wackymother

Okay, another question for my DD. She took the PSATs in October (sophomore year) and she got a 208. Now she's getting tons of e-mails from colleges, some good, some bad, some indifferent. RPI has not e-mailed her. Did anybody get an e-mail like this from them sophomore year? I'm just curious if it's better to let them come to YOU or if she should request info on their website now to show that she's interested.

originaloog

Be proactive. If she is at all interested, contact those colleges directly. Hey it shows interest!

Marines920

RPI didn't send me any emails until I let them know I was interested. I took a tour of the school when I was a junior in high school and filled out an information request form, and they contacted me afterwards.

I currently attend RPI. GREAT SCHOOL!!!!! If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

wackymother

Thank you both! DD wants to wait till her SAT scores come in next week. There's no rush to contact them, since she's still a sophomore. We're thinking about going up to Troy for a visit in the summer or maybe even April if we get ambitious.

Marines920, can you give us any advice about ECs? That's definitely DD's weak point. How important are they for RPI admission if she has good test scores and good grades? (By good I mean upper tier good, not Ivy League good: Probably SATs over 2100 and a uw GPA around 3.8.) I'm hoping you'll say not that important!

palermo

My son did not even have RPI on his list until he receive the RPI Medal at the end of his junior year - that provides a $60,000 scholarship if accepted and attend. Acceptance rate is relatively high and her GPA and expected SAT scores are in-line with the schools. Also, there are only about 25% femailes, so she likely would have a good chance. My son visited and liked the school. He did not like the city location, but it is still a school that he is considering.

wackymother

What's up with Troy? Everybody complains about it, but how bad are we talking really? Boring, nothing to do? Or actually dangerous? How does it compare to Poughkeepsie, say?

seg9585

In reply to "What's up with Troy?"
We are talking, theres nothing to do there, as in you will run out of things to do after half a day if you take a trip there. At night, you walk out of the pizza places on Route 4 and ask yourself "what the hell am I doing here? I better walk quickly so those groups of people in shaggy clothes in the alleys of those buildings dont try to steal my pizza"..... um in other words, unless you're over 21 and go to bars, I know of very few people who walk down there just for the fun of it. Most people stay on campus, which is actually not so much a bad thing...

Marines920

wackymother, it does help to be involved in a math or science related club, but I wouldn't say it's a very essential part of the selection process. The fact that she's a girl will probably help her more. With those stats, she'll have an excellent chance of getting accepted.

As for the "Troylet" ....eh... some parts are bad, some parts are nice. It's not a super safe place to wander alone at night, but I wouldn't call it a very dangerous area. Students don't really do too much in Troy. Occasionally there will be trips to the pizza places and whatnot, but there's more to do in nearby Albany.

wackymother

Yay, DD got an e-mail from RPI yesterday! At least her name came up on the long, long, looooong list of PSAT possibles.

wackymother

Whoops, forgot to thank you all for your help! Your insights are really helpful. We'll have more questions as we go along....

BTW, if we do go up to Troy in April, do you think it's okay to sign up for a tour (if they're available in the spring)? Since she's a sophomore, does it look too eager-beaver? No, right? There's no such thing as too eager-beaver?

richs73cas

We have been visiting RPI and Troy for the last 7 years. Our son Graduated from RPI three years ago and is still in the area attending Graduate School.
Here's a Link to the City of Troy's website

http://www.troyny.gov/visittroy.html

Eating in Troy off campus: Manory's Diner - 99 Congress St., is a busy local Diner. The Cast of "The Age of Innocence" apparently liked to eat there according to autographed pictures by the register. This place gives some local color.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106226/

There have been lots of improvements over the last seven years that we have observed, both in Troy and RPI.

richs73cas

wackymother

See if your D's High School Participates in the RPI Medal Program.

http://admissions.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1

The High Schools Faculty can award this to a Junior Year Student that excells in Math and Science. The RPI Medal comes with a $60,000 minimum Scholarship if the student is accepted and attends RPI. There can be other awards added to this.

wackymother

Thanks for the Troy links, rich. DD's HS does participate in the Medal program--I started a thread asking about that. I have to get DD to go in and start sweet-talking the guidance office about recommending her.

Some of the kids who went to RPI are saying that they were nominated b/c they had the highest math/science scores in their schools. DD is nowhere near the top math/science scores in her big, competitive HS (they had an Intel finalist last year, and they have kids who go to Columbia U for advanced work in math), but I'm hoping Guidance will put her down for the medal if she expresses great interest in RPI.

richs73cas

Even if she's not the top in her HS for math and science, and doesn't get the medal. RPI has extensive Merit Aid and since she, from the stats you listed, seems to be at the higher end of their applicant pool, she should receive some nice merit aid.

From US News and World Report
No matter what they offer, if she is accepted and gets merit aid from some other school that exceeds what RPI offers, have her call and try to negotiate for more from RPI. My son did that and was able to get a few thousand a year in merit aid, where none was originally offered. (Important that the student, not the parent make the call.)


Good Luck to you and your daughter.

wackymother

Thanks for posting those numbers. The SAT scores just came in and she's definitely within striking distance--2060 combined. She's a sophomore, so she has a year to get her numbers up. Thanks again!