The Accelerated Master's Program award policies described here apply to students whose first term of undergraduate enrollment at RPI is Fall 2024 or later. Students beginning enrollment at RPI prior to the Fall 2024 semester will have opportunity to attain their Master's Degree through the Coterminal Program.
The Accelerated Master's Program allows Rensselaer undergraduates to complete their Bachelor’s degree within eight semesters (ten for B. Arch students) with the option to receive an award equal to 50% of their tuition charges during their additional semesters of graduate study, depending on academic performance. Students can apply to most Master’s Programs that Rensselaer offers, following the same curriculum as those who entered through the traditional route. Some applicants choose to pursue a Master’s degree in the same academic discipline, while others take a more interdisciplinary approach, applying to a graduate program outside of their undergraduate department.
Rensselaer is committed to providing financial aid assistance to Accelerated Master's Program students within the following guidelines:
Students must file the FAFSA as an undergraduate student while completing the undergraduate degree. Once the student has completed the requirements for the undergraduate degree, s/he will apply to graduate through the Registrar’s Office and will then be considered a graduate student. At that point the student will file the FAFSA as a graduate student. Students in the Accelerated Master's Program who are undergraduates will also be required to complete the Accelerated Master's Academic Plan, which will be available at a future date.
Yes. Once a student begins enrollment in the Accelerated Master's Program, they will no longer receive their undergraduate scholarships and grants. These funds will be replaced by an award that will be equal to 50% of their tuition charges. The Federal Pell Grant and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) are both reserved for undergraduate students and therefore will not be available. Work Study will still be available, if eligible. Students will be eligible for graduate level Federal Direct Student Loans once s/he is considered a graduate student and will also be eligible to apply for the Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan. Students’ parents will no longer be eligible to apply for the Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan once the student is a graduate student.
The Office of Financial aid certifies Federal and State program eligibility based on the degree level determined by Registrar Office official enrollment records. The student’s status for a term does not change after the start of the term in question and the college's administrative technology system is the source of the data used to decide.
Eligibility for RPI funded awards is based on the total number of credit hours for the term. A combination of graduate and undergraduate credit hours is used to determine if a student is considered to be “full-time” (12+ credit hours) for RPI funded awards.
Federal and state awards are only provided based on the number of credit hours being taken during the term that are associated to the official degree level for the student. For example students who do not have their undergraduate degree confirmed per Registrar records prior to the start of a term may only receive aid based on undergraduate rules and only at levels appropriate based on their number of undergraduate credit hours for that term. In some cases, this environment may result in a student being ineligible for Federal Student Loan funding due to their official status being an undergraduate student that is enrolled fewer than six credits of undergraduate courses.
In most cases, students may receive two additional semesters of eligibility after completing the undergraduate program. If the student is enrolling in the MBA or Eng-Sci MBA options, they would be eligible for up to three additional semesters of eligibility.
New York residents: Be aware that NYS Grants and Scholarships including the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) are limited to eight semesters of undergraduate eligibility and can only be applied to undergraduate study.
Thus, a student receiving a teaching assistantship or research assistantship will forfeit aid eligibility and/or is no longer eligible for the Accelerated Master's Program.