<p>Or is it every year?
They seem to be waitlisting people who seem more than well qualified.. anyone have these thoughts as well?</p>
<p>I have no idea. I was waitlisted and one of my friends that I tutor was accepted… They say GPA, Class Rank, Rigor, and Test Scores are the most important factors. If that is true, I should have been accepted–I have a 97.3 UW GPA with several APs and a class rank of 6/457.</p>
<p>I’ve been surprised at qualifications of the waitlisted students as well. But some of it may have to do with major chosen. I’ve heard that mechanical engineering is by far the most competitive. Other goals include achieving a culturally diverse student body. Another factor may be high ED1 and ED2 student commitment rates and there are not as many slots available.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen here is they like students who show that they are interested in RPI and not using it as a match or lesser school.</p>
<p>My S was wait listed along with 3 other students from our Silver Medal high school. My s has great stats, etc - According to the Common data they accepted over 41% of male applicants last year - wonder what this year’s rate is? What is going on? If you look at their published stats on the middle 50% most of the posters I have seen that have been wl surpass those stats by a mile… I do not get it. My s was going to talk to his hs guidance counselor today and see if she had any insights. I would appreciate anyone’s input on this.</p>
<p>@JoshuaGuit
I agree. I’ve seen kids with stats very similar to mine get waitlisted, but I’ve been highly involved in RPI high school program which I guess gave me an advantage.</p>
<p>A kid in my class was waitlisted who I think it pretty qualified. Most of the other students who applied got in as well. But he misses a lot of school for chronic illness, so maybe that is why. He probably neglected to mention that in his application.
…then again, he isn’t very active at school either.</p>
<p>According to Naviance, a student was accepted from my school with a 24 ACT and an 86 GPA…</p>
<p>My son is very active - lots of ECs -
School orchestra principal
State orchestra program - highly competitive
NHS
Other service clubs - leadership roles
community service
Only Boys state participant from HS
3 varsity sports - 3 sports all 4 years
Silver Medal HS
Taken all honors classes 9-11, AP in 12
2210 Sat I(800 Cr)
Sat II 740 Math, 660 Chem
3.7 UW gpa
Great letters of rec and essay</p>
<p>I know there are those with better stats, but if their overall acceptance rate is 41% - what gives?</p>
<p>And no one in the decisions thread got rejected. Do they just waitlist everyone they don’t accept?</p>
<p>Wow, awesome, I can’t access my decision still, after having contacted the staff over the weekend. Frustrating…</p>
<p>@Randwulf
Lol. That’s because this is CC and the kids on here generally have really good stats anyway. RPI does reject applicants.</p>
<p>Lucy, your son DOES have EXCELLENT stats. I don’t know what gives!</p>
<p>I wonder if RPI perceives your son to be very unlikely to matriculate? Maybe he didn’t visit and has stats high enough that he’s likely to go elsewhere? I would think this to be the case especially if he indicated on his RPI application that he applied to higher ranked engineering (or whatever major) programs that they believe he’ll get into and choose over RPI. (I’m pretty sure RPI does ask where else the applicant is applying.) </p>
<p>You mention that other qualified candidates from his hs were also waitlisted; do a high number apply–many of whom are less likely to go elsewhere?</p>
<p>I have been waitlisted too, the message on your application status(if you read it) said “Due to the number of qualified applicants to the Class of 2014, we are unable to guarantee a position for you at this time”. They just had a huge number of applicants this year, i read somewhere that it was about 13,000 applicants. Its not the admissions fault its the reputation they are building at RPI.</p>
<p>I also contacted admissions and they said that the waiting list is not ranked and that they consider the people who filled the waiting list form first.</p>
<p>I think less qualified people got accepted over the people who are more qualified because they might have filled their application earlier. I sent mine pretty close to the deadline…i think that is why I’m waitlisted.</p>
<p>I could be wrong about this but this is what I think of it all.</p>
<p>Lucy - Yes, your son has really good stats and interesting ECs. Maybe in his essays he said, “I really want to attend Penn State”? Just kidding, since I thought you could use a laugh. (and I did see a CC thread from a Stanford applicant who did such a goof).</p>
<p>odonnellx27:</p>
<p>RPI typically accepts about 5000 applications, so if 13000 applied this year the acceptance rate was only 38%! RPI’s acceptance rate is dropping more quickly than that of any other college I’ve seen.</p>
<p>You can read about it on RPI’s website under News&Events, I couldn’t believe it either.</p>
<p>The RPI numbers are really incredible.</p>
<p>From under 5,600 applications for the Fall of 2005 with a 78% acceptance rate to over 12,300 applications just four years later for the Fall of 2009 (13,000 for the Fall of 2010) with an acceptance rate of 43%.</p>
<p>A grand total of 158 ED applications for the Fall of 2005 with an 85% acceptance rate to 1,268 ED applications for the Fall of 2009 (an 8 fold increase!) with a 37% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I guess a lot of the credit is due to the Director of Admissions, Jim Nondorf, who was in place during this whole surge in applications and then left to join the University of Chicago last July. He joins Chicago and this year they have an increase in applications of over 40%.</p>
<p>Actually this is great news for those accepted and attending but IMHO the credit must go to Dr. Jackson–she is an incredible leader, scientist… I wish my son would seriously consider attending but it looks like his sights are set elsewhere</p>
<p>Another reason for RPI’s huge surge in applications in recent years was their inclusion in Newsweek’s “New Ivies” list that was published in August 2006 and got a lot of publicity at the time. I believe the “New ivies” was then also used on Newsweek’s college guidebook cover.</p>
<p>It came out in August 2006 and high school seniors applying for college admission for the Fall of 2007 all saw this.</p>
<p>The result was a 48% increase in applications to RPI for the Fall of 2007. Since then, applications are up another 30%, but this one year saw the biggest increase.</p>
<p>I also think their ED1 and ED2 is really smart. It gives students a chance to go for the pie in the sky MIT/Stanford, etc and if that doesn’t work out, they can commit to RPI with ED2 if RPI is their strong choice. Back in 2006/2007 for class of 2011, RPI medalists could apply EA with no commitment and that kept things pretty uncertain for commit rates. Now medalists are no different for admission cycle, but the ED2 does let people lock in earlier and be done the process sooner, no small relief. And RPI gets a good # of committed students very early in the process. One thing left out completely in this discussion of strong students put on wait list is what the intended major was. They have to spread out the incoming class across all majors and the most popular are more competitive (i.e. mechanical engineering)</p>