My child is trying to decide whether to apply ED 2 or RD to RIT. We need a large amount of Merit $$ and am curious if more is given for ED 2 or RD. I’ve heard for other schools with binding ED, you would get less merit $$ because you obviously will have to attend, but since RIT is not binding based on your financial need, curious if they give all their merit early on in the decision process. (ED 1 is not feasible because there is another school whose decision won’t be back until RIT ED 1 deposit is due.)
I should add that GPA is 3.9 unweighted, lots of Honors and AP, SAT 1470. Applying for New Media Design Major
From what I have seen Merit is given about the same between ED2 and RD. Note that RIT is one of the few schools that have a non binding ED; I would almost call it an EA of sorts. Also for many kids they get their RD decision well ahead of the deadline. Based on the stats your child should get close to the top amount of Merit, but usually RIT’s top Merit is around 20-24K with tuition around 50K. so you also need to look at FAFSA and what grants other aid you might get.
1 Like
My daughter will apply to RIT for CS major. Her current GPA 3.75 9(UW), 4.3 (W). She doesn’t have SAT or ACT since all her exams were canceled.
So I don’t know whether she has a chance to get into RIT and get some merit scholarship.
We are in a similar boat. UW is about 3.8x, weighted is about 4.3, almost all AP or honors each year, except for junior and senior year math (she went down to advanced college prep / ACP after 2 years of honors math). She has taken the SAT twice now, although I am not sure if sending the scores are worth it at this stage.
I assume that she would qualify for a decent amount of merit (as would your daughter), although I don’t know how much. We are out of state (CT), and she is interested in Game Design and/or Digital Animation. She’s a strong artist, but is still compiling a portfolio. We are wondering if RD would give her more time to improve her portfolio variety, as composing a portfolio is new for her.
The other issue with ED is that while she really likes RIT, at this point with Covid, she hasn’t really been able to visit places. She has WPI, RPI, Virginia Tech, Michigan State and RIT all high on her list. All of those other schools are ranked notably higher than RIT, but she does still really like RIT, and merit is a huge factor for us. Not being able to visit makes it all the more difficult. She was able to visit WPI in March right before COVID. We did a drive through of an empty RPI campus.
RIT is offering what they call a friendly early decision that gives financial aid information. Apply by November 1st.
1 Like