I don’t disagree that class rank is a very imperfect way of determining merit, but using the results of a one sitting 4 hour test is imperfect as well. At the end of the day, WPI is a private institution and can use any means it chooses to disperse merit aid. As to whether changing from offering automatic merit >/= 20K to NMFs is a good idea for the school, I guess time will tell. I’m sure the school will change it’s tactics if it looks like the quality of it’s applicants is going down hill. My bigger point is that I would not write off WPI if your child is a NMF but not val or sal. I would bet $ that if they are a top student with good ECs, they will be offered a merit scholarship in the the vicinity of the amount previously guaranteed.
I was curious about perception vs reality so spent some time looking at Common Data Sets for the 3 schools initially mentioned by @hebegebe. I initially put the data into a table but could not paste it retaining formatting. I looked at 2015 - 16 and 2012 - 13 for all three schools (I chose 2012 - 13 because I could find the data for all schools and out of curiosity since that was the cohort for my oldest at WPI). Here are some highlights, leaving out acceptance rate and yield since those numbers are pretty easily manipulated (but if you’re interested, acceptance rate is lower at both BU and NU, yield is higher at WPI) :
2015 - 2016
Northeastern:
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 31-34
SAT CR: 660-740
SAT Math: 680-770
% in top tenth of HS class: 70
BU
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 27-31
SAT CR: 580-680
SAT Math: 620-730
% in top tenth of HS class: 58
WPI
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 27-32
SAT CR: 570-680
SAT Math: 640-740
% in top tenth of HS class: 65
2012 - 2013
Northeastern
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 29-32
SAT CR: 630-720
SAT Math: 650-740
% in top tenth of HS class: 63
BU
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 26-30
SAT CR: 570-670
SAT Math: 610-720
% in top tenth of HS class: 57
WPI
25 - 75%:
ACT (composite): 27-32
SAT CR: 560-670
SAT Math: 640-720
% in top tenth of HS class: 66
Northeastern’s stats are overall better than the other 2 schools and it’s not surprising that WPI’s stats are skewed toward higher math scores, although the ACT composite scores are pretty good. Of course, being test optional, WPI only reports the scores of those students who submit them. All in all, though, I think the stats show that bright kids will find plenty of peers in their cohort at WPI (as well as the other 2 schools). Anecdotally, back in the day my husband chose WPI over Tufts. One of my older D’s close friends is from California and chose WPI over Harvey Mudd. WPI is very popular with local students, probably because of it’s strong affiliation with FIRST. I am always amazed by the number of bright kids who are denied admission each year. Is it a great school for everyone? Absolutely not. My son would have done fine, but is far better off out in Chicago due to both his academic interests and intellectual curiosity. But I don’t think that Northeastern or BU would have been the best fits either.