<p>But what if RPI offers you 15K or 20K in merit aid? You can’t really predict that so easily. Why do you need to narrow down this already short list? What other schools did you consider and reject? CMU, Case Western, Northeastern, BU, WPI, JHU…there are lots of schools that have business/CE/CS so I don’t see how Penn State in particular bubbled up to the top for a kid from California?</p>