From what I understand of the CLASS program the only way to live off-campus sophomore year is to become Greek.
@Tinag1223 Congratulations to your daughter. My daughter got accepted for architecture but we had no info on the financial aid package in her acceptance letter. Neither was there any package listed under the Financial Aid tab on the application portal. I guess for you and those who got the financial aid info along with the acceptance letter are probably not getting anything more or different by end of the month. For those like us who didnāt get financial aid info along with the acceptance letter, RPI will let us know by end of the month.
Since only roughly 1/3 of the campus is Greek and RPI has not yet decided if Greek Housing can be used for ARCH; RPI should just be open and honest.
They should say - we have a program where students live on-campus for their first 5 semesters (this means paying room and board). The benefits outweigh the cost for the following reasons: (RPI Insert Here). The only exception is for students who join Greek Organizations - they can spend semester s 2 and 3 in Greek Housing.
They should also say half of you will be on campus as follows: FR Fall, FR Spring, Summer Off, SO Fall, So Spring, So/Jr Summer (3 consecutive terms). Half of you will stay on campus for the Jr Fall term (4 consecutive terms on campus).
This is ARCH combined with CLASS
Students in the first and sophomore year are required to live on campus in the Residential Commons with their class cluster. Sophomore students may elect to live in their affiliated Greek Chapter house if they are an active member and fulfill all other obligations as part of the good standing and by-laws of each Greek chapter house.
From: http://catalog.rpi.edu/content.php?catoid=18&navoid=433#student_living_learning
All Second Year students are required to live and dine on campus. The exception is those with an approved Greek Commons Application.
From: https://www.rpi.edu/dept/res-life/forms/UpperclassmenRoom-BoardRates2018-19.pdf
Son admitted to Mechanical Engineering with $32 Merit Scholarship
GPA Weighted 4.1
SAT 1460
ACT 32
We are out of state (NJ). Tuition is still very high even with a scholarship. And the looming yearly increase does not help. My son likes RPI a lot, and we know it is a fantastic school, but cannot justify the price tag. He doesnāt want to come out of college with mounds of debt. He will probably be going in state to NJIT which is half the price. He really likes it there as well. But so proud of him, and everyone here who has gotten accepted.
@NewSR1 sassy I have seen this crazy increase at both RIT & University of Rochester. The increase is deffinely effecting my decision. Instate Ny schools go up only $250 in tuition & sometimes rom & bd remain the same or go slightly up. I agree these #s have definitely gotten out of hand.
Has anyone gotten any official mail from RPI yet? Since decisions were on line Saturday I thought we would be getting all sorts of āloveā from the school to get us to choose them (they must know we all applied to several schools) but so far nothing.
Son admitted to Airspace Engineering with $19 Merit Scholarship
GPA 99/100
SAT 1440 : SAT2 Math 720,Physics 760
He likes the school and it has one of the best airspace programs but the price tag is very high so not sure about it yet.
@rileysmom Have not received and official mail yet. Also when is the accepted student day?
This is the link to the agenda for Accepted Students Day 4/13
https://rpi.app.box.com/v/ASC2019Agenda
This is the link to the RSVP
https://apply-undergrad.rpi.edu/register/ASC2019
This is a link to the student newspaper
https://poly.rpi.edu/
@StudentsR1st , Thank you!
RPI is the only school that that told students about the tuition increases for each of the years they will attend. Has school Management given up on cost cuts, procurement efficiency and just plain old belt tightening? For a school that already has one of the highest costs for a college degree in the country, to tell you that you will be paying for their financial irresponsibility is just shameful. Credit rating for the nearly 1 BILLION dollars in debt the school carries is now at BBB rating. An earlier post said that āa 3% increase for a business is not unheard ofā. Well that is true except when you start at the very top of the fee scale, it just screams of poor management. Purdue has maintained tuition for several years now. Hard to argue that RPI is a better school and at cost of 40% more than Purdue, my son has turned down RPI and accepted at Purdue. Wish you all the best of luck but please be careful. This is a large financial decision for my family and I just have to be extremely cautious.
Iām from the midwest and many of my friends went to Purdue. I can assure you that Purdue is just as good of an engineering school as RPI, likely better, for 1/3 the price.
Congratulations @FLGDAD, Iām sure your son will enjoy his time there. Mitch Daniels has become a legend with his leadership at Purdue and hope it serves as an example for other college administrations. Purdue admin is the polar opposite of everything Iāve seen at RPI.
@FLGDAD @randomdude532 How has this become āPurdue is Greatā thread ? Purdue is a fine engineering school. In fact USNews rates it higher than RPI. Congrats. But it is a false equivalence., Purdue is a state school, 5+ x the size, a broad range of majors, with a significant NCAA program, and in the mid-west. Those are all favorable for pricing. RPI is a private NE school specializing essentially in engineering and the sciences. The fact is RPI is priced +/- with peer NE private schools. We applied to many, including NYU, Stevens, WPI, Northeastern and the net cost after merit and aid were all close for us. RPI is not the only one who pre-message about tuition increases. When I looked at cost increases over a decade on Cappex the increase graph tracks Purdue. As far as cost cutting, yeah, they can, and probably do, but there are limits. As a business executive in NYS myself, health care, insurance, energy, and taxes are difficult costs to ācutā. I know someone who went to Purdue and is doing greatā ā¦ I know someone who started at community college who is doing great. In fact, I know people without any degree who personally are as smart, sharp and creative as those with. NYS has a great SUNY system, which costs, wait for it, less than Purdue (at least it would for my kids in state with merit). Stonybrook and Binghamton in particular have well ranked (not as high as RPI & Purdue) engineering programs. A neighbor had kids who went to Binghamton Watson and one is at Amazon, one at Goldman in analytics. Which one is ābetterā is very personal and only time will tell if the investment is worth it. Almost 1 year in now, and I can say that we remain thrilled with our choice of RPI, even at the high price. Unlike the school we have found a way to cut costs. Knowing what we know now, we would make the same decision. I wish all here that their dream school and/or choice works for them.
Completely agree with randomdude532. āPurdue is just as good of an engineering school as RPI, likely betterā for a lot less $. Mitch Daniels runs Purdue quite well, whereas, well letās just say SJ doesnāt do too well. Across the world, folks have heard of Purdue. RPI, while know by many employers, is considered by many to be a niche player in engineering and science. One big difference is that most RPI grads are not as well rounded, lacking many 21st Century skills, such as foreign language competency and writing and communication skills.
@CollegeGrad79 Is that your opinion, or a fact. If a fact please quote source, because this will be news too many. Is this also true for Stevens ? WPI ? NYU ? As far as foreign language skills, that is an American problem. Beyond Spanish, few pursue other languages.
RPI shut down their foreign language dept several years ago. Heard they now only offer a few classes in Mandarin Chinese. Donāt know much about Stevens & NYU. Have heard good things about WPIās project-based curriculum and their leadership.
For those truly interested in RPI, do not rely on anything posted here, including my posts. Do your due diligence. Visit the school. Attend some classes. Talk to some professors. Most importantly, talk to some students. Eat a meal in the Union and listen. Itās a pretty impressive group. Compare and decide.
DD got accepted. Interested in civil engineering, but will wait on more acceptances and financial aid packages.
Spark2018: I agree with you regarding due diligence, but disagree with ādo not rely on anything posted hereā. Everything posted here will help those do due diligence. I do believe Purdue is at least equivalent to RPI for engineering; however there are few accurate objective facts available. USNWR is a joke.
Here are some more questions to ask at RPI or any other school
What is the real faculty to student ration on a contact hour basis. In other words if a student attends 2 400 student 1 hr lectures and 2 40 person recitations the ratio is 110:1. TAās, Instructors, and Adjuncts should be considered as a faculty member in the above calculation.
Are calculators/computers required? If not it shows a lack of commitment toward moving forward with the times. But if required and then left up to the instructor as to if they will be useful in class it is a ripoff.
Is academic advising simply schedule checking with the student bearing most of the responsibility?