<p>Trying to get a sense of potential financial packages. </p>
<p>What are the "average" merit based financial aid packages for RPI, Georgia Tech, and Rose-Hulman?</p>
<p>All schools will be out-of-state.</p>
<p>Has received RPI medal and father is an alumni.</p>
<p>Interested in computer science, computer engineering with game design focus. </p>
<p>Son is in top 12%, many AP classes, GPA 3.6, numerous activities.</p>
<p>For Ga Tech:
Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: President's Scholarship Program :: Home</p>
<p>Apply by October 31st and you are automatically considered for the President's Scholarship. If you meet semifinalist (I hear it's usually about test scores and other stats) you will have to do an interview to become a finalist. I don't know if it's the only merit aid at GT, but anytime I ask about merit aid this is what everyone tells me.</p>
<p>Oh and it can cover 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% tuition.</p>
<p>^ President's Scholarship is insanely hard to get. I failed to even get semifinalist with ridiculous stats considering Tech's admission record (1500 SAT, close to 4.0 unweighted, etc). Your son would have to be God's gift to engineering (or in an underrepresented group) to get substantial money out of Tech; I think they offered me 2k for being a national merit finalist (the school I eventually went to offered me over 10 times that).</p>
<p>Sure sounds as if Georgia Tech can pick and choose its candidates. Does anyone know if they have something for out-of-state folks?</p>
<p>^^^
what Skylark said. If she decides to apply, if we can get a waiver of out of state tutition that would be sufficient to put GTech in the possibility pile. For her undergrad we just won't pay for out of state so that there's money available to help with grad school, too. We won't do loans as we can pay for instate tuition in our state or any state that will waive the out of state.</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>I was a semifinalist (or finalist, don't really recall) for the President's Scholarship, and most of the awards either knocked off the tuition to an in-state price or ended up being free. There's always a possibility, so apply as soon as possible (I believe the deadline is the end of october) to GT.</p>
<p>Well this sounds interesting -waving out-of-state tuition. Is this something that Georgia Tech might consider? If so, whats the process for finding out about this option?</p>
<p>Also, anyone have ideas about financial aide for medal winners for RPI? We won't qualify for need base, but we certainly didn't plan for $50,000 a year school either. Suggestions?</p>
<p>Comments about financial packages from Rose-Hulman?</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman is a small school with limited financial resources. I am sure that they do their best, but if you have an EFC of $0 (that is, need 100% financial aid) forget it. For example, after the federal loans and grants and their aid, you might still need a $12/yr. private loan. So a family might end up after 4 years with $85k remaining debt. Naturally, your package might be better. Since they have rolling admission, I would advise applying as soon as you can (October) perhaps that will help get a better deal. One plus is that there is no separate financial aid form to fill out for them. If you are not OOS, you might be able to get some aid from the state even though they are a private college. Also, there are military/ROTC scholarships you can get.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman gives out a lot of merit aid, more than 70% admited get something, but except for a small number that might get higher, the range for most who get it is 1/8 to 1/2 tuition and depends on GPA/test score (it doesn't matter whether you are in or out-of-state). Need based amounts awarded (loans, grants) are not guaranteed to meet 100% need. With rolling admissions it helps for admission to apply early, but all aid packages offered go out in February, so you won't know what it is until then.</p>
<p>Here are a couple of follow up questions:</p>
<p>If my son decides to make an early decision for one of these three schools, how much of an impact will this have on his financial aid package? </p>
<p>Right now, he is leaning toward RPI since he was awarded the medal scholarship. Since merit is his only real option for financial aid, will selecting RPI as his first choice give him a greater chance for additional aid?</p>
<p>What about first choice selection for Rose-Hulman or Georgia Tech and their financial aid?</p>
<p>Actually his GPA is 3.9. I mistyped the first section of this thread. He also scored 31 cumlative on ACT.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman does not have early decision; they are rolling decision.</p>
<p>What is rolling decision? How does Rose-Hulman approach this?</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman begins sending out decisions in early October and continues for as long as necessary. As with any rolling decision college, the earlier an application is submitted, the better. And decisions from a rolling decision college are considered nonbinding.</p>
<p>Sounds as if you have a sense of Rose-Hulman's program. What do you think of their program compared to RPI or Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>My son and I have toured RHIT and RPI, and son attended Operation Catapult at RHIT. I'm not familiar with Georgia Tech (son wants a cold climate). I think both RHIT and RPI offer equally outstanding engineering programs. RPI is trying to expand its non-engineering programs, and it is putting its money into a new performing arts building and new athletic facilities/football stadium and I have to wonder whether it is wise to spend so much money away from their core programs. Could be bad or could be brilliant. I also understand that there is difficulty between the faculty and the president at RPI.</p>
<p>GTech does not have early decision or early action. RPI has early decision. Rose-Hulman has rolling admissions, meaning send in completed application in fall and get decision within a few weeks since decisions are made as applications are received. All three are highly regarded. GTech is considered a top engineering university nationwide both on the undergrad and graduate level; RI is also highly regarded both on undergrad and graduate level. Rose-Hulman is also considered a top engineering college nationally (ranked No.1 in USNews for last 9 nine years for engineering colleges not having a Ph.D program) but does not have a graduate program. Unlike both GTech and RPI (and most engineering universities), tenure for profs at Rose is determined by teaching ability rather than research and publications, although most of its profs do research and publish (some engineering textbooks used at many engineering universities were written by RH profs). Rose-Hulman's biggest downside is location -- in Terra Haute IN, a "city" of 50,000 and drive for an hour away from the city in any direction and you will see nothing but farms, forests and small towns.</p>
<p>Drusba, that is correct about Rose..small town terre haute. However, it could very well be the upside. The campus has lots of activities and the students are very social. I have a daughter there and she grew up in Chicago and loves Rose. She rarely goes off campus because there is so much going on right on Campus.<br>
Last year she never came home for the week-end she just said there was so many things going on. The students rarely go home for the week-end they stick very close to campus</p>
<p>GT gives out a lot of financial aid to students. I have my tuition almost half-covered, and I'm out-of-state. Of course, most of it is need-based. I'm not sure about merit-based scholarships besides for the PS. Also, there are a lot of other scholarships you can apply for once on campus. And if you're instate, there's the HOPE scholarship.</p>