this and just update everything thru emails/portals
I posted this earlier, but on Saturday, I did not receive a decision since I applied to the pre-law program. The notice on RPI’s app portal said that decisions will be sent via mail. I am from NC and have not received anything yet (although it is only Tuesday). Has anyone else gone through this or know when my letter may arrive?
@fatherofsam - I agree… even though everybody wants to know as early as possible whether they got in, it’s weird when some aid offers accompany the acceptances and others don’t. My D was on the other side of this in December - her Northeastern EA acceptance initially appeared to include no merit aid, while many others posted about scholarships. A merit offer materialized a few days later, but in the meantime getting accepted didn’t feel as welcoming as it might have. With RPI she got her merit award with the admit, but others like your D did not. It’s not ideal. Also, as @RightCoaster confirmed, it seems as if virtually all admitted students (or at least all domestic ones) end up with some kind of aid… which ultimately ends up feeling like a department store artificially inflating prices so they can advertise a “sale.” Sure, it warms the cockles to get a >$20K/year merit award, but IMHO half of that award is fictional. I mean, a >$70K/year sticker price - really? RPI is a good school, but that’s just silly. Even if I had $70K/year to throw around… I could send THREE kids to Cal Poly for that. It kind of insults the intelligence to give everybody a big discount off of a fictional rack rate and expect us all to be flattered and impressed.
When we visited RPI, the student guide, biology major, said his salary out of school would have been ~27K. He was applying for PhD programs, and PhD would raise the salary considerably. I understand CS majors will have way higher salaries right out of school, but for science majors it would be crazy to pay almost $300K to earn 1/10 of that. No one I know would pay $70K/year for RPI vs. even our not so famous state flagman, UMass Amherst. Despite sincere high respect for RPI.
I meant vs. in-state UMass COA that is <30K