<p>My D just applied to RPI (regular decision). SAT math and GPA are about average for the school, but SAT CR is 800, writing 12, ACT composite 35. Pretty good ECs. 5 on AP Calc AB. Lowish freshman year grades, almost perfect since. Materials science prospective major. </p>
<p>We're from a western state so no medal. She'd only be able to attend with significant merit aid as we won't qualify for FA but can't afford full freight. Any thoughts on scholarships? Should we invest emotionally or just see what happens?</p>
<p>RPI likes students who score 800 on one of the SAT sections, and they tend to give slight preference to girls. I think your dd has a decent shot for some merit aid. Whether it will be enough for your family, it’s hard to tell. </p>
<p>If finances are an issue, I would not recommend investing emotionally in any particular college, unless it’s one that you know you can afford without FA.</p>
<p>Best wishes to her (and you)! Sounds like you’ll both have to wait until March to find out the specifics.</p>
<p>What is her GPA? What is her total SAT score? With the 35 ACT the SAT score probably doesn’t matter. Has she taken the math SAT 2?
What do you consider significant aid?
I am pretty sure she will get in, but The most merit aid I’ve ever heard of was 35K, which still leaves a lot to cover.
A great thing about their scholarships is they are NOT GPA dependent, so if she has a bad semester she won’t lose her merit money.
Another good thing to know is that at least in some cases they will match merit offers from other similar universities.</p>
<p>The standard testing, both ACT and SAT, is great. Where they’ll likely scratch their head is why the GPA is a mismatch. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good GPA, but it’ll be the first and most highly weighted metric they look at and it’s a bit soft relative to the test scores. The bottom line is, you never know. Don’t rank schools, just collect ones she’d be happy at no matter what and then rank the offers.</p>
<p>BTW, Western schools do award the medal too. It’s just a matter of whether or not yours participates.</p>
<p>Does she have a weighted GPA? My son got in with lower stats than hers a couple of years ago, but his weighted GPA was higher.
I think she will get in but can’t guess how much merit money she will get.</p>
<p>GPA is low because of freshman year. She had a 3.95+ ever since. It is definitely the weak spot in her stats. No weighted GPA, which also hurts her class rank sine she has 6 APs and 8 credit hours from local university.</p>
<p>A 3.78/3.95 GPA is only as “low” as your curriculum’s difficulty. Getting a 3.8 with a rigorous course load is not going to be a weak point in your application anywhere besides maybe at the absolute toughest schools to get into (Harvard, MIT, etc.).</p>
<p>Heck, my HS GPA was significantly lower than that (3.4ish??) but apparently my schedule/SATs/ECs were solid enough to land a sizable merit scholarship when I attended. I fully expect 8 college-level courses to more than make up for your daughter’s near-A average.</p>
<p>That said, it might be worth retaking the SAT again if it’s still possible. By no means is your daughter’s score low, but I’m thinking that an 800 in math should totally be doable for anyone who got a 5 on AP Calc AB by junior year, and raising the W score by the remaining 10 is definitely not outside the realm of possibility. Even if the CR score were to go down, having a 2400 super-score is probably a huge selling point for all universities (hey, what uni doesn’t want to take in a 2400 student to pad its stats?), and may help in getting additional merit aid. Your daughter’s guidance counselor should probably be able to weigh in on whether this reasoning is sound.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that it will be possible to retake the SAT since the last one before most application deadlines is Nov. 2.</p>
<p>With that said, I wouldn’t retake it anyway. No matter how good at math, there’s a reasonable chance that the student won’t get an 800. ONE missed question knocked my son down to a 760. It was a simple mistake. Long gone are the days where you could miss several and get an 800. The schools know this. They don’t split hairs too hard above 700.</p>
<p>Also, I wasn’t suggesting that her GPA was anything but great. I was only looking in the context of hoping for $100k or so in merit aid. It is what it is. Put the app out and see what happens. Make sure she’s happy with all of her options.</p>
<p>cesium55, telling someone to retake the SAT when they have a 2310 is silly. I also think they will see her GPA trend and she will get lots of merit aid. The most I remember seeing posted on this site is $20k merit, but I won’t be surprised if she gets more than that.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is, but I would have brought up the same idea had she scored a 2390 (but not, say, a 2200, since a 200 point gap is not easy to overcome). Getting a 2400 SAT student is huge for a lot of schools. The first thing admissions talk about when boasting about the incoming class is their incoming students’ SAT scores (eg. <a href=“http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/Fall_2012_Counselor_Newsletter.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/Fall_2012_Counselor_Newsletter.pdf</a> ). In the case of RPI, an additional 2400 would increase the perfect SAT count for last year’s incoming student body by 50%. I would imagine many schools – not just RPI – would be willing to pay well to bump these numbers, as little as they actually mean.</p>
<p>Again, perhaps only the people deciding on FA know how they really calculate these things, but I suspect the additional effort (and small fee) of studying for and retaking the test may be well worth it.</p>
<p>The net price calculator suggests she would get about $20k/yr in merit aid (no need based aid). Anyone know how accurate the calculator might be? Could female, unusual state, unusual major, etc push this up further or does that sound close to the high end already?</p>
<p>I can only speak for my son… 2100 SAT with 780 in Math… lower GPA, Eagle Scout. $23K in merit aid. Briinging our cost to about $32 after his loan. It still hurts writing that check each month. </p>
<p>If your student gets offered more merit aid from other schools, I suggest you bring that to RPIs attention. They will sometimes alter amounts if you demonstrate you received more from a peer institution. It may also be possible if you express that RPI is really a top choice, but it’s just a little too expensive. I don’t think they would increase merit significantly in at case, but every little bit helps. </p>