I have narrowed my decisions to these two schools and I’m having issues deciding. Money is a factor. My parents are not paying for college. Both schools are giving me scholarships. RPI gave me $45k and NJIT gave me $18. I would have to pay triple of NJIT to got to RPI. Is going to RPI worth it? It is my top choice.
How do you intend to close the funding gap if your parents aren’t paying? There is a limit to the amount of student loans you can take out. Is the $45K and $18K merit aid only or total financial aid offered to you?
70-45=25
I agree with @TQfromtheU , if you cant find a place to get the 25 then it’s not worth even thinking about. You can’t take that much out in parent plus loan because it’s just way more than any university is worth, so it would have to be money that you have at the ready.
@justanotherteen Here’s a suggestion for you,
Go to this site, http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/admission/transfer/2-2-engineering.html
you will see that RPI will accept full transfer of credits from CCM so there is NO wasted time. You take 2 years at CCM and come into RPI as a junior and do 2 more years, junior and senior and get your RPI degree. For you, CCM will probably be free by my guess looking at what your other scholarships look like.
If you try the same at NJIT eventhough they are a great school (with unfortunately no prestige or recognition by companies outside of New Jersey), you can call Anna at the admissions office and she will explain that many of NJIT’s courses are NOT accepted by RPI so it would be a waste of time going to NJIT. Just to clarify, all of CCM’s courses that RPI requires are fully accepted.
@GoRedhead thank you for the helpful advice. But after looking everything over and accepting the federal loans and work study. And along with RPI monthly payment we have found a way for my parents to pay for it (since it’s now within a reasonable range for them to help me).
RPI over NJIT especially given the difference in scholarships.
@insanedreamer RPI has the reputation and a great school for CS majors. Company recruiters flock to RPI and grab students to work all over the US. If money isn’t a factor, choose RPI. My son had to choose as well. He is currently finishing his sophomore year. RPI has a Career Fair Day beginning every September for students to experience interviews with company recruiters for paid internship, full or part time positions. My son at first just wanted to go for the experience yet he received a email invitation for a technical interview over the winter break. The day post interview , he was offered a paid summer internship for 12 weeks as a Software Engineer. He was thrilled to inform us that we did not have to contribute to paying a good chunk to his junior year. The reputation and great connections that RPI have are real for CS majors here.
@yogalife you’re preaching to the choir as my D is at RPI, class of 2019, like your son 
But I think maybe you meant to tag your response to @justanotherteen
@insanedreamer , my apologies with this mix up. I notice there’s no way to edit to correct. Hence, I will repost with correction. Thank you so much. Also, can you believe it! In less than 3 weeks, they will officially be juniors!!!
@justanotherteen RPI has the reputation and a great school for CS majors. Company recruiters flock to RPI and grab students to work all over the US. If money isn’t a factor, choose RPI. My son had to choose as well. He is currently finishing his sophomore year. RPI has a Career Fair Day beginning every September for students to experience interviews with company recruiters for paid internship, full or part time positions. My son at first just wanted to go for the experience yet he received a email invitation for a technical interview over the winter break. The day post interview , he was offered a paid summer internship for 12 weeks as a Software Engineer. He was thrilled to inform us that we did not have to contribute to paying a good chunk to his junior year. The reputation and great connections that RPI have are real for CS majors here.
@yogalife yes, in some respects it’s gone by so fast - can hardly believe it’s half over. Congrats to your S on the summer internship! My D will do the Summer Arch and hopes to do a 6-month co-op next Spring+Summer.
@insanedreamer a new thread covering the Summer Arch Program seems necessary I have noticed. Our kids made the cut off where it’s not mandatory, only voluntary. Your D decided to volunteer and it would be great if you could share when the time draws closer to what this is all about every step of the way. My S is still undecided as to volunteer or not. Companies are grabbing him for internships over the summer and would prefer to not be interrupted during semesters.
@yogalife I agree there seems to be much consternation over the Summer Arch and questions as to its benefits. To me it appears to be generally beneficial, but it remains to be seen – I’ll write up something about my D’s experience once she’s in it. If your S has good internships for this summer, then I see no need for him to sign up for summer arch. Part of the reason why my D decided to do the Summer Arch was because she had started working on getting internships for this summer too late (due to being maxed out with school work and she kept putting it off), and because she felt it would be easier to get internships during the semester instead of the summer. I think CS internships are easier to come by than engineering ones.