<p>While these schools are so completely different that they're very difficult to compare, if you're focusing on quality of engineering as a factor, RPI completely blows UT out of the water. RPI is the oldest engineering school in the country and like someone mentioned above, the avg SAT of RPI is much higher than UT. In looking at the respect of the degree and what people go on to do, check out this study on pp. 80-85 of what undergrads PhD students come from and you will see RPI undergrads consistently ranking in the Top 15 in a variety of engineering & science disciplines (Top 3 in chem & engineering, only behind MIT and Cornell), while UT (which is much larger) is not on the Top 25 in ANY discipline. Since these people will be the ones hiring candidates in many cases, they will certainly be aware of the difference accorded to an RPI degree over a UT degree (at least in engineering & other sciences).</p>