Presidential Scholarship - anything more?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rochester Institute of Technology
1

<p>My S just received a letter saying that he is getting the Pres Scholarship. That is great and appreciated, but simply not enough. RIT is (by far) his favorite school and he will be crushed if we can't afford to send him. He will not qualify for financial need awards. In the letter he received, RIT alluded to possible additional grants other than need based. Anyone ever heard of this or actually been given this? Keeping my fingers crossed.</p>

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<p>Hi, I’m the mom of an RIT student who is finishing up sophomore year (and loves it there).
One thing I liked about RIT is that they were very transparent about their merit aid. They list all of their merit aid and the criteria they use for awarding the scholarships here: <a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html&lt;/a&gt;
So, two things, and I’m not sure how to say the first one while also sounding sensitive, because I feel like I had to keep asking myself the same question, especially with my other son who went first:

  • If you know what the biggest level of merit aid is, and you know your household is not eligible for financial aid, what was the plan for paying?
    I didn’t really face up to that with son#1 and thought we would “figure it out when the acceptances came.” Woops! Luckily he chose, on his own, the local state flagship… saved by the bell. We just happened to be in a better position for S2 and made RIT work. Second thing:
  • If you think your son’s objective criteria means he should get a higher presidential scholarship, you can ask. My S2 got a differently titled scholarship, one not even listed here. However, he had applied super early, long before his final GPA had been computed (he went to an unusual, small private school, he is a loooong story) or a few other things were factered in). We sent a letter/email saying how greatful we were, but that with this added info we thought that he would now qualify for the presidential scholarship. In response, the didn’t change the name of the scholarship, but raised it to almost the top presidential level, which was much more than we could have hoped for. In other words, look at what they actually offer and see if you think they missed something.</p>

<p>All my best wishes, and I hope in the end that the numbers work out for you. Your son’s future will be bright with any resolution!</p>