<p>I'm currently a sophomore at RPI, and I was wondering if I could answer any questions for anyone (maybe more honestly than a tour guide or the school website). My younger sister is dealing with college applications now, and I know it would have been nice to have something like this when I applied. I'm a chemistry major and I am in a sorority and a few other clubs, and i recently joined the girls rugby team. Please let me know if you have any questions! I would be happy to answer.</p>
<p>My S is applying to RPI. </p>
<p>What other schools did you get into and what was it about RPI at the time that led you to choose it? Has your experience there matched the expectations you had when you accepted?</p>
<p>Thanks,
PP</p>
<p>I’m currently a junior at RPI, I got into WPI, U Mich AA, GA Tech and Umass Amherst. I didn’t think I’d be very happy at a big school so it came down to WPI and RPI, both pretty good schools.</p>
<p>From what I hear though, RPI definitely is a notch above WPI in terms of quality of faculty and prestige. As far as expectations go, I thought I was a pretty smart person as I was a A student in highschool, but RPI has a way of quickly letting you know that you aren’t all that and a bag of chips. I didn’t expect it to this rigorous, some weeks I have to marathon 2 days without sleep to get my stuff done.</p>
<p>Also, when you take the RPI tour, don’t let the warm summer weather fool your son, it gets really crappy, dark and cold around campus. It can be depressing sometimes. Also the city around the campus isn’t much to look at either. </p>
<p>Having said that, there are definitely ways to have fun on campus as long as you are a fairly sociable person. If your son knows he wants to be an engineer, wants good opportunities and can handle a lot of work and competition then RPI is a fine place to be, but there are personal factors/preferences that can influence the experience.</p>
<p>What do you think of the instruction? There is no doubt that RPI is rigorous, but are the professors interested in educating undergraduates, or mostly interested in their research? Do you find the students cooperative or competitive/cutthroat?</p>
<p>@PuzzledParent: </p>
<p>I was accepted to: McGill university, Penn State Honors college, Pittsburgh, Wellesley, and the University of St. Andrews
I was waitlisted at Stanford, and rejected from Harvard
I was an RPI medalist, but I’m not really sure how that affects the admission process, I pretty much lobbied my high school to give me the medal, and it ended up saving me a bunch of money.
Statistically speaking: my SATs were 2140 (710M, 710 Writing, 720 reading) I got almost all As in high school and took lots of AP classes, and i was pretty involved in high school.</p>
<p>I really liked the atmostphere at RPI, but it is definitely not for everyone, they won’t baby you with freshman seminars and other things like that, its definitely not a hand-holding kind of place, but almost all the staff are friendly and helpful. I ended up choosing it really just because of the vibe here, theres a spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity through science and engineering that runs through almost everyone here. I also liked the location and size (it’s just far enough from my home outside philadelphia, and its not huge where you would get lost, but its not so small that you will know everyone by the end of freshman year). For the most part RPI has met or exceeded my expectations. I made great friends and I work very hard at school (it is very hard work, don’t be fooled by your first semester) but I also have a lot of fun. A couple things I was disappointed in were the local area and sometimes the administration. Troy is not such a great town, though it is making a bit of a comeback. definitely don’t walk by yourself at night though. As far as the administration, Shirley Ann Jackson, the president, does a lot to bring money to the institute, but sometimes at the expense of the students and faculty, recently RPI got rid of the language program for example, and i have heard multiple faculty personally complain about her. i think the faculty resent her for the extensive layoffs a few years ago, as well as I’m sure other things that I wouldn’t know about.
One thing I thought I would be frustrated about but wasnt was the lack of focus on humanities, I’ve always loved history and reading, but it has taken a back burner here, but it turns out that i really don’t mind at all, and i have really become very involved in my subject and am happy that way, though this might not be true for everyone.
I hope this answers your question!</p>
<p>@dmt117</p>
<p>RPI is definitely rigorous, though some majors and classes are more rigorous than others. As far as the professors, it really depends. In my experience, all the professors are accessible at office hours, and the TAs can either be really awesome or sometimes difficult (if they don’t speak english well). However, I have had a problem with certain professors answering emails in a timely fashion, but thats only 1 or 2 so far. Some of the professors just really aren’t very good at teaching, and im pretty sure thats bound to happen anywhere, in those cases its usually a case of where the professor is so intelligent and so competent at his area of expertise, he or she just don’t understand when students don’t get it. It’s actually mind boggling how smart some of these people are. In other cases, they may be more focused on their research, but I’ve never heard of a student not being able to learn the material because of it. We’re resourceful people, and when that does happen, you go to your fellow students, tutors, TAs, friends, and RPIstudygroup.com to get help. And also, there are some absolutely amazing teachers here that have really changed my life. The student atmosphere is amazing here, it’s one of the things I love most about RPI, it’s an extremely collaborative environment, unlike other schools. You see people working together all the time, in some cases, it’s impossible to make it through a class by yourself, it’s too hard. In my case, my sorority has five other chem majors in various years that I can turn to for help and old tests and homework. As far as classes, some are awesome, some are difficult and designed to weed out the people who aren’t willing to put in the work, and some are just terribly boring but necessary. You’re bound to get each type at different types no matter where you go. As much as most schools advertise their small classes, it really depends on your major. Your general classes are going to be big, but i like my big classes better because i get to be more independent, and also there’s a better chance that you’ll have a lot more resources and other people to work with. As you get to more advanced levels, you will typically have classes only with other people in your major and year. In my case, that is only 19 people, as there arent a ton of chemistry majors here, but if you’re a mechanical engineer, you’ll likely only see small classes in certain electives and more lab-based classes. But again, i don’t really see what all the hype is with small classes, in my experience, it only made a difference in maybe one class, and that was a management class. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>to add to ptpatil, it definitely does get cold, not quite as much snow as you would think though, but it does get extremely windy. It’s important to know though, that without a car, you’re pretty much stuck on campus where there is some stuff to do on the weekends but not a ton, as a result, people party a lot, and from my visits to other schools, i’ve noticed we party harder too. Probably because there is not much else to do. Something that surprised me when I got here was the strength of the Greek system that was hardly brought up when i toured the campus. I ended up pledging and it was probably the best decision i made, going to college, but it is certainly not for everyone even though a lot of people who pledge here never intended to go greek when they decided to go to rpi. The way someone described it to me was that there is a lot to do if you like to stay in or go home on the weekends, or if you like to party at apartments and fraternities, but not much for anything in between like going to movies or concerts, though they do show movies on the weekends in the main lecture hall. Also, athletics are pretty big, especially hockey, so you can always go to the hockey games for a good time. This is just what i’ve noticed (and I am pretty active on campus here), I’m sure other people see a completely different aspect of campus life than me though.</p>
<p>Make sure your son has a lot of winter clothes. Also, being part of the RSA (resident student association, people you follow around on campus) I know there are some things that the tour guides don’t go over or stress, so if you do go on a tour ask some of the students what they think rather than just the people leading you around.</p>
<p>Also definitely have your son ask about Greek life. I didn’t rush/pledge my freshman year and now that I’m doing it as a sophomore I realize what I missed (as well as having much more work to do while pledging)… it’s definitely worth it.</p>
<p>If anyone has questions I’m also up for answering stuff. Most questions have already been answered throughout the years though, it’s probably better to do a search before asking.</p>
<p>@Turnitup I have absolutely no clue who you are, who are you?</p>
<p>I applied ED to RPI and admissions decisions are coming out on the 10th! I’m excited and nervous all at the same time. If I end up being a mechanical engineering major there, will I be forced to take lots of liberal arts classes such as english, foreign language, history, etc.?</p>
<p>-CPN</p>
<p>@undergrad1992 the way humanities works is that you have to take 24 credits of humanities (usually 6 courses) but you can transfer in a max of 8 credits (2 courses) so if you’ve taken AP english or history this an be a big help. Of the six classes, you have to take a minimum of 2 in humanities (history, literature, art, philosophy) and a minimum of two in social science (psychology, econ, etc) so whichever side you dislike the least you can take 4 of those classes, and only 2 of the kind you don’t like, Or less if you transfer in some credit. A lot of people take 4 psych classes, then two humanities classes because psych classes tend to be pretty easy and then you can get a minor in psych without even trying. But the point is, you can take one humanities or social science class each semester for your first two years then be done with it (if you can transfer credit). The course curriculum for each major takes these humanities requirements into account. for example: [Program:</a> Mechanical Engineering - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - acalog ACMS?](<a href=“Program: Mechanical Engineering - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Acalog ACMS™”>Program: Mechanical Engineering - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Acalog ACMS™). Unless you make it hard for yourself, these classes usually help to lighten your class load because they tend to be pretty easy and a nice GPA boost</p>
<p>@joshuaguit</p>
<p>Thats the fun of it :-)</p>
<p>anyone know what time of day admissions decisions come out?</p>
<p>Well, two years ago it looks like it was about 6:00 PM or 6:30 PM:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/609982-accepted-students.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/609982-accepted-students.html</a></p>
<p>hey thanks for the help everyone, I got accepted Early Decision!!!</p>
<p>Is it easier for an admitted transfer double major at RPI?</p>