A STEM-focused Massachusetts private where every admitted first-year is automatically considered for a merit-based Presidential Scholarship, with specialty awards in robotics and business engineering and a renewal rule tied to passing credit hours rather than a high GPA.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is WPI worth a closer look?
WPI may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers3See who qualifies
First-year students with school awards41%First-year students, CDS 2023-2024
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
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Published scholarships
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
Varies…Varies; minimum $25,000 for IB diploma graduates (score 40+)
Presidential Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Awarded automatically to first-year applicants based on academic performance in high school, recommendations, and leadership. IB diploma graduates with a score of 40 or greater are guaranteed a minimum $25,000 Presidential Scholarship. Amounts are determined holistically, not on a published stat grid.
How to keep it
Renewable for four years. Full renewal requires passing at least 24 credits in A-D terms, remaining full-time (minimum 12 credits/semester), and good academic standing. Passing only 21 credits triggers a 5% reduction in merit funding.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from WPI's published information.
Renewal rulePresidential Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for four years. Full renewal requires passing at least 24 credits in A-D terms, remaining full-time (minimum 12 credits/semester), and good academic standing. Passing only 21 credits triggers a 5% reduction in merit funding. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
Straight from the aid office
What WPI's aid office says
Per the Office of Financial Aid, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, August 2026. How we verify
How merit scholarship amount is determined
Is the GPA used for scholarship consideration the transcript number, or does WPI recalculate it differently?
The Admissions Office determines the merit scholarship amount by reviewing the student's admissions application holistically, rather than using a specific recalculated GPA figure.
“The Admissions Office determines the amount of merit scholarship a student will receive. They do this by looking at a student's admissions application in a holistic manner.”
Cost of attendance cap on aid
Is there a limit on total financial aid a student can receive?
Total aid can only be accepted up to the cost of attendance, which is around $87k for this year.
“We can only accept aid up to our cost of attendance. For this year, it's around 87k.”
Order of reduction when outside scholarship exceeds cost of
If he wins a local scholarship, does that reduce loans first or lower WPI's own award?
If aid exceeds the cost of attendance, student loans are reduced or canceled first, and WPI aid would be the last thing reduced.
“If it goes above that number, then we will need to reduce or cancel student loans on the account first. The last thing that would we reduced would be WPI aid.”
Scholarship renewal requirement
What is required to keep the scholarship each year?
The scholarship renewal is based on credits completed, requiring at least 24 credits completed per year to keep the scholarship for the next year.
“The scholarship is based on credits completed. A student needs to complete at least 24 credits a year to keep the scholarship for the next year.”
Typical credit load for graduation timeline
How many credits do most students complete per year?
Most students complete 36 credits a year to stay on track for graduation.
“Most students complete 36 credits a year to stay on track for graduation.”
What families often miss
WPI's published renewal rule is built around credit completion, not a GPA cliff. Full renewal requires passing at least 24 credits across the A-D terms, staying full-time, and remaining in good academic standing. The scholarship is reduced 5% (not eliminated) if you pass only 21 credits — a gentler structure than a hard GPA cutoff.
WPI awards the Presidential Scholarship holistically based on academic performance, recommendations, and leadership; the amounts vary by applicant. The only published floor is for IB diploma graduates scoring 40 or higher, who are guaranteed at least $25,000.
WPI does not publish how outside scholarships interact with institutional merit aid. Because robotics and BizTech awards can reach $25,000 and stack with the Presidential Scholarship, an outside award could displace institutional dollars. Confirm the treatment with the financial aid office first.
See award cutoffs and special programs+
WPI Presidential Scholarship — the automatic top academic award
The Presidential Scholarship is WPI's flagship merit-based award, given automatically to first-year applicants based on high-school academic performance, recommendations, and leadership. The amounts vary by applicant rather than following a published stat grid, and the award is renewable for four years. WPI guarantees a floor for one specific group: IB diploma graduates with a diploma score of 40 or greater are guaranteed a Presidential Scholarship worth a minimum of $25,000. Against 2025-26 tuition of $61,790, a $25,000 Presidential award covers roughly 40% of tuition. The key thing families should understand about WPI merit is the renewal mechanic: rather than demanding a high GPA, WPI ties full renewal to passing at least 24 credits across the A-through-D terms and staying full-time and in good academic standing — and it phases the scholarship down (a 5% cut) if a student passes only 21 credits, rather than cutting it off entirely at a GPA cliff.
Engineering, robotics, computing, and business-technology students who want substantial automatic academic merit at a project-based STEM school, plus IB diploma holders (score 40+) who are guaranteed a minimum Presidential Scholarship.
Cost of attendance$84,546 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
On-campus$84,546
$63K
$19K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Personal
Transportation listed as not applicable for on-campus. Health insurance ($2,681) is waivable and excluded. Loan origination fees noted as variable, not itemized in the published total.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at WPI, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at WPI, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$24,018
$30,001–$48,000
$24,452
$48,001–$75,000
$32,350
$75,001–$110,000
$37,753
$110,001+
$49,716
All income levels (average)
$43,071
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$60,965
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$43,071
That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $78,679 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
90%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
94%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$27,000 (~$286/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$103,470
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
14%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
58%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Outside scholarships reduce loans and/or work-study first; institutional grants are only reduced if required to prevent an over-award.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): If a student's financial aid award must be adjusted due to the receipt of outside scholarships, then the financial aid award will change in the following order: Replace any unmet need (i.e. no component of current financial aid award will be reduced). Student employment (Federal Work Study and/or Community Service Work Study) will be reduced or eliminated. WPI Institute loans will be reduced or eliminated. Federal Direct Subsidized loan will be reduced or completely converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized loan. WPI (need based) Scholarship/Grant. WPI merit-based funding.
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From WPI’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
41%of admitsget merit
Average award$22,761Covers ~27% of $84,546 cost of attendance
At WPI, roughly 1 in 2 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $22,761 — about 27% of total cost.
As filed in WPI's CDS Section H2A: of 1,357 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 558 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $22,761. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 2,347 of 5,245, averaging $22,149. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
Receive institutional merit41%First-year students, Common Data Set 2023-2024
Average merit award$22,761Across recipients, Common Data Set 2023-2024
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
Amount$60,000 total ($15,000 per year for up to four years)EligibilityCompetitive award for students from National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS) member schools; selection is rolling from January through April.
AmountMinimum $20,000 per year (up to four years)EligibilityGuaranteed for transfer students admitted from a WPI partner institution; new for fall 2025 enrollment.
Yes for the core awards. First-year applicants are automatically considered for a merit-based Presidential Scholarship based on academic performance, recommendations, and leadership, and Robotics and BizTech specialty awards are considered automatically for students in those majors. Amounts vary by applicant.
How do I keep my WPI scholarship each year?
WPI ties renewal to credit completion, not a high GPA. You must pass at least 24 credits across the A-through-D terms, stay full-time (at least 12 credits per semester), and remain in good academic standing. If you pass only 21 credits, your merit funding is reduced by 5% rather than cut off.
Is there a guaranteed amount for IB students?
Yes. IB diploma graduates with a diploma score of 40 or greater who are admitted to WPI are guaranteed an academic merit-based Presidential Scholarship worth a minimum of $25,000.
Will an outside scholarship reduce my WPI merit award?
WPI does not publish an outside-scholarship displacement formula on its policy pages, so the answer is not public. Given that WPI awards can stack to large totals, contact the financial aid office (finaid@wpi.edu) to confirm how an outside award affects your package before relying on it.
What does WPI cost?
For 2025-26, WPI lists tuition at $61,790 and a total budgeted cost of attendance of $84,546 for a first-year undergraduate living on campus, which includes fees, housing, food, books, and personal expenses.
See sources and other schools+
How WPI compares
145 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
WPI is in a recognizable cluster (145 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
WPI is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against WPI’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
