<p>Come to it!</p>
<p>We will be there! Looking forward to it. My D is so excited</p>
<p>Joshua, what do you suggest should definitely not be missed?</p>
<p>For a review of the March 26th admitted student’s day, review this thread. Starts off with a different topic, and ends up with summaries of the day…</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/1307240-request-help-current-rpi-parent.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/1307240-request-help-current-rpi-parent.html</a></p>
<p>I have absolutely no idea what is going on during the day, all I know is that I’ll be there from 1 - 3pm helping out accepted students. I think Dr. Jackson gives a talk in the morning, then for the afternoon you can go around to places on campus that have something special for your major.</p>
<p>Anything good? Anything bad?</p>
<p>We just got back. We had a very good day. Sunny skies and very warm. Approx. 3000 people there they said - record applicants this year. Very organized in terms of parking and getting us to where opening speeches were to take place. Moving of 3000 people was done very smoothly but it did take some time as expected.</p>
<p>Students and staff EVERYWHERE welcoming everyone. Lots of helpers all around. If you had any questions about anything there were at least several people you could ask without having to wait.</p>
<p>We followed Science group to EMPAC for talk by Dean of Sci. She is new at RPI and works with NASA on the “curiosity” which is going to touch down on Mars in August. I really enjoyed her talk - my 10 yr old said she loved it because she didn’t know all that about Mars. Speech included how she has had experience working at other institutions where interdisciplinary research is promoted but that RPI does it in a very unique way that is more effective. She highlighted the new ventures of staff and they are all cutting edge. Reading about other schools of course they too have excellent research going on but for me the topics at RPI were more directly related to improving lives of everyday people in BIG ways…for ex. the MRSA killing substance put on carbon nanotubes to be put into paint in hospitals. I felt like their approach to teaching students is very unique and successful - just my impression.</p>
<p>Went on research lab tour - very lab labs and researchers from different disciplines in the same long room - definitely an environment that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration. Very new building, nice & clean too.</p>
<p>campus tour - very nice day for a tour to see all the buildings. Very nice pathways between buildings. We love the campus. Tours inside the specific buildings like chemistry etc - hoped to see that but did not. Not sure if that was available or we just missed it.</p>
<p>Talked to Bio prof - she said if you can opt out of 1st semester Bio you should - it is a very general class. Dr. Jackson has required all students (even engineering majors) to have to take a semester of Bio. Some engs like aero I don’t think can because of their high # of requirements but almost everyone on campus has to take this Bio. Not too tough of a class but if you have AP credit you might not learn anything new. Prof was very approachable and down to earth - no intimidation etc.</p>
<p>Very nice free lunch! Who doesn’t like free food.</p>
<p>We just didn’t have enough time to get to everything. We went to Greek table, community service table, VESUDA (sp?) learning community which sounded interesting.</p>
<p>We did not get to the school club tables - darn it but residencies were next. I only saw room in Cary but D saw Quad dorms as well and actually liked them better even though they are smaller. This week students have no tests (GM week) so they were all winding down and lots of music playing everywhere. Cary was very loud in the hallways. Apparently there is a quiet time from 11pm to 7am and during final weeks it’s 24/7 quiet time. Very basic residences but seemed clean.</p>
<p>My son’s (HS soph) impression was that it was a nice open, clean campus but small dorm rooms. He can see himself there and he prefers that it is not right in a city. He didn’t like U Michigan in the city for example.</p>
<p>My D likes the size of the campus and is focusing on the education she will be getting there so the dorm rooms are not a big deal for her. JR & SR have different housing. </p>
<p>One question of concern from my D - she said she didn’t see too many places where she could go to study that are cozy or comfy. The individual study rooms in the library didn’t appeal to her. Where else do students go that we may have missed?</p>
<p>We should have gone to the student panel but didn’t have time.</p>
<p>Overall - a very good feel about the school. Hope that helps some people. I took some pictures but not sure where to post them.</p>
<p>Yes, they were organized in busing people from the garage to venue. But after a 3 1/2 hour drive, we were offered freezing muffins served outside. Of course, they didn’t have to offer anything, but not for nothing, we’ve had some really nice spreads (at other admitted student days. Inside the venue, I think it was a gym, there were not enough seats for everyone. About 100 people were standing in back and sides. The President, Dr. Jackson spoke, as well as the V.P. But they were so unengaging, boring, uninspired, almost monotone in their delivery. They sounded canned and read from a script. Geez, couldn’t they have been more enthusiastic? After a 3 1/2 hour drive, in the early dawn, I don’t blame my son for falling asleep. I looked around, and many other students looked glazed over. Dr. Jackson may have an impressive C.V, but charisma and enthusiasm was definitely lacking. Definitely not a good impression.</p>
<p>The campus is nice, but the engineering buildings looked depressing, (cinderblock/cement creations). Troy, the city was definitely depressed and forlorn looking. Many hobos walking around. Drove around Troy and did not find anything stopping for, sorry…</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but they seem to have many profs, who went through undergrad, masters and doctorate programs here and stayed to teach. Is that good? Don’t you want profs from other schools/experiences? Also, noticed in school paper, that RPI has special ESL classes for the employees. Do they mean for their profs? I did see somewhere on CC, that a student says some of the profs are foreigners and students had trouble understanding them. The article in the RPI paper said the classes were for students and employees. I think they’re trying to disguise this, when the classes are actually for the profs. If students had trouble with English, they wouldn’t have gotten good SAT scores to be admitted to RPI. </p>
<p>Anyway, my impressions of RPI, is that is a good engineering school, with a good rep, that is very well equipped, but it didn’t seem very comfortable or inspiring to live there. The dorms were okay, the lounges were a couple of wooden pieces of furniture and a small table. The frat house across from the Student Union seemed like they had nothing to do but hang outside and scream for people to honk their horns, and drink each time someone did… In someways, the school looked like a state school. It reminded me of UMass or UMaryland. </p>
<p>Research projects are apparently abundant, you look online and seek the ones that interest you and approach the professor. BTW, we saw the curriculum for engineering students, and I did not see Biology listed, although Chemistry was, so I don’t know if that info on Biology is correct.</p>
<p>My son was admitted, but not totally sold on RPI. Awaiting final FA info. Appealed first award letter.</p>
<p>Jujumak- we had similar thoughts about the day, nothing against the quality of the school but their accepted students day was much less impressive than others we have been to.</p>
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<p>I doubt the professors need these classes. Some of them could have better English, but they’ve all been understandable (though not without some minor grammatical errors). From my experience, the professors students complained most about are simply ones with heavy accents, but I never had trouble understanding them. I’d imagine it might be more difficult for people who grew up in regions with few foreigners.</p>
<p>Communicating with some of the non-academic staff is a whole other issue.</p>
<p>I thought the visiting day held at RPI was fine or as good as any other visit we had with several other schools. Since my D already decided on another school, we did not expect much so my impression might be a little jaded by that. Anyway:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I thought the buses that took people from various parking spots were well organized and efficient.</p></li>
<li><p>I think I already know this but one thing that struck me again was that this is truly and almost exclusively an Engineering school. We were in that big gym with over 3000s people and when all the other majors cleared out, the gym is still pretty much filled with people. If you want some sort of balance and not engineering and technology 24/7, this is not the school for you.</p></li>
<li><p>I thought the speeches were fine, they obviously tried to highlight all the technology stuffs they are doing at the school. The lady president was a PHD in particle physics from MIT, you can’t get more nerdy than that. I know there has been some criticisms of her with the cutbacks and the recent fall in ranking so I am not sure from just one speech how she really is. One thing I notice that I am not sure everyone saw was that there is some subliminal emphasis on female applicants. Most of the slides, the student presenter, and some of the activities are geared towards female. I think there is an effort to try to get more female to enroll.</p></li>
<li><p>Then comes the engineering presentation. I like the small emphasis on trying to get Freshman to investigate other engineering discipline early and the system encourage a change in major early if ones do not find their initial major selection suitable. I don’t think most 18 year old really know what they are getting into when they pick the particular engineering major. There were highlights on special design classes, design workshop manufacturing facility that if I am not mistaken, everyone must go through which sounds great, not many engineers get to build stuff on a real manufacturing line during their undergraduate study. There were other usual internships, term abroad, research, and the 5-year master program, which I thought were standard.</p></li>
<li><p>On the buildings and facility, I thought they are fine. They are standard big concrete buildings that you see on a lot of campuses. There were no cathedral or gothic or architecturally fancy building like many other LACs or Ivies but that was fine for me. There were plenty of room and space for about 4-5k students and are in adequate condition with enough green and grass on the grounds in between.</p></li>
<li><p>The students are out in full force to talk and interact with. We didn’t do a lot interaction, but they seem nice, accommodating, pleasant and informative. The student activity booths were composed of most of the standard fare, and of course there was a Starcraft tournament club with laptops with the game running.</p></li>
<li><p>As many have suggested, the surrounding town is definitely run-down and looks very sketchy. Even on campus, occasionally you see a strange looking person who you know does not belong to the school. So basically, it does not look like there is much to do outside of the immediate area of the campus.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As an engineer, I was somewhat impressed and thought this is much better than when I was going to school long time ago. I don’t mind the big engineering domination of the campus but my D could not get herself to embrace it. So I guess RPI is out.</p>