OOS S accepted. Robotic Engineering. 12K scholarship
SAT 1410
GPA W 4.47
8 APs, mostly 4s
11 years of Robotics teams, CEO of his FRC team last year and FIRST Dean’s List finalist.
But with only 12K I don’t know if we can make it work. That means we still need $45000 a year. We can manage $30,000 but I don’t know where the additional $15000 would come from. And that’s before we fly him home to SoCal for holidays. Maybe some outside scholarships will come through.
Congratulations! Impressive stats. That does seem like not much scholarship money but you did apply early decision. Perhaps your S has other good options to consider that are more affordable so the ED is not binding. Does he have other accepts yet?
Thought this admissions dashboard from the WPI website might be of interest. A good amount of the data from various sources does not seem current. The number of applicants were at an all time high, but only a modest increase over the prior year. The fall of 2018 admit rates was 42%. You can poke around this website for all sorts of data with this new format. See https://public.tableau.com/profile/wpi.institutional.research#!/vizhome/IR_DataDashboard-AdmissionsDecisions/AdmissionsFunnel
The drop in the admission rate last Fall does seem to support the argument that WPI is very interested in students who really want the unique WPI experience as defined by the MQP, IQP, customized humanities minor, off campus research and world wide cultural experiences. They want a class of students who are motivated for this experience and not only a set of students with the highest test scores. This fits in with their use of test optional admissions. See “Why Test Optional Admissions” @ http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/2084255-why-test-optional-admissions.html#latest
The GPA and course rigor become a big player here with an average class of ''22 GPA of 3.89 unweighted.
Another option to consider might be a COOP option, but it adds almost a year. Contact numbers are on the following website. Ask how this fits in with FA. See https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/co-ops
I wish I had a better answer. Some data I just looked at shows that they, on average, met 100% of the demonstrated need for 82% of the current freshman class.
@retiredfarmer (or anyone) I am curious for your opinion on two topics
1 For acceptance purposes does RPI favor GPA over strength-of-schedule or the reverse? I know they look at both but would you recommend a student take more challenging high school classes at the expense of their GPA/rank.
2 Once accepted to several colleges. Do you think it is more beneficial for a student to chose a college where they are near the top (GPA/Test scores/HS rank) for a less ranked college, or near the middle/bottom for a higher ranked college?
Q1:
I always use section C7 of the latest Common Data Set (CDS) to help answer this question. The 2017-2018 RPI sheet ranks rigor, class rank, GPA, and standardized tests as all very important with no distinctions drawn, implying equal weight. Many secondary schools no longer give class rank, so school profiles and past experience with that school become more of a guide for many colleges to fill that rank gap. Weighted GPA’s are often supplied by the secondary school with a definition somewhere of their particular weighting system. When the entire process is pulled together, it does not add up to a simple addition of ranked categories in the final selections. You might be overthinking the system in an attempt to predict a specific result. Don’t expect PRECISE, logical results
It does appear by looking at data of entering classes that RPI places more emphasis on tests scores while WPI places more emphasis on GPA. WPI is also a “test optional” university which would explain the GPA emphasis.
I don’t believe AI has been applied yet at any of these universities to make the final decisions. The largest public Universities will probably try this first.
Q2:
Neither. Check the PERSONAL fit of the university by conversation, visits, university philosophy and approach. There are at least 50 high quality STEM universities where you could sink or swim. If you swim the employment opportunities and/or graduate school opportunities are real at all of them. Swimming requires the right balance of stroke, distance, speed and motivation. It is not the same formula for everyone.
WPI 67
Thanks for the reply! You make an interesting point about AI. I think this could be another area where AI might displace a lot of admissions officers in the future. In my opinion their are far too may subjective factors that are used with questionable benefits (keep it simple). For example when a college tries to predict if a candidate "fits"based on limited data that adds little value. We all know how bad humans are about predicting the future in almost everything. I am not saying that computers are better just that using quantitative data may be better. I will make an analogy to market indexes typically outperforming active money managers in the long term.
Anyhow I agree personal fit is very important and the student and parents are best to judge that. The general philosophy is for students to apply to “stretch” schools and “safety” schools. Assuming there is a personal fit for both (if no fit do not apply in the first place). Assuming you can swim at both (or you would not have been accepted). If a student gets into their stretch school and their safety school I was thinking about the benefits/drawbacks of being top in their safety school (swim easier and get perks) or lower in their stretch school (have to swim harder)
@retiredfarmer I think you were at WPI at the same time my father was. He has a BSME and PhD from WPI.
What was his class and was he in a fraternity?
@BagODonuts
My secondary preparation was very solid from an all male boarding school. Freshman year I did everything and got away with about two hours of study per day at WPI. Meanwhile my public school roommate was constantly studying. By the sophomore year I had picked up the wrong habits and thought I had switched universities. For me, the heat was on.
Saw my freshman roommate, Peter, at our tenth reunion and he was already VP, head of research, for Hughes Aircraft. I was working in a minor administrative position at the university, but enjoying it! While I was there the faculty launched project education with the “WPI Plan” with funding from the National Science Foundation. In those days it was a revolution.
What drove Peter? He seemed over his head freshman year while I felt I was walking on water.
The really smart guy was in the room next to us. Steve never had a good word to say about “WOOPIE TECH” and was here largely because his brother graduated in Physics, worked at Bell Labs in research and loved the place. Steve did go on for an MD and an MBA from Harvard and finally did show up for the fiftieth reunion. Steve said he did not like the WPI as a student, and class president, but appears to have thrived with a solid education.
I could go on with stories of classmates, midnight trips to NYC, hockey games (club only), the x-country race where I should have beaten the RPI runner who sneaked up as we approached the finish line in their football stadium. I want to run that race again!
Collect your experiences. There is more to college than the admissions process, but don’t regret that you never ran your best in the race. SAT/ACT and EVEN GPA are not the whole story!
Your father can’t be that old!
@retiredfarmer he was born in 1945 and graduated HS early. I want to say he hits his BS in 1966, then a masters at Stanford for a year and they the Ph.D in 1970 or 71. He was not in a fraternity but he was ROTC. We both worked with Prof Ray Hagglund.
You have got to listen to me because I am older than your Dad.
Ray Hagglund '56 was a legend in both the development and support of the WPI Plan. See https://www.wpi.edu/news/hagglundinmem.
Ray and Jim Demetry '58 were all over the campus rounding up volunteers to help the renovation of an old building into a construction space for project activities. It really was a community effort which included some flying of the feathers. You may know that Prof. Chrysanthe Demetry '88, Jim’s daughter is still playing a very important role at WPI in the ongoing development of “Plan” education. They knew that resting on laurels was not the way to develop a great University so they built rejuvenating processes into the system. I am proud to say I interviewed Chris in 1984. It was not necessary to explain the “WPI Plan” to Jim’s daughter…
According to an administrative support staffer who is still there, the originals are all gone. She noted that many of the radical “WPI Plan” ideas are now taken for granted. ABET actually changed their accrediting requirements in large part because of the demonstrated results of this program.
Other institutions were doing related pioneering STEM work at Harvey Mudd et al. Olin College was being set up around project activity in the early '70s. Although these three colleges/universities have different models, they were all focusing on processes which go way beyond classroom lectures and exams.
Second round of EA decisions is due Feb. 10th.
Actually it looks like they come out today at 5 pm according to WPI Twitter. Hopeful for my D - 1580 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA, lots of leadership EC’s, research at major university, captain of varsity sport team and travel team. Hope she gets in and gets some $'s… How do you think WPI curriculum compares to Olin?
Son accepted today with Presidential Scholarship ($11,000/yr)! EAII
Reading the Olin college curriculum description, the philosophy and goals are virtually identical. See http://www.olin.edu/academics/curriculum/
WPI can claim to be the pioneer in this approach, but size differences offer some advantages to each institution.
Smaller size (Olin) and a remarkable student to faculty ratio (8 to 1) enable a tailor make curriculum when compared with WPI’s 13:1 ratio. This also means that Olin’s ABET accredited programs are restricted to three areas: electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering. WPI covers a very wide range of fully accredited options.
Both, I believe correctly, boast design of
Reading the Olin college curriculum description, the philosophy and goals are virtually identical. See http://www.olin.edu/academics/curriculum/
WPI can claim to be the pioneer in this approach, but size differences offer some advantages to each institution.
Smaller size (Olin) and a remarkable student to faculty ratio (8 to 1) enable a tailor made curriculum when compared with WPI’s 13:1 ratio. This also means that Olin’s ABET accredited programs are restricted to three areas: electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering. WPI covers a much wider range of fully accredited options.
Both, I believe correctly, boast design of collaborative student/faculty environment. Team collaboration requires a mix of students from different disciplines to work together on the same project. WPI’s size and range of majors works for it here. WPI’s business/management/entrepreneurial/psychology/environmental/biomedical/big data majors are not only on the same piece of real estate, but are fully integrated into the program. This makes the WPI interdisciplinary IQP somewhat unique and these combinations benefits all majors. Both institutions see the world as interdisciplinary.
Both institutions strive to bring real outside projects into the context of an educational experience. Both strive to keep the projects’ directions focused on the students’ academic development. This is where “the rubber meets the road” in many coop experiences. There must be quality control on the nature of the projects undertaken and involvement of the student in the research (i.e., not sweeping the floor).
WPI’s off campus research and international research opportunities cannot be matched anywhere and are the primary vehicle for interdisciplinary project solutions that make a difference in lives around the world. They are now in 50 project centers in 31 different countries and all students are credited $5000 when they participate at off campus sites. See https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program
WPI '67
Thank you so much for such a great response. Daughter accepted with 28k per year Presidential scholarship .
Olin candidates weekend in 2 weeks so we’ll see how that goes. Still waiting on MIT but I’m thinking project based curriculum might be better. Depending on where she gets in her call of course.
Daughter accepted EA2 with $25K presidential merit scholarship. Does anyone know if this includes financial aid or if that comes later? Also, why are accepted student days on Wednesdays? That is terrible for those traveling. We have yet to visit the school, but we love the 4 quarters, their philosophy, hands on approach etc… It is high on our list. Cost is an issue for sure though.
Congrats to everyone who got in!