That’s wonderful! My husband graduated from Pitt and loved it. We went there for a stroll down memory lane and my son did not take to it. Oh well - we would be out of state anyway so pretty pricey. If your son goes to WPI and chooses to major in IMGD tech, apparently it’s pretty easy to double major in CS – there is a ton of overlap between the majors. You can even see their planning sheets separately and together to see the remarkable overlap. They actually recommend IMGD Tech majors double major with CS which I love love love bc, like you said, a CS degree is a much more stable for their futures. That’s why the program at WPI was so amazing to my son. Complete immersion in both majors without having to figure out how to juggle it.
My son is similar to some of your kids too. His interest in CS first stemmed from game dev. He got in WPI but not Purdue. Good to know WPI is collaborative in nature. He opted for CS not the IMGD ( I haven’t looked at what that is) as he said he wanted more broader program. I will tell him to take a look to see if double major or minor is possible.
My son was accepted at Pitt too.
Accepted on Friday and received a financial decision today. Very generous.
The acceptance letter specified merit scholarships for 4 years on Friday. The grant listed on the portal today does not specify whether is it for 4 years or just freshman year. From your experience, should we assume the grant to be just for year 1? Thank you.
I couldn’t find anything from WPI about need based aid staying the same (or getting better) for subsequent years, which some schools promise. So I would assume the school will evaluate the financial forms each year and give you what they think is appropriate. 
I think we got nothing 
unless the $2,000 “Theory & Practice Award” is a need based grant. Total COA for my son is ~$54,000.
Is your son leaning more towards WPI or Pitt? Congrats to your son!
When my son opened his financial aid award letter, he was like, “WOW!!!” until he scrolled down further, saw the COA after merit, grant, and loans, to which he let out a “ooohhhhh.” LOL! Our COA after merit/grant/loan is around $42,000.
Good question!!
WPI has a special double major planning sheet for IMGD tech and CS - it’s really great and permits a full CS degree without that much more compared to doing IMGD-tech due to substantial permitted double dipping of courses. If a person is doing just CS at WPI, though, adding the double major with IMGD-tech makes the CS courses a bit more restrictive as it specifies a lot of what you need to take as opposed to just taking pretty much what you’d like to take.
Wow, that was fast for financial aid offers. Wouldn’t have checked except for y’all mentioning it. Son got a generous grant and the bottom line number for estimated remaining cost is ~$35K. That’s still more than our FAFSA SAI, so I can confirm that they don’t meet need and for us they’re $5-10K over.
I, like the rest of you, am worried that the grant amount won’t be guaranteed for 4 years. But in a weird coincidence, the amount of scholarships & grants he’s currently offered are about the same as the Tuition Exchange scholarship would be, should he get it. I think it’s still too pricey for us, which is instructive.
Hope some of you are getting happy news!
What is grant? sorry for the silly question. Is it a loan? or do you need to work to get the pay? Wonder why they did not list it on the admission letter.
A grant is need based aid that does NOT need to be repaid. It doesn’t require you to work.
Our COA would be $10k below the NPC price, surprisingly. At least for the first year. Which is a nice surprise. For the future readers, financial decision came 4 days after the admission decision.
Thanks for explanation!
If counting in the federal loan of $5.5k with the scholarships and grant, the COA would be $1-2k over EFC.
As of now WPI looks promising with so much flexibility.
Personally, I don’t think the loan should be grouped with scholarships and grants. It is money your child has to pay back so it is part of the cost you pay. The loan helps you finance that cost but it is still your cost.
Some (most?) schools show the COA after scholarships and grants, and then show the various ways they expect you to meet that cost (student loan, work study, student’s cash on hand, parent contribution). I prefer that because to me it is more honest and straightforward.
I absolutely agree and see it exactly the same way. I just do not remember whether EFC included federal loans or not, and wanted to differentiate that. Other than that, COA is anything that needs to be paid or paid back by the family and the student.
Unfortunately our financial aid came in at $15,000 over our EFC or $10,000 over once you take out loans. It’s tough because we will have 2 in college and it doubles our college costs. I was hoping for some help with 2 in college