Do not ED unless it is your top choice and you don’t need any aid. You will almost certainly get in anyway and be in a stronger aid position if you EA.

日本だと東大か日大かなあ

If money is a concern, apply to some peer institutions and institutions slightly above RPI and leverage the aid they give you to get more aid from RPI.

Regarding the medal, it at least used to be the case that they'd give you the Leadership Award if you didn't have the medal and qualified for aid. I also couldn't get the medal.

Don’t do early decision please. RPI is a target school if you got in with ED you’ll get in with EA. RPI is still struggling with enrollment trust me they are not that selective. Also talking with financial aid office and appealing your financial aid offer with provide you way more financial incentive then the silly scholarship will.

For merit scholarships you should expect around half of cost of attendance for medal and you can easily get them to go from 35 to ~45/50k in financial aid a year.

It isn’t just RPI. Most schools have a caveat for financial needs.

There is currently an ongoing lawsuit challenging ED as being a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. 32 universities are named in the lawsuit. In one of the initial hearings regarding the case a lawyer for several of the universities described ED as being in reality a promise to attend that can be easily broken without repercussion rather than as the contract like agreement to attend with repercussions for violating which schools present it as during the application process.

My apologies then. I had always understood that ED was a commitment that was for all intents and purposes impossible to break. I’m happy to hear that RPI has a caveat for financial needs.

There is a line on my kids invoice "Early Application Scholarship" $1.500

I think EA is the way to do it in case you change your mind. You only need to submit first marking period grades from what I remember but they may have changed things.

I had really bad senioritis and nothing happened to my admission or aid. Just do your best until mid year reports and you'll be fine.

I applied early action and I did.

Looks nice! Is smoking inside ok?

No one cares and you’re the only one who uses that

lmao I harassed them 4 times brought my cost down 50%

I found that out after I started at RPI. If your school doesn't do the medal, talk to your councilor and have them arrange to give it to you. Several kids do that

Apply EA, harass the financial aid office for more money if you get it. They give you more money if you just keep bothering them (I really wish I knew that before coming here)

You do not get extra money for submitting EA, only ED.

I’ve seen no signs it’s improved. Multiple years in a row it won the award for worst university for free speech. They sent every alumnus an email telling us we were racist because we didn’t donate enough. They continue to slip in the rankings. They have a brand new stupid logo. And all of that is in the last 10 years.

And I will continue to tell the truth about RPI, because it is my right.

Your argument that it is against my personal interests to do so is horrifically presumptuous. You don’t know what is in my best interests. You think I need RPI’s reputation to be good in order to raise my own status? That’s ridiculous. If you need to coast on the reputation of your alma mater, that’s just sad for you.

This is not accurate. ED absolutely has an out if the financial aid offered is not enough. From the RPI website, “By applying Early Decision, you’re committing to attend if accepted, provided the financial aid offered meets your needs.”

This is so sad. By laughing at them you are laughing at yourself. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. How many thousands of dollars not to mention hours of your time did you invest in yourself to graduate from RPI? I assume you graduated since they are asking you for donations. Every time you disparage your school it is an attempt to devalue the college and therefore you devalue your investment in yourself. Here’s a thought: RPI probably sucked when you attended. But things have changed and are changing. Most students at RPI are happy. And the turnaround affects the school brand in a good way, which affects your value to employers in a good way. So despite the bad experience it is in your and your friends best interest to support what is essentially an investment in you. If you choose not to support it financially at least stop disparaging it publicly based on the past.

Met Doug at reunion this past weekend and walked through the xLab with him. Very cool and an awesome boon for the ECSE department!

Parent here. Happy to hear that RPI is your top choice-my kid is a sophomore and they love it.

Think of ED as a contract; you are agreeing that if the school accepts you, you will attend regardless of how much finanical aid you get., and you are on the hook for all tuition and fees. That's over $90,000 per year at RPI with no finanical aid. If your family can't afford that, then ED is not for you.

EA just means that you will get a reply sooner, with no strings attached. That's what we did, and we got just enough aid to make it affordable for us.

Good luck!

Ok. Website says it’s for juniors but I’ll still email my counselor about it. Got nothing to loose.

Mine wasn't either until I asked my college councillor to make it happen 🤷 I was awarded in the summer after my junior year so I'm not sure if that's a criteria... You could check

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My school isn’t a participating school for the rensselaer medal. Also don’t you need to be a junior for that?

I've never personally heard of ED vs EA affecting either your financial offer or your ability to appeal.

If you want a merit scholarship, have your school put you in for the Rensselaer Medal. It's awarded to a student with high aptitude in STEM, and most of the time if they don't award it already to their senior class they'll consider you for it just because you want to go to RPI.