Can anyone tell me if RPI has need-blind admissions? Would an otherwise qualified candidate be rejected because of a very high need?
RPI is need-aware, it’s endowment fund (roughly $700 million in comparison to billions at other peer institutions) is not large enough to follow another policy. As far as I’m aware, they’ll provide as much as physically possible, but if there are two students at the bottom of the list they’re potentially considering admitting, and one has parents that make $40,000 a year and they need to pay $40,000 a year to attend while another’s makes $100,000 a year and needs to pay the same amount, they’ll admit the student whose parents have the higher income.
If you’re above the 25th percentile of students, they’ll likely just admit you and give you money - it really just affects people on the bottom. They also won’t just flat out reject you - you’d get waitlisted if the primary reason is they don’t think you could feasibly afford going to RPI.
Northeastern operates on a similar model and Wesleyan does something similar- it sucks, but they’ll literally go bankrupt if they have need-blind admissions. It also wouldn’t be worth it anyway for the lower income person, they’d probably not enroll and it would bring the average debt load of RPI grads up - which would hurt the university’s college rankings, even if they did.
P.S. This isn’t a reason, in my opinion, not to apply. My parents only make like 70k a year and I know a lot who have parents that make less that are going to RPI and getting a financial aid refund every semester (essentially being paid to go to college).
As an applicant you don’t care if a school is need aware or need blind (unless gaming the ED process). If you like the school, it’s affordable, and it’s a good match, you should apply. Aware/blind just affects the chance of admission (up or down), and then usually only if you’re on the bubble.
I realize this question is about admissions, but, RPI is certainly well aware of “need” – as they define it. Their calculated EFC (much higher than the FAFSA EFC – depresses your calculated “need” and also inflates their FA award stats) seems to track pretty well with the higher tuition (and R&B) costs at RPI. Interestingly the COA at another college is about $10K less, their calculated EFC is also $10K less, and all told their total aid package offered is almost identical to RPI’s. Bottom line, it’s a better offer financially and unless something changes it just plain costs $10K more a year to go to RPI. Why, who knows – except that we do believe RPI is the better school, so I guess RPI knows they can command the higher price. As has been suggested, RPI seems to need the money and has to get it somewhere. Charge more, give less to those that might pay anyway, and hopefully improve the balance sheet over time…
Thank you so much for the answers. Our situation is strange. Without going into it, there will probably be money from elsewhere available to fund S19s education. I’m just concerned about my financial situation limiting his chance of admission.
@Trixy34 If they’re not on the bottom of the people they’re looking to admit, it won’t affect the decision. If they apply, the worst that’ll happen is they’re rejected - best is they get in and go for free. This goes for any school.
@RPIchemEson Not quite sure what you’re talking about - state schools are definitely $10k or more cheaper on average if that’s what you mean. Here are the average prices at RPI versus other similar universities (according to Niche which gets its data from IPEDS):
RPI: $37,000/year
Carnegie: $35,000/year
CWRU: $33,000/year
UPenn: $23,000/year
WPI: $41,000/year
Lehigh: $28,000/year
Also, again, these are averages. There are people that pay $70,000 and people that pay $0 to go. I’m at around 10k/year now.
It is a prominent enough private tech college, not a state school. RPI COA is ~ 72K next year, this other perfectly good school with a decent reputation of its own will be ~ $59K+. The tuition difference alone is about $9K. Room and board + “other” difference is about $3,800, so the total premium, if you will, at RPI is ~ $12,800 more to attend.
The net “need” (COA minus institution-calculated EFC - which itself is dramatically different per school) seems to be pretty constant, while COA difference seems to track pretty much in parallel with the institution-calculated EFC is all I’m saying. The higher the COA, the higher the EFC – YMMV. Shouldn’t be surprising I guess, but seems to have nothing to do with the FAFSA EFC. (Yes, I suppose that’s why we all fill out the CSS and this is what happens.)
As both schools offered about the same FA package (about equal total $$), it boils down to does he like RPI and RPI room and board $12,800 better than the next choice? Same family, same kid, and thus same ability to pay either way – RPI just wants $12,800 more and calls it “need” – and essentially gets most of it covered, in reality, in the higher Family Contribution, where “need” goes to hide!
There are of course infinite (?) examples with different FA offers – if RPI has other incentives to get you to attend, they will offer other incentives in FA. No boxes to check off or “hooks” here other than the usual high test scores and GPA, usual activities and superlatives, etc. Happy to update our situation though – RPI answered our FA appeal yesterday with $6K more per year, so that’s great news. Some pay a great deal more and some pay much less for the same education at RPI, but RPI is worth the difference to us (now just $6,800) – which is what this all really boils down to.
Response flagged/moderated into oblivion…not going to type all that again. As COA rises, institution EFC rises in tandem (our experience, YMMV). Bottom line is it was an apples-to-apples comparison (not any State schools), RPI just costs more than most, and expects families to pay more out-of-pocket. As you can see in your list, which looks like it might be net out-of-pocket averages. Though whatever “hooks” you can use get you more FA incentives, so not everyone’s experience is the same. Quite a range between Penn and RPI there, do we really think RPI is worth these amounts more than CW, Carnegie Mellon, or Penn? In quality, reputation, or prestige? Maybe, everybody has their own priorities and makes their own decision – and as you point out some pay $0, some pay full-price – all for the same education. But it isn’t all about the cost, obviously, or nobody would volunteer to pay any more than the next guy.