<p>My daughter was convinced that RPI was the school for her and now we've been receiving more mail that is making her doubt her decision.</p>
<p>Amongst other schools she was accepted to a variety of Honors Colleges -- Northeastern (Honors), University of Pittsburgh (Honors), SUNY Stony Brook (WISE Honors), Binghamton (Scholars program), Drexel (Honors) and other schools.......and to add to that Fordham sent a letter substantially increasing her merit Dean's scholarship. This is all wonderful news but now she's having second thoughts about choosing Rensselaer. </p>
<p>My thoughts are to first to affirm that yes any one of these choices are wonderful and that she should be proud to have received the offers. We visited Stony Brook last summer and she liked it....visited Pitt...the same, didn't visit Northeastern or Binghamton but what I've read is that they are both wonderful schools.</p>
<p>At the end of the day......though the reality is that she will have to refuse the offers and scholarships from these schools and stick to her choice of Rensselaer. Her problem is that she is not in a specific Honors program and my response is to suggest that almost all of the students at RPI are worthy of "Honors" colleges.......but I also have some doubt about her decision --- especially the SUNY schools of Stony Brook and Binghamton. </p>
<p>So....is RPI like an Honors College at the schools named above or would she be better off choosing an Honors College.......my slant is that I want her to stick to her decision but to be HAPPY with her decision and to not consider her choice a compromise in anyway. </p>
<p>What do you think.....I'd love to hear from some RPI students!</p>
<p>I’m not the student (as you know) but my question is was she accepted to the college or actually to the honors programs at those colleges? For my D she was accepted at 2 schools where they had honors programs. There usually is an application process that you have to go through separately to be accepted into them. She did that for one of them and was waitlisted for it. </p>
<p>There is no separate honors program at RPI and yes- we view that as everyone at RPI is worthy of the same program and it is not an easy one. If you get in there- it’s tough enough :)</p>
<p>Hi kgrmom! You are so helpful! She was accepted to the Honors programs at all of them. Stony Brook had a separate application process but the rest – Northeastern, Drexel, Pitt, Binghamton – just selected her from the general applicant pool and notified that she was being offered admission to the honors programs. She just heard from Binghamton today. I don’t know the specifics about all of them but the Binghamton programs sounds highly selective and the Stony Brook one that she applied to (Women in Science and Engineering) sounded really great too. I don’t know much specifically about Drexel or Northeastern’s program. I know the Pitt Honors College is considered to be pretty good.</p>
<p>Anyway I know we shouldn’t re-think the choice forever. We’ve put down the deposit. I’m thrilled that she chose RPI even though she gave up two full tuition scholarships (Temple and St. John’s)…as I think that RPI is really the the best fit for her…she is a true future scientist and will be immersed in a rigorous, challenging curriculum at RPI. </p>
<p>Thanks for the reassurance that RPI’s general program is like an honor’s program. The college selection process has been an exciting but anxiety filled time for her (and, obviously, me!) I will need to convince her (and me) that her choice of RPI is where she should be…and I’m sure when everything is said and done on April 30th and the doors close on the other offers that all will work out as it was meant to be.</p>
<p>By far RPI should be #1 in terms of the research groups that she could get into. There arent too many girls though and its in albany which well stinks. Stony Brook and NU are both great schools both for research and with NU co ops. The other schools i think i would weed out, these three seem to stand above the rest for their different strengths. Bimhington is just flat out not as good as Stony Brook and I believe Drexel is both easier to get into than Northeastern, but you also have to pay while you are on co op</p>
<p>Thanks all for your input…we’re just going to have to wait out the rest of the month and see what happens. The deposit is in at RPI… on Saturday we thought it was the best choice. April 30th can’t come too soon!</p>
<p>If she feels that RPI is the right school for her, it’s the right school for her. RPI most certainly is better than even the honors programs at Northeastern and Drexel, not to even mention the SUNY schools. Overthinking college decisions is never a good idea, and can lead to students being unhappy about decisions even before they hit orientation. As a current RPI student, I believe that RPI is all about “fit”, and if your daughter was absolutely convinced RPI was the school for her, it is the school for her.</p>
<p>Thank you NBinks! Your words are wise. There are no guarantees that any decision is the right one…but you need to go with your instinct and daughter and my instincts tells us that this is the best school for her! </p>
<p>It’s good to hear from a current RPI student…obviously it was a “fit” for you. I know exactly what you are saying about “fit”…after visiting schools that we thought were a match we found that it wasn’t when actually there.</p>
<p>I have to say though that while RPI absolutely feels like the best fit for my daughter SUNY Stony Brook felt pretty good too…any of you New Yorkers (I don’t know if you are from NY) are lucky to have such reasonably priced SUNY schools like Binghamton and Stony Brook!</p>
<p>Well…we’ve put down the deposit and next step is to get my daughter to complete the dormitory form!!! She is procrastinating. What are your thoughts on the best dorm?</p>
<p>The dorm assignments are first come first serve from when you put the deposit down. So all the ED kids, etc get a head start. If your daughter can handle a triple, put down triple Barton for first. They’ll share a bathroom with another triple of girls. This year Barton and BARH (?) were all triples due to very high enrollment. Barton has the nice study rooms, AC, etc. And the kids next door to my son were running a vacuum and I couldn’t hear it at all in my son’s room. It seems plenty social to our son. </p>
<p>The Barton halls with hall bathrooms are usually all guys, the girls only get part of the suite halls.</p>
<p>That is one form you don’t want to procrastinate on- no. Supposedly from what I hear- Barton pretty much fills up with the Early Decision kids. I don’t even think my daughter even considered putting it very high on her list because of that- she knew it just wasn’t going to happen. Also- she really didn’t want a triple. Felt that dealing with one roommate was going to be enough for the first year (and it has been- ugh).</p>
<p>Form is filled out! My daughter’s priority was to have a double and, hopefully, not a triple. So she chose Barton as #10 and is keeping her finger’s crossed.</p>
<p>Our son did Barton triple as first choice as part of regular decision and got it (freshman this year). From what I’ve seen, most people find a way to be happy with what they get. For my son, it is not so much a triple as a group of six with very fluid traffic between the two rooms. Five will be living together (adjacent rooms) next year in the new dorm- converted hotel, the 6th is living at home to save $$. So RPI did do a very good roommate match, or the guys are just very flexible, laid back. The study rooms mean you can get quiet when you need it.</p>
<p>Barton is widely considered to be the best freshmen dorm; it is the newest dorm on campus and is the only freshmen dorm to have air conditioning (I believe), which is very useful during the first three or four weeks of school. Besides that, any of the other dorms on “Freshman Hill” (Cary, Crockett, Hall, Nason, Bray) are usually a good choice. BARH, which has mixed upperclassmen and freshmen, is a bit far away from the academic part of campus for my tastes, but some people really love it there and stay for four years. Quad is right on the academic part of campus, but the rooms tend to be tiny.</p>