Hopefully some of the regulars who post to the RPI forum can help.
How are the grants handled at RPI in a few years when your EFC changes? I realize the Scholarships are guaranteed but was wondering where I will be in 2 years with Grants.
I have kid in college now (sophomore) and one that is making a decision soon.
When current soph graduates, the my EFC effectively doubles and will exceed the Grant. Will RPI pull the grants?
for example
This year:
EFC 15,000 per student X 2
Scholarship $20K
Grant $10K
In Fall 2020
EFC 30,000 ( plus whatever percent of the income increase is accessed)
Scholarship $20K
Grant ???
My parent’s income went up by around 15% over the past couple of years and my grants have remained the same. They typically don’t change grant money more than a small amount and I’ve never heard of it being pulled completely.
I’d call financial aid, I’m pretty sure the rule is they make small changes if the EFC changes by more than $10,000 or the income changes by more than like 10% year after year (it’s not cumulative). Small changes being pulling a few thousand, but, again, they won’t fully pull the grant unless it’s a ridiculous increase. I think you should be fine - they don’t look to intentionally take money or change packages much since it would compromise graduation rates/financial metrics for alumni (which RPI wants to be fairly high for college rankings). Tuition also increases slightly each year so they don’t have to pull money to get more revenue as well.
I was hoping you and some of the RPI regulars would chime in, thanks for the response.
The main concern is my older kid will graduate in 2020 and our EFC will double for the younger one if he is at RPI. Theoretically, I’ll have that money available to pay RPI, but realistically we don’t really have that available anyway and my 401K contribution will need to be stopped for 2 extra years. I’m too close to retirement to add this risk.
It looks like tuition goes up about 3% over the past few years. Over Dr.J’s tenure it looks to be about 4.5%/year. I’ll stand corrected on this if I miscounted the number of years in the denominator (total increase in tuition over time/ #ofyears ).
Finally, I also have a philosophical problem with Dr J’s salary/benefits (that big bonus a few years back) and the debt she ran up, but can come to terms with it if my parent’s contribution is reasonable in my opinion. I’m from the Troy area and have followed Dr J’s saga for a number of years and know a few students and older alumni.
P.S.
On some super positive notes, I know a long time professor and he said this is the smartest class he has ever seen. I also know an attorney that does LSAT review and he said “Those people are really smart”. He has a law degree from a top 10 law school and a top 5 undergrad.
@NoKillli Dr.Jackson is an interesting character - you’ll find that the debt issue isn’t portrayed properly in the media. The debt has been being paid down in the past few years. It would be nice if it didn’t exist and if Dr.Jackson was paid less, but that’s another story. Let me know if you have any other questions! I’d definitely say again that the best way to get the answer is to talk to Financial Aid, I’m pretty sure the grants won’t be affected much.