Hi everyone, I’ve recently been researching RPI and it sounds like a pretty good fit for me (except I heard the food stinks… big minus :/). I was just wondering how generous RPI is with merit aid… a guy at my school got the medal so I don’t have it, but I was offered to apply through Candidate’s Choice. Here are some of my stats:
SAT: 1530 (770 M 760RW)
GPA UW: 4.0
Rank: 1/350
Of course character/essays/ECs matter too, but I was wondering if anyone could give me an estimate of how much I might be given based off my numbers? Tufts and Yale are my top schools, but I wanted a reach that would be quite cheap, so hopefully $10k+. Thank you in advance!
RPI’s Net Price Calculator includes an estimate for merit, even for full-pay students. I do not know how accurate the NPC merit estimate is, so if anyone can comment on that, I’d be interested to hear.
@evergreen5 For me atleast my first son’s net price came out $20k more than I’m actually paying. Their actual price came out much cheaper than expected. My second son hasn’t applied yet but his net price is appearing to be slightly cheaper as well since two kids in college gives more aid than just one.
@anxiouswreck I’m curious why you would apply to both Yale and RPI, what is your intended major? The reason I ask is Yale is not as good an engineering school and is hard to get into so if you’re able to get into RPI and it’s a better engineering school, why then would you even apply to Yale? If you are studying business or some other non-engineering/science major then ok, it’d make sense, but if you are studying the sciences you will want to avoid Yale, Dartmouth and Brown and go to a real engineering school like MIT, RPI, Georgia Tech, or Columbia. Your Math SAT is in the ballpark for getting good aid from RPI. You asked for an estimate, sorry I can’t help you there but if you check the NPC you can probably get a ballpark figure that is on the conservative side of what you’ll actually get.
@reformedman I am actually not really shooting for engineering! I don’t know which direction I want to go yet, but I have an interest in STEM and film/media. I just got deferred from Harvard so my mother is going ballistic and is having me apply to RPI along with a bunch of other reach schools… I’m not too excited about a tech school tbh in case I find another interest, so I have to pray I get into a more liberal arts school instead. I’m also thinking about pre-med, which would be good at RPI I believe?
Thank you very much for the tip though, @evergreen5 too! I had no idea some colleges could estimate merit on NPC… came out to about $20.5k, which is pretty okay.
For film/media I would suggest [NYU[/url], [url=<a href=“http://www.risd.edu/academics/%5DRhode”>http://www.risd.edu/academics/]Rhode Island School of Design](Academic Programs), and [Emerson[/url].
For general Liberal Arts I’d recommend [url=<a href=“https://www.swarthmore.edu/academics%5DSwarthmore%5B/url”>https://www.swarthmore.edu/academics]Swarthmore[/url] and [url=<a href=“https://www.haverford.edu/%5DHaverford%5B/url”>https://www.haverford.edu/]Haverford[/url].
For premed I’d say [url=<a href=“https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/index.html%5DJohn’s”>https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/index.html]John’s Hopkins](Visual & Media Arts | Emerson College), [Cornell[/url] and [url=<a href=“http://www.unc.edu/academics/%5DUNC”>http://www.unc.edu/academics/]UNC Chapel Hill](http://weill.cornell.edu/)
Ditto that. Liberal arts college are the way to go. If you aren’t sure of what you want to study you definitely should go to a liberal arts college. A top notch liberal arts college like Haverford will give you the best education you could possibly get. You will make closet relationships with your professors and have smaller class sizes. Also, Haverford has a 4+1 joint program with UPenn where you get a masters and bachelors from both places.
@anxiouswreck RPI can be very generous with financial aid and the food isn’t that bad, at least in my opinion. It’s not a home cooked meal, but it’s still pretty good. The only thing you can really do is find a major you’re interested in or do undeclared to one of the RPI schools and then wait to see what kind of package they offer you. Given your scores, I don’t think they’d give you anything less than a good package. I had way lower scores (like a 1420 old SAT CR + M, which is like a 1480 on the new SAT) and I got almost full tuition. The NPC told me I’d be paying like $40,000 a year - don’t use that to determine where you apply, it’s only an estimate and can be really far off. I’ve personally really enjoyed my time at RPI so far and would recommend it without a doubt. It wasn’t my top choice, but it ended up being the best school for the least money. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me!
Also dual master’s and bachelor’s programs, at least in my opinion, are not worth it unless it reduces the time you’re in school. You can go to grad school pretty much anywhere for free for STEM. I think like 95% of RPI’s EE PhD students are going for free. Graduate fellowships are pretty good.
hi @joedoe can you share why you like RPI?
This is a bit too late for OP, but for anyone who stumbles onto this thread later on: if you want liberal arts and film/media, Brown has a five-year dual degree program with Rhode Island School of Design (also Brown’s open curriculum is a huge plus in my book!)
@dancinginastorm I didn’t include Brown in the list because of it’s ivy league status making it nearly impossible to get in. It has a 9% acceptance rate and more than that, since students know that you need a very high portfolio to get, the 9 percent is based off of high caliber applicants. But yes you are right, Brown would be the best choice for film/media but extremely difficult to get in.
@reformedman Ahhh I see, that’s very true