Will I get in? And if I do, will I get merit aid?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
21

There are plenty of candidates that got perfect sats(superscored or not), and wrote way better essays than me.
They did not visit (the certain people who I know).
They were rejected.

I didn’t have much to write so I won’t go into it but I have within average range RPI sat scores and my gpa is lower than average.
I visited multiple times.
I was accepted.

It’s hard to discuss this with you because you seem quite angry.
The only point I’ll leave you with is this, I think your message,
‘don’t bother visiting, it won’t help’
is worse than my message,
‘The common data set says they the level of the applicant’s interest is important for acceptance, therefore try to visit’.
If you don’t know for a fact that RPI doesn’t care about visits or other forms of demonstrated interest, I don’t believe you should be directing people contrary to the Common Data Set.

22

Did you guys seriously make it into this school? It’s frankly hard to believe.

Angry? About what? I’m just trying to give out facts you and joedirt have differing opinions and can’t seem to let other ideas in. As I said once the students who actually got in start up in RPI in August they can see for themselves.

23

@Sunnydaydream - My DS starts in August. What is it that can we expect to see?

24

@doschicos @GoRedhead I agree with @Sunnydaydream that it’s not required to visit RPI to be admitted. It’s important, and admissions keeps it on record, but it’s definitely not a requirement. I think the greatest benefit that comes from visiting is helping you get a feel for the school.

Also the people commenting are parents - definitely not students. I’m currently a student and have worked in the Office of Admissions.

25

Nobody said it “was a requirement”, have they, @joedoe? But, it is one of several ways to demonstrate interest and one of the strongest.

26

@doschicos You’re correct in that regard. Visiting is one of the strongest, but you can also show great interest in an essay - to give one example.

27

True doschicos and joedoe, your statements are technically correct but my frustration with what sunnydream said was when he was advising people ‘NOT’ to visit. Here’s his exact wording:

By putting that out there, they may be a marginally acceptable student that may be on the fence about visiting that takes his advice.
The reason why it irks me is because I really believe RPI can be an amazing life changing decision. Believe me, my choice was financially based and although I had RIT, CWU, CMU to choose from who’ve accepted me, as an alternate choice if RPI rejected me, I would not have been able to afford them, so it would have been my safety schools which are no where near the quality of all these named above.
I have lower than average grades and RPI accepted me, if they didn’t I would have been stuck at my local low-level public.

28

I guess RPI is going to be admitting a lot less students since the trend is growing to forgo the college visits as they aren’t good indicators of really anything at all

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/well/family/skipping-the-college-tour.amp.html

By the way the real problem here is the lack of respect of differing opinions. Joe & red you aren’t absolute authorities here stop trying to sound like one and you’ll piss less people off.

29

@Slydog This isn’t about differing opinions. It is clear that visiting is considered by admissions and by the merit committee since it helps give an idea of your interest in the school. People shouldn’t get mad when facts conflict with their opinionated beliefs. This isn’t an echo chamber, College Confidential is here to give prospective students clear-cut facts and perspectives. If people get annoyed, that’s their own prerogative.

So, again, the fact is: Interest is considered in your application to RPI as “important” in the admissions process. Many universities do not consider interest greatly, including many Ivies and peer institutions- RPI does. According to the common data set, interest is weighted equally as important as ECs and recommendation letters. Interest can be shown not only through visiting, but also other components of your application, which are all weighted holistically. If you live 1000 miles away, obviously your application will matter more than if you visited, but if you are local and don’t visit - it will be seen and considered in the admissions process. But, again, it is not a requirement and that might not even matter, since, again, the application is holistic and your essay/other things can show interest.

This is a fact, and can be confirmed through the Common Data Set as well as other official documentation available through RPI. But, again, it’s all hollistic - if you’re really phenomenal and fit RPI, they’ll forgo your interest level. Also, that article is an opinions piece - it says nothing quantitatively about students not going on tours. There were a record number of tours this year and the year before, as well as applications.

Source: http://provost.rpi.edu/sites/default/files/CDS_2016-17%20Final%20Version.pdf#overlay-context=institutional-research/common-datasets (check page 6 - if you don’t like my answer, email admissions@rpi.edu and you’ll get the same response)

Also, the tour number information can be seen in the Class of 2020 post on InsideRensselaer from last year.

30

Someone gave a conflicting experience to the common data sheet. They proved it wrong!!! OMG it’s not the holy grail!!! You could say wow that’s great I didn’t realize it could happen that way or continue on like this. You choose to continue on and this is why you’re spending your summer on a message board and not out with a bunch of friends.

I on the other hand don’t care that much. It’s a gorgeous day my kid made it in despite the fact that he didn’t comply with an ounce of the “advice” you’ve given as absolutes.

Good luck in your pursuits

31

My son got into RPI and did not get into a lower ranked, lower SAT score, lower GPA, similar focus college.

The fact is that RPI is both raising tuition (around 4% between this year and last from my calculation) and accepting more students than their yield can handle. They are breaking promises to their upperclassmen.

So if they go ahead this year, class of 2018, and admit as many as before, I would be shocked. Of course, they have to pay Shirley’s salary…

And as for the OP, my experience was that the NPC grossly underestimated how little aid my son got. Like 10K less aid + grants/merit. So if the OP’s family could not afford what the RPI NPC said, I wish them the best of luck. Because we didn’t even get what the NPC said…

32

Congratulations, he got accepted when his chances were against him.

The fact is that ALL schools raise their tuition every year. “More than their yield can handle”? What does that even mean? If their yield goes up, so be it, if their yield goes down so be it, what does your statement even mean? What promises are they breaking to their upperclassmen? Can you quote or better yet, cite which promise you mean?

yes, the president gets paid through some of the tuition money, what are you even trying to say, can you please be clear and point to something or other but not linger in aimless obfuscation?

You are one of the few that I heard didn’t get more than the NPC. So far everyone that I’ve spoken to about cost of attendance has said they got more than the NPC predicted from RPI. I would have expected 50% / 50% but no, all people except you has said they got less than the npc.

What I saw in your post seems very agenda driven; just a lot of negative remarks with no proof, citation, or examples. Meanwhile, people provide proofs of the opposite experience on this forum with proofs. The only example you cite is your own but the rest of your post seems to show unfounded negativity. If your son couldn’t get into schools with lower academic credentials that indicates something you might want to consider. Schools offer less merit aid to low academic standing students. If he got accepted to RPI with an incoming class average SAT of 1399, you must understand that you will get less merit aid if you fall lower than average, and more aid if you fall higher than average.

33

The ACT in Math of 31 would make it tougher, but still have a chance.
And they do give decent aid.

That said, I never understand the obsession. Apply and wait to see.
Just apply to other schools you can afford and have a good statistical change of admission.

34

@rhandco RPI is not admitting “more and more” students each year. They planned on steadily increasing incoming class sizes to around 1650-1700 undergraduate students and then leaving it like that. This year, from what I’ve heard, they admitted slightly less students due to an increase of international apps (international students have a higher chance of enrolling), ED apps (increases the yield), and apps overall. Increased competition means more wiggle room for RPI to “control” their yield by hand picking the incoming class. Also, increased yield is good - it decreases the number of students they need to admit to enroll someone/decreases the acceptance rate.

Second of all, this year’s admissions cycle was the most competitive ever. 85% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their graduating class and, of those that enrolled, the average SAT was around 1400 with a median of 1410/1600. In the prior year, the median was 1380. They also got almost 20,000 applications. Being rejected from a lower ranked school and admitted to a higher ranked school doesn’t mean anything, especially when the metrics at the lower ranked school are progressively worse. You’ve isolated one individual case - maybe they didn’t like his essay? You don’t know.

Also, about Dr.Jackson’s salary, as ludicrous as it is the Board of Trustees considers it a small expense compared to the value she brings RPI (this is their view, at least).

35

Firstly, my son does like it there, so this is just commentary about how my dollar is spent.

Addressing the points above:

| What promises are they breaking to their upperclassmen?

They are not guaranteeing housing to upperclassmen. They are changing the rules on housing; now they force students to move three times to stay on campus. When my kid picked his room for sophomore year, part of the reason was that he and his friends could keep the new set up. Instead, they are making certain buildings all freshmen, others all sophomores, etc.

Don’t know how they will deal with athletes who used to dorm on campus together regardless of class year.

| The fact is that ALL schools raise their tuition every year. “More than their yield can handle”? What does that even mean? If their yield goes up, so be it, if their yield goes down so be it, what does your statement even mean? What promises are they breaking to their upperclassmen? Can you quote or better yet, cite which promise you mean?

All schools do. 4% is quite high: 3.6% is the average for the top private universities.
http://college.usatoday.com/2017/06/09/private-college-tuition-is-rising-faster-than-inflation-again/

(compare overall to the last 10 years of increase - better yet, compare the cost of college textbooks (bought not at the college bookstores but on the competitive market) over the past 30 years, and let me know if tuition tracked the same)

| yes, the president gets paid through some of the tuition money, what are you even trying to say, can you please be clear and point to something or other but not linger in aimless obfuscation?

Ask TIME magazine:
http://time.com/money/4001985/highest-paid-private-college-president/

Clear and to the point, she makes tons of dough with dubious benefit to students. You want a concrete example?
https://poly.rpi.edu/2016/03/02/carnegie_demotes__rpi_classification__from_highest_rating/

| You are one of the few that I heard didn’t get more than the NPC. So far everyone that I’ve spoken to about cost of attendance has said they got more than the NPC predicted from RPI. I would have expected 50% / 50% but no, all people except you has said they got less than the npc.

I understand that ED affects it. I do know others who got less than the NPC, but I’m sure you don’t know them. NPC gives a ball park, but it is useless in certain circumstances. Going from 90% to 50% owner of one’s house is completely fine; I would guess this is not limited to RPI especially regarding how ED students are treated in terms of financial aid.

FWIW, the other college my son wasn’t accepted to values GPA much more than test scores.

I can say that the scholarship criteria, at least for my son, was not based on GPA and that can help first-generation and other at-risk students.

| If he got accepted to RPI with an incoming class average SAT of 1399, you must understand that you will get less merit aid if you fall lower than average, and more aid if you fall higher than average.

His SAT was not the issue. And, holding back on the caps here, we used the NPC, which had us put in his exact SAT score and our exact financial information. There was no obfuscation of what he was or what we had - just a 10K off NPC estimate.

If they counted GPA, which was one area he was below average in, they should have put it in the NPC.

I appreciate that you have some sort of unnaturally close relationship with RPI, but maybe talk to a few current students there. And I appreciate your need to address my post twice. I am paying RPI to educate my son, and plan to in the future. But that doesn’t mean that I can like it or ignore the facts.

(I do want to mention that people on CC who were accepted to RPI have posted who had lower GPA and lower SAT scores than he did, and they noted quite a bit higher aid. I feel that if the NPC took all of our financial info, including what we owed on our house, the estimate should have been better. I am union and have had pay freezes for several years, which gives us back pay in years like the basis year for my son’s college, so union people like me are at a disadvantage compared to those in industry who have set salaries and increases year to year.)

36

I too, am union and my child was accepted but the offer was too low for us to afford. We appealed and indicated on that appeal a union strike which set up back a bit and they more than covered what we needed. They were surprisingly very generous.

37

I am a current student. My relationship isn’t ‘unnaturally’ close I don’t think. I go to classes, do research, and live at RPI every day and I’ve enjoyed it a lot, which is the reason I stay on this forum. I don’t think accepting an unfair offer is the fault of the school as much as the fault of the individual for making a poor financial decision. I think you have an unnatural grudge against the school/aren’t actually from here since you’re using such small issues, which are relatively detached from campus, to defame the entire university.