Has anyone been contacted to be offered a seat from their waitlist yet? Do they usually offer financial aid and merit scholarships?
You have at least a few weeks to start hearing about people getting off wait lists. May1st is when most RD offers, including WPI’s need to be accepted or declined by. After May 1st you might start hearing something. I don’t think anyone got off the list last year though, as they were over enrolled due to an increase in interest. It can vary a lot year after year. Wishing you good luck, WPI is a great school.
Thank you—we just got a call from a large, state flagship university so I wondered if private schools would offer sooner than May 1 as well.
WPI actually ended up a bit over-enrolled the past two years. They have seen a big increase in applications. Good luck!
WPI reported on their Common Data Set (2018-2019) that they admitted 153 students from their wait-list last year–so how could they have been over-enrolled?
The over-enrollment was a few year ago:
2016-2017 zero accepted
2017-2018 about 100 accepted
2018-2019 153 accepted
Good luck and I hope you hear soon!
My son was accepted off the waitlist today. We received an email on Monday asking if he was still interested, responsed last night and admitted today.
Congrats @RvilMomof3 - how exciting! My daughter will be going too. Accepted EA2 and committed last week.
Congratulations @RvilMomof3! My son is a rising Sophomore in the Chem. E. program. He really enjoys it there.
Did any of the families that were offered a seat off the wait-list qualify for financial aid or are you "full pay "families? Just trying to gauge our chances…
@BostonKnows My daughter was accepted off the waitlist today. We don’t qualify for need-based aid but received a merit-based aid of $25K/year.
@BostonKnows, wow! Congratulations!!! Will she be attending WPI?
I was accepted off of the waitlist before May 1st, weirdly. They sent an email asking about my interest in the school, and once I responded that I was still interested, they sent me an acceptance email five minutes later. I have a theory that they let in too many people last year so to compensate for the underestimates last year they overestimated this year and used the waitlist more. Regardless, I am grateful.
For next year’s students who are curious about whether they can get in or not, it is possible to have around a 3.5 and still get in. I posted a thread on the WPI subreddit asking for advice and many said that if you really want to attend, interview and demonstrate as much interest as possible. I think my interest and communication with the admissions played a large part in making up for my lower than average GPA and math score. I applied EA I and was deferred, and was waitlisted RD. Not the most fun thing to go through, and I was sure until Sunday I was going to a different school.
My advice is to stay optimistic, and good luck.
Stats:
Male, CS
GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1330 (640 Math, 690 Reading)
10 clubs, have done a lot of volunteering with programming and tech help.
(was offered 10k scholarship)
Congrats to you, @TastyBrownies84! That’s great to hear. You’re going to love WPI, Im sure, and I have a feeling you’ll make the most of every opportunity there. Welcome to the herd 
Congratulations, @TastyBrownies84 on your acceptance!
And welcome to the forum, @TastyBrownies84 — I’ve sent you a PM.
When WPI did not go to the wait list a few years ago, their was some discussion about the unfairness of a system where thousands of students are placed on a list and NO ONE is taken off. Personally, I was pleased that some were offered admission the following year.
It is better to use a wait list than to have an overloaded system which adversely impacts student instruction and possibly their quality of life.