My son is seriously considering RPI, it’s still a financial reach for us but I have to say so as other private universities that he got into so far ( all in NE). We consider ourselves middle class, although our EFC is extremely high. Yes we do get a good pay I guess compare to the rest of the country but we leave in NYC, pay ridiculously high taxes – for state and for city and property taxes that are rising each year and almost the same as in NJ now, just our daily commute cost us about $600 a month, so I do not believe it‘s fair to have the same formula to determine EFC across the country. Anyway we definite do not have an extra 50-70K a year to pay for my son’s education, but we do not qualify for any financial aid, so colleges that meet financial aid that were mentioned above will not give us a dime. And the more popular the college the less of a merit aid a kid will get as they have a lot of the same quality kids applying, so if you need based you will get an aid and if not than pay. I agree with Spark2018 that NY State colleges are best option for us financially and plus he got merit from them but you can never compare a privet college to a public even a good one. That is just not the same.
I would argue that SUNY Buffalo is a great engineering option and on par with RPI.
@momofsenior1 , SUNY Buffalo is a good school and my son got into Honor college with some merit aid, but it’s rated much lower than RPI, at list from the rating perceptive, do you have any information about their engineering school? Do they offer coops? I believe that option of coops is very beneficial especially for engineers, that is why he applied to NE and RPI. NE he liked the best and was thrilled to be accepted but it is even more expensive for us then RPI.
If cost is a major consideration I urge you to examine the cost of room & board. When I was in college only 2 terms (FR year) were required. RPI now has 5 unless you are in a Greek organization in which case it is 3. For co-op it looks like with the new ARCH program that the summer between sophomore and junior year is out. Co-op programs vary a lot. At one extreme are schools that allow you to consider summer employment co-op and do essentially nothing to help the student get a job to schools that have “head placers” (opposite of head hunters) and offer alternating required co-op. Here is a link to RPI’s co-op info
https://info.rpi.edu/career-development/students/#UndergraduateGraduate
Thanks for your response and recent comments. I am just a concerned alumnus of RPI. I started this forum so that those considering enrolling (or applying) at RPI could get objective information to help them make their decision. I believe they can see the other forums as well. Most if not all the posts have helped achieve this goal. I hope that all those admitted make their decision based on what is best for them and therefore with the maximum amount of information possible. I will keep trying to answer questions and find information as asked on this forum. I will do so by trying to be as close to 100% objective as possible; I am not perfect. Please everyone keep the questions coming and the intelligent conversation going.
This may sound dumb, but S19 was accepted to RPI. Problem is, we have not received any financial aid information. Is it just not out yet? Is there somewhere we should be looking? He tells me it was not in the acceptance envelope.
No questions are dumb!
Online acceptance email will have links. In addition yesterday my son received two letters - one large one with the marketing brochure inviting my son. There was another small white colored envelope which had the scholarship details.
Hope this helps.
@Dadoneson -thanks! S19 couldn’t find anything online. I’ll have him check the email again and I will check the mail!
Try this link
https://admissions.rpi.edu/aid/contact
If you don’t know your RRN number
- try submitting without it
- type in I do not know
- type in a bunch of 0s
A lot of institutions use the data (questions from people) to improve their communication in years to come. So you might be making it easier for next year.
Another hint save PDF copies of everything you get on line.
Has anyone had any experience with a non-affiliated study abroad program? S wants to go to Japan but would have to create his own program. On the surface I think it’s a great idea-he could create a custom program for his studies. But how many hops are there to jump through in that case?
I don’t know of any but I caution against it. Usually with affiliated programs the two institutions handle all immigration, visa and financial-aid issues. They also usually help with travel and housing. They also handle transfer credits through articulation agreements. An articulation agreement generally says this set of courses = this set of courses recognizing that the collection is equivalent.
@StudentsR1 thank you for explaining that. Its information that we need so we can have an informed discussion with the school on Accepted students day. I need the school to handle all the legal/international/financial issues as well as all the credits he takes need to be accepted by RPI, otherwise it may be just a financially lost semester as he would have to make it all up. I understood the sticker price of RPI going in,including the Arch requirement, but I’d rather not have to spend the money making up gen ed credits because they didn’t transfer over
@StudentsR1st, are you familiar with the co-ops at RPI? How does RPI helps with placement? I know about the cost of room and board for 5 semesters. Is leaving outside cheaper? I have no idea about the rent prices in the area, so was kind of counting room and board for all 4 years in college. But real work experience and a good engineering education is very important, and if this is provided we will consider taking loans.
Congratulations to the Class of 2023! My son graduated from RPI in 2017 and enjoyed his experience there. Lots of hard work but it paid off in the end.
@Ultramarine777 , I am not familiar with the co-op process at RPI. But I suggest asking questions such as
- Describe the co-op process start to finish
- How many co-op students per co-op counselor?
- How do the co-op counselors help students with placement?
- How are interviews with potential co-op employers made?
- What assistance is offered to students while they are on co-op? Professional? Relocation? Financial Management? etc.
Do not accept generic answers like “it is different for every student”, “it depends on the term”, “it depends on the company”. Ask for more details. Maybe consider hypotheticals for 5.
Living off-campus is likely to be cheaper
https://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/New-York/Troy/
The above list does not include many student rentals. I would look at the Troy Record and ads on campus during Accepted Students Day.
Living in Greek Housing is cheaper.
@StudentsR1st, Thanks a lot ! that is very helpful will definitely ask these questions. when we visit.
Regarding rent in Troy, my son (a graduating senior) lived in an apartment 1 block off campus which was $500/month, including utilities. He did some cooking, but also used on campus dining, and the total cost for the year is coming in under $10k.
This applies to his experience in CS: For internships (he didn’t do a coop since he wanted to graduate in 3 years) he sent in his resume to 10-20 companies, and then also had many interviews from the career fairs. Some companies were only looking for coop commitments. He had internships each year, and many job offers this year (CS though, so not surprising). Also, he had the career center contact him about coop opportunities (which he wasn’t able to consider) based on having a pretty high GPA. For him, RPI has turned out to be a great career launchpad, but he did do considerable legwork on his own. For CS, prepping for and executing well in technical interviews is like having another really hard class on top of the normal workload, and cannot be neglected if you want to land one of the plum jobs or internships.
My daughter was accepted for the 2023 class and I have booked my hotel and are planning to visit the weekend of April 12-April 14th for the Accepted Student Celebration on April 13th. I really appreciate all the posts here…positive and negative as she is still deciding which college will be the best fit for her.
My daughter was also accepted and has received her financial package in the mail. We’ll be attending Accepted Students Day on the 13th. She’s happy after being rejected from Macaulay…and we’re still waiting on many schools- Stony Brook, CMU, Drexel, BU. RPI is definitely on her radar, especially since the financial package was generous. (SAT1480)
More suggestion questions to consider (based on another forum).
- What is the GPA distribution based on number of students as a function of GPA. A 2.0 average where everyone gets a C is different from a 2.0 average where 50% have a 0.0 and the other half a 4.0.
- What is the DFW rate for 1st and 2nd year courses? Any of these courses gatekeepers (calc 1 for example)?
- What is the retention rate based on a) students simply returning for a second year, b) those students in a) who are returning as sophomores, c) those students in b) who are on-track for timely graduation.
- How is teaching effectiveness measured? Does it include student perceptions of how well they learned subject matter? Note if so a simple one-size fits all survey is not possible. What other measures beyond grade distribution are used?