RPI Class of 2023 Thread

Why would any school post on the financial aid offer letter a “STUDENT REPORTED OUTSIDE SCHOLARHSIP” for $30K when its not a real offer?

S accepted to Lally (business). 3.4 uw, 31 ACT. I think what got him in were his essays that clearly explained what he wants to do and how he could create that at RPI. Showed that he really knew the school. Won’t be attending; will be going to school in Montreal. But RPI is a great school and it was very high on his list. Congrats to all who were accepted!

@SwimmingDad if you don’t mind, is your son going to McGill?

Decision: Conditionally Accepted
Condition: I have to take High School Physics somewhere (my school doesn’t offer it) and get a B.
Major: Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences
SAT: 1290
GPA: 4.0
Portfolio: Kickass, went to the portfolio review
I really want to go to RPI, but I need to take physics. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I can take it?

Anyone know how the wait list works? When do they notify you if you’ve been taken and are accepted, or haven’t and therefor aren’t admitted? Any info would help.

Streakman - local community college might offer in early summer.

Son accepted but no financial aid information attached (we checked for separate links etc, FAFSA and CSS profile were received, but no further info available). He was Rensellaer Medalist and therefore guaranteed 25K merit scholarship, so I’m thinking that financial aid info will be posted later for some applicants. Trying not to stress too much about it

re: waitlists – Schools will send instructions on the waitlist; how to accept a spot, what supplemental info they might consider, etc.

My advice is to look at the common data set (cds) data available on each school’s website. It will tell you how many kids were offered a spot on a waitlist and how many were taken from that waitlist. If you look through the last 3-4 years of data you can get an idea of your odds. Some schools take single digits (as in 2 or 3 kids) from a waitlist of many Ks. Some schools (particularly some big state schools) may clear more but a lot of more selective schools don’t take very many off the waitlist.

In any event, they are unlikely to even look at the waitlist until well after the May 1 decision date when they know how many students are going to enroll. Before then they don’t know if the class is on-target for the desired size or not. There is some small movement over the summer months through some decommits but again, it’s usually not a huge number.

@Streakman Google “Online High School Physics” and several options will come up. You’ll have to do some digging to understand what will work. I would also call RPI Admissions and see when they need to have that class completed and see if they have ideas. Good luck! And congrats!

@Streakman Summer semester 2019 in a community college is your best option. Also try is.byu.edu for online courses., Physics being a lab science you might want to confirm with RPI if they want you to do an online or classroom session.

@momof3inmass it’s very possible that because he has the Medal Award (congrats on that, it’s a great honor from his teachers!) that he won’t be given anything else, outside it GSL loan. The colleges I’ve researched say they will give the highest award they can and they don’t combine scholarships. The highest award wins, so to speak.

RPI offered 4800 people the waitlist, 2600 accepted being on the waitlist, and only 22 admitted off the waitlist.

Daughter accepted in aero engineering.
Received leadership scholarship for 31K

Little nervous of expected increaseses in tuition. RPI tuition has gone up 3% each year and the extra fees 2.9%.
Tuition expected to be 60K alone in a few years

The financial aid and info were on links on the bottom of portal acceptance letter. Ours was like 7 pages and explained everything.

Waitlist only took 4 kids in 2017. Not sure about last year and how much it changes. The amo7nt of kids they accept has gone up, so their acceptance rate has too. Do they have extra dorms built or are they starting to cram 3 in double and 4 in triple.

Here is the link to ask questions regarding housing

https://webforms.rpi.edu/contact-student-living-learning

@NewSR1 Tuition goes up at most schools and certainly here at RPI. Some ways to work through it and/or rationalize. 1-the stafford loan goes up as you progress, and I know it is just more debt kicking the can down the road, but at least the out of pocket gets some relief; 2-you can adjust the meal plan. the ones the freshman have to choose from may/are a bit heavy; 3-after the freshman year you can live off campus and there is good reasonable availability close. As far as dorm volume, RPI seems to be addressing this two ways I’m aware of. They buy homes and buildings (like the former hotel at the bottom of the death steps) as they can. The Arch have effectively increased space by having everyone off campus one of their eight semesters. Last thought, is stick with funding the 529 each year. For those in NY being taxed at 8%, it is a nice short term return.

Purdue tuition hasn’t gone up in years and already pledged to not look to possibly increase to 2021 I think.

Other schools have tuition freeze once you accept.

Yes, some schools increase but a 45K to a 60K increase in 10 years is pretty crazy. I just have to keep the increases in our overall 4yr budget. No school on our list is projected to increase by that percentage.

I don’t like it either, but 3% per year for ‘a business’ is not unheard of. I always liked the freeze concept too. Schools have options how to generate the increase, fees, decreased merit, salary freezes, dropping medical, fund raising, who knows. The schools we considered mostly had similar projections. On Cappex I see the similar trend. I’m all for deciding on value, and if that is the driver, a private NE school probably won’t top the list. For that, the state schools offer value and strong academics for in-state.

Has anyone had any experience with writing to RPI finanaical aid office to see if there is any other financial aid available? If so, how did it go?

@rileysmom I called the RPI admissions office today and they said students would receive financial aid packages by end of the month .

@Sam4818 is this something different than what came in the acceptance email? Daughter got the leadership award and Rensselaer grant totaling $38,000.