<p>So I got into these two great schools. I have received awesome financial aid, less than $5000 a year in loans. So now I have to deicide. I want to major in Computer Science and do tons of research. Also studying abroad is important along with just culture. Im from Cali and have been to Berkeley countless times. I visited RPI once and loved the campus and the people were very accepting. So now Im stuck.. </p>
<p>Do you mean Cal also give you almost a full ride with only 5K out of pocket? What are u waiting for?</p>
<p>It would 5K in loans from both of the schools. but Cal is so close. I literally live 15 minutes away.</p>
<p>Cal has an awesome computer science program and is more prestigious, I’ve never heard of RPI before in my life. If being farther from home is super important to you, I get that. In this case though, I would say it’s worth it to go to Cal, and if you’re willing to pay to live on campus you would still get that independence factor.</p>
<p>RPI is the first American school to awards degrees in engineering. It’s an outstanding program. It’s not for everyone though. It gets bitterly cold there in the winter and I can see how someone from Cali may have difficulty adjusting. </p>
<p>RPI is Rensselaer Polytech Institute, and on the east coast it’s a school with a good reputation for STEM. It lies somewhere between URochester and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in my grading scale. Therefore, I would suggest that Cal is a much better school than RPI in terms of reputation, your peers, and gender balance. RPI probably wins in nerdiness, snowy weather, and ease of getting u/g research opps (these being generally positive traits in my opinion). I’d go to Cal in a heartbeat over any of these New York state schools unless I have had trouble in huge classes. You can live 15 minutes from home and never go there. If you’re afraid of your parents coming there, draw up a contract that limits their invasions some way. You can use the money you save at Berkeley to go abroad for a semester (check with Berkeley CS admins about whether this is advisable before doing it). </p>
<p>RPI and Cal are peers academically. Cal is a research powerhouse and RPI is more undergraduate focused. The caliber of students they attract is pretty comparable.</p>
<p>^^ Berkeley engineering students > RPI students. </p>
<p>^^ The 25th - 75th percentile SAT for RPI is 1290 - 1490. So for just the engineers your probably looking at >1300-1500/1600. Even if Cal is higher it won’t be by much. They are peers.</p>
<p>^^ Some folks have. RPI got 18,569 apps this year. That’s more than MIT got this year…</p>
<p>^^^
<a href=“Gearing up for the Class of 2018: Freshman Applications Surge Past 18,500 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | News & Events”>http://news.rpi.edu/content/2014/03/27/freshman-applications-surge-past-18-500-rensselaer-polytechnic-institute</a></p>
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<p>Uh, no.</p>
<p>Top decile of HS class:</p>
<p>RPI = ~66% (barely half had a 3.7+)</p>
<p>Cal = ~90% (which includes recruited athletes)</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>This year is 72%. And the GPA went up to 3.83. With the big increase in apps i posted, they will jump again. Uh, yes.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of RPI when I was applying to college, and I heard that it is a very good school. But to say it is a peer of Berkeley is a mistake. Berkeley is superior to RPI,a nd Berkeley engineering students are smarter than RPI students, on average. </p>
<p>I encourage you to think about it from this perspective… what is the likelihood that you will choose to take up residence post-college on the west coast or east coast? If it is more likely you will want to gain employment somewhere in California, choose CAL… the last problem you want when having an HR screener reviewing your resume is to have them ask the same question 9 out of 10 people on this thread asked… “Who is RPI?”</p>
<p>Would you be living on campus at Cal? That would really change things for you as far as living at home vs. being at college. If your financial aid package does not include dorming, would your family be able to afford the cost of room&board?</p>
<p>Rico, RPI is a very good school, but Cal Engineering is no more peers with RPI than RPI is with MIT.
Part of it is a coast problem since both schools are more well-known in their respective regions. Since few people live on both coast, that makes it easy for them to generalize x school is better than z since I’ve heard of x. (According to this principle, Iowa State is better than Williams to someone in Iowa, etc… Not reliable at all. People who matter will have heard of each school in their respective region.)</p>
<p>OP:
RPI is very strong and will provide more personal attention and more opportunities for research. However you’re more likely to find a job in the Northeast with it.
On the other hand, the UCB “brand” will help you throughout the country, but most of all along the West Coast, where it’s thought of as roughly in the same class as Stanford (a bit less), HarveyMudd or CalTech. RPI clearly isn’t in that group but closer to Cal Poly SLO.</p>
<p>rico obviously goes to rpi and the others obviously go to cal. they’re biased of course. but in truth, the students going to both schools are generally similar in terms of academics. to compare cal students to stanford is also silly. it is no different from cpmparing rpi to mit. culture of course is different. cal is a lot more known than rpi. rpi is not well known.</p>
<p>I live on the east coast (about 1.5 hours from RPI), but was born in California, so I’ve spent a lot of time hearing about the amazingness of both schools. I definitely agree that Cal is the superior school when it comes to engineering. But I also do agree that each school varies in prestigiousness depending on the coast. I told someone that I was applying that I was applying to Berkeley, and their response was “You mean the Berklee College of Music?” (in Boston) smh. I’m not surprised that people on the west coast have never heard of RPI. </p>
<p>I’ve worked with several RPI CS grads and many Cal CS grads. They’re indistinguishable.</p>
<p>Regardless of which is “better”, I think the point here is that they are both comparable and your decision should be based on more than the academics. They are very different from eachother. If you like RPI’s environment and you want to work in the northeast, go there and feel confident in the choice. Otherwise there probably is a slight edge to Cal for recognition nationally. If all other factors even out, Cal. However, know that RPI should carry weight over the country in the CS community, though stronger in the northeast.</p>