RPI Financial Aid - Transfer Student

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1

Hello ,

I am a non-traditional, older student currently studying engineering at a community college; I should be finishing up my associate’s degree in a few weeks and am hopeful to be able to transfer somewhere else with a better program to continue studying and at least complete an undergraduate degree.

I applied to RPI as a Fall 2018 transfer student and was accepted. Unfortunately, the tuition is beyond my means, so I contacted them about financial aid. They have granted me something they call a leadership award worth $19K, but my responsibility would still be unreasonably large for me.

I am honestly confused and unsure of what to do at this point because when I contacted Financial Aid they also forwarded me an email that linked me to a page on RPI’s website that seemed to suggest that all the deadlines for applying for additional financial aid had already passed even before the date I had received my acceptance notification. Does this mean that I would be totally wasting my time trying to apply for more aid at this point? I saw something else on this board indicating that transfer students generally get unfavorable aid packages so I am trying to confirm.

I am also unsure if I would even qualify for aid. How do they compute eligibility?

I would be very grateful for any advice anyone may have. Admittedly, as I would imagine you can tell I am not very savvy with respect to any of this.

Thanks in advance.

2

I contacted RPI Financial Aid today again; they were helpful and I am answering my own post in case this information is relevant to anyone else.

  1. I was mistaken to believe that Financial Aid application deadlines were passed. Filing FAFSA and CSS is still permissible.
  2. I was apparently also mistaken to believe that transfer students get bad packages. Applying as a transfer student is worthwhile.
3

I read both your posts and glad you got some answers from them. I wanted to add additionally that although you were accepted by RPI, you can opt (if you didn’t know) to enter one semester behind. They have many students that after having been accepted are allowed to take a 1 year extension on their incoming semester as one particular student that I know of did last year. They also have a 6 month extension of which I read of some people that have posted about as well. So if you’ve already applied for the FAFSA and don’t recieve your response on time you may want to consider asking admissions for an extension or even asking them how long you should wait before they need to know about a request for an extension.

4

Hello HopeENG,

I am also an adult transfer student that was recently accepted into the RPI, but for the CS program. Like you I am finishing my associates degree at a local community college. It is great to see other people in a similar situation to my own! I believe if you have kids you claim on your taxes you will probably get the Pell Grant and NYS TAP, so that will save you a little bit. It’s also worth noting that depending on your situation you can apply for a housing waiver to live off campus. They are granted for medical, religious, and other good reasons. The cost of living on campus and participating in a meal plan is about 15-20k per year, so no small amount of money.