<p>Hi anyone....my daughter was nominated by her school for the RPI Medal. Do the schools nominated a number of students or just one. She is a very strong Math/Science and overall student?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You will receive $1500. per year for 4 years, 5 years if you major in architecture. You must still apply and be excepted but there is no application fee.</p>
<p>Here is RPI's info. Rensselaer</a> Medal Program</p>
<p>OK..thanks. $15,000 sounds good but the overall tuition, room and board cost is about $47,000 according to the website. </p>
<p>We have great in state schools in PA so I don't know if it would be worthwhile for my daughter to go even though it is a prestigious school.</p>
<p>The schools are only allowed to nominate one, I believe, and it is left up to the teachers to decide who.</p>
<p>While Penn State is great for engineering overall, RPI is a much smaller environment with smaller classes, hands on teaching, and classmates with similar interests and class loads. One difficulty I had at a big state school studying engineering was learning to ignore all the partiers who partied away, rowdied up the dorms, while us engineers had to work and tried to sleep. If your daughter can get into the Penn State Honors program, maybe she can avoid that conflict. But that program is about as competitive as Ivy League schools from what I gather. Our son and daughter are RPI medalist, our son chose to attend RPI next year and we are thrilled. It makes the school about as affordable as Cornell's NY state school (room and board costs are comparable). If you qualify for financial aid, there's lots more aid than just the RPI medal award. Until you get the financial aid award, you can't really compare costs.</p>
<p>It comes down to the big fish in a small pond and small fish in a big pond analogy. At a big state school, it is harder to be a bigger fish and grab the best opportunities like research, etc. RPI has a more nurturing environment that encourages the fish to grow bigger.</p>
<p>Hi Sandpit -- Thanks for the advice and I understand what you're saying. However, I went to Penn State as did my husband (an engineer) and many of my friends and siblings.....you might say our blood bleeds blue and white! My brother was able to get a full ride for a PhD program at John Hopkins after Penn State. My older daughter is currently a student and has had fabulous internship experiences.....she is in a male dominated major and she is working on research projects with two professors. She is currently in her second year and is working at a 6 month well paid internship for a major company.</p>
<p>I know that Penn State has worked for us but I definitely understand that it isn't a match for everyone. My younger daughter has a good shot at the honors program but it, as you say above, very, very competitive.</p>
<p>We visited RPI with my older daughter in 2006 and we loved it until we met one of the professors. He was a kind, older man who, while he was very polite, said absolutely ridiculous things to my daughter....such as "You do understand that you'll be required to take some math courses?" --- my daughter had taken AP Calculus and 2 AP Computer Science course by the end of her junior year in high school. This man was clueless but was very soft spoken and gentle with his sexism. I don't think he was even aware of his very obvious bias -- we were though and after this experience my daughter would not even apply to RPI. </p>
<p>I will definitely take a second look at RPI with daughter #2....I think it might be a better fit for her than Penn State......we won't get financial aid so it will be a tough decision to pay $47k (total) - $15 or $32k per year for RPI vs. $20k (total) per year for Penn State. </p>
<p>Did your daughter go to RPI? If not...any reason? </p>
<p>Thanks so much for your advice!</p>
<p>We had the opposite experience. We went to the Medal Winner's Weekend in 2006 and were able to question the heads of the various schools in a large lecture hall. At first glance, I thought they may be a stuffy group of "old boys" (all but one was male). They turned out to be intelligent, funny and charming. They also indicated how important it was to them to have more female students at the college. My d just completed her sophmore year and has been very happy. We did receive additional aid from the college and are paying about half. It is pricey though and I hope her income will justify the cost of the school.</p>
<p>That's so good to hear that the professors are not like the one that we met. We are definitely going to visit sometime this summer.</p>
<p>I went to a state school undergrad and got into one of the most elite PhD programs, so I understand your reluctance to spend the extra $$ for a private school. Many schools are simply not worth it. I was in the honors program which kept the caliber of my classmates very high (i.e. Rhodes Scholar), and the smaller engineering program enabled professors to be mentors and help match research opportunities, etc. I'm not sure how Penn State handles this, if only the most assertive have opportunity or if there's a nurturing environment. I was, however, plagued by dorm mates who only partied and kept us up till the wee hours while we tried to sleep in prep for our early engineering classes. I've read on other boards that Penn State is such a party school that the weekend begins on Wednesday (Thursday is the normal day for party schools), but I'm sure that's a subjective statement.</p>
<p>Look at the President of RPI. I doubt she tolerates much sexism. She's done a lot towards revising the teaching "to get the sage off the stage" and hands on lab type work, smaller classes, etc. </p>
<p>Our daughter opted for Cornell. She was swept up by the campus and prestige. It is a much more competitive boot camp environment and she'll have major loans to pay off. It wasn't our choice, but hers, and she loves it though the work load is incredible. For all her claims in wanting the liberal arts options, her friends are pre-med, engineers or architects, like they would be at RPI.</p>
<p>Besides the nurturing environment at RPI, it is important to look at the more specific majors your daughter is interested in. That may decide things more simply. From my overview, RPI is probably better in biotech but Penn State may be better for chemical engineering. EE, CS I'd lean toward RPI but am not as up to date in comparing all the disciplines.</p>
<p>Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. My daughter loves math, biology, chemistry and Latin and is thinking about Pharmacy. Pharmacy is not an option at either RPI or Penn State so we're also going to look at Pitt, maybe Temple and a few other schools.....but she's not completely certain about pharmacy anyway. We will definitely go to visit RPI! The $15k would certainly make an expensive, private school worth a second look.</p>
<p>As for Penn State and partying....I'm sure it is (and was) a great party environment for those who major in partying. The freshman dorms are definitely party central...but my daughter lived in a quieter dorm complex and she was fine. The school has fairly competitive academic standards at the main campus so I'm guessing the rumors are overblown....it really is an excellent school.</p>
<p>As I have just become interested in RPI and am a junior, is it to late for my school to nominate me for the medal? My school is not currently part of the program as it has only been open for two years; so my counselor would have to fill out the form on the website and wait for a reply. RPI has quickly risen to the top of my college list and the help that receiving the medal would give me in acceptance would be tremendous.</p>
<p>Our high school was similar and we were told May 1. There's possibly some flexibility in their deadline since they want more schools in the program. Call and ask, or have your guidance counselor do it. (518) 276-6216 used to be the phone #. If the deadline is passed, I've heard there are other merit scholarships of similar value available if you go through the financial aid process.</p>
<p>DS2 just received this award yesterday. A pleasant surprise! Its actually a great marketing point for RPI (though it probably didn't start out that way). RPI was not even on his radar screen before and now he's committed to making a visit and checking it out.</p>
<p>Yes robethhid. The same thing happened to my D in 2005. (I mistakenly put 2006 in an above post). RPI was not even being considered till she got the award. The balance is still pretty hefty though. Go to the Medalist Open House Columbus Day Weekend. There were better perks compared to other times we went.</p>
<p>D2 just received notification from Resselaer that she was the medal nominee from her high school. We knew it was coming but just got the letter today. RPI is definitely on the list.....although $50,000 - $15,000 still equals $35,000...Yikes! </p>
<p>Is there anyone out there that has received academic money above the medal award? I really think RPI could be a good match for D2........but we have such good in-state public universities that I'm having a hard time with the cost. It would be great is she actually got more merit award as we won't get financial money.......any thoughts anyone?</p>
<p>I also just received the letter today!</p>
<p>Another option to save money is to go to a community college or state school for one or two years and transfer. You have to let RPI know what your plans are and you can retain the balance of the Medal Scholarship for the remaining two or three years. There is a list of colleges in the catalog and what majors RPI will accept from those schools. I have been told buy two people though, that you do not feel as integrated.</p>
<p>i received the medal when i was a junior, and 15000 wouldnt have been enough for me to go there. RPI gave me an additional 10,000 in scholarships, and another 10,000 or so in loans, so in total they are giving me 35,000 a year. rpi is usually pretty generous with their scholarships/financial aid, so you should be fine. </p>
<p>and i know you said you wouldnt be getting financial aid money, but i had three colleges tell me i was inelligible, and rpi still gave me something, so you never know.</p>