As the title asks, is it possible to visit a class when doing a campus visit?
Yes! Contact RPI admissions at (518) 276-6216 and say you want to sit in on a class. I would also give a specific course you’d be interested in. What major(s) are they interested in? I can probably help suggest a class.
Thanks for the response @joedoe – my son is interested in Computer Science and we would likely be visiting on a Friday. He’d love to sit in on a first or second year CS class (he took AP CS in junior year) if you can suggest something good that meets on Fridays.
To make the class visit most effective I suggest the following
Attend together but sit separately
Find out the goals of the specific class-session beforehand. If the purpose of the class-session is to enable project work, that would be different from presentation of subject matter.
Send the faculty member questions/comments independently.
Review the responses and then discuss them together.
@StudentsR1st I like your advice, but I wouldn’t want to bother the faculty member with many questions when they were gracious enough to let us sit in on a class, at least not until a final decision might be riding on it.
Fwiw we did sit in on a CS1200 class (Data Structures) during what was apparently the second or so lesson on linked lists. It was about what one would expect – nothing exceptional in either direction.
If you want to see the assignments/notes for this semester:
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/academics/courses/fall18/csci1200/calendar.php
The linked list assignment (#5) due tonight looks to be quite difficult considering this is just the second CS course for
many students. Kiddo called me tonight to tell me how they solved it.
Remember, you need to learn c++ on the fly for the course.
My kids went to class on most of their college visits, but I never attended with them. It seemed better for them to see what they thought, chat with other students, etc. A parent can change the dynamic of that interaction, and this is one area I really wanted my kids to judge for themselves., I always went and found the campus coffee shop or checked out the campus bookstore. One kid had specific study abroad interests, so it was more efficient for me to swing by that office and see if they had programs in her country of interest. Once our visit was short and kid didn’t have time to check out the cafeteria, so I did and had amazing coconut cake. 
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Fwiw we did sit in on a CS1200 class (Data Structures) during what was apparently the second or so lesson on l inked lists. It was about what one would expect -- nothing exceptional in either direction.
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Assuming you went this semester for a visit, I cant believe you didn’t like the prof. I never got to sit thru her class, but whenever I’ve heard her at open houses, she was great. I know a kid who got an internship just because he answered some c++ interview questions on a topic covered in her class and he had just done that homework.
One reason I would suggest that kids attend class without a parent is that it is easier to observe how the kids interact with each other and almost always with the visitor. DS was almost always approached by students in class who provided some context. (Sometimes, it was “it’s not usually this boring but we all had trouble with xyz on the most recent problem set”.) At one school, the fact that everyone filed in and out without speaking to each other and were quiet in class in spite of an engaging prof dropped it from ED contender to low on the RD list.
The comments regarding my suggestion show that there is no one-size-fits all answer. Hindsight is 20-20.
I suggest that the decision for the parent to attend class (away from the student as close to an observer as possible) be decided by dialog between the two.
I suggested contacting the prof so that people would better get answers to the questions they want to ask. Consider a the class-session where a test has been returned. Some profs have a lecture prepared, some set up student teams to review the test identifying where the class is doing well, where improvement is needed, and insights for the faculty member. If one wanted to see a class focused on subject matter presentation they would be unnecessarily disappointed.
As all the responses indicate just showing up is not likely to work.
We didn’t dislike the prof, but it’s pretty dry material, and there was nothing especially engaging about the lecture. As I said, about what one would expect for a lecture on linked lists.
If you found the subject matter dry and expected, I suggest contacting the Prof and ask why. If the subject matter was dry when the course was taught 20+ years ago, why is it still dry? When you mention lecture how many students? Why this number? Why weren’t students engaged on their laptops (required for 10+ years)?
The lecture was huge (hundreds) – I’m sure that’s not the prof’s call. The students were on their laptops, but the vast majority were doing other things either on their laptops or phones. They were engaged by “clicker” questions at reasonable intervals. This is consistent with what we’ve seen at many other colleges. I don’t mean to disparage this prof at all. I’m not sure how much more exciting one could make a lecture that size on linked lists in C++.
There is only so much you can get out of one lecture and one professor.
Like all colleges, each student will have a different opinion on each professor, one that should not be formed based on one lecture. That said, the who college selection process is made based on sound bites of data.
My S is a CS major, and as a dad who studied same and works in the field, I can say RPI is an excellent choice for CS.
The course discussed here does give a fair amount of work and in that sense seems to be a bit of a week out course.
Concepts are simple enough, amount of work from week to week was a fair amount.
CS Profs at any school will vary greatly in teach/communication ability. Part of this is due to the fact that those without a PhD can make a nice living, not a large number of PhDs are generated here in the US. Also at most colleges research is what gets people hired/promoted, not teaching. This is less true at RPI, but it does affect the pool of experienced professors out there for this or other colleges to hire. What makes RPI CS special is the highly organized curriculum for each course, and the fantastic students with whom you may study and learn from each other. For a small-mid size school, where they have less grad students, the quality of the undergraduate students has a huge impact on your experience.
Finally these kids are highly recruited. My son and his CS friends have gotten interviews for internships from all the top firms, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, and much more. Still very competitive to get an offer, but you have to get the interviews first, and RPI at least helps you to get that foot in the door.
Best of luck with your decision.
They moved onto recursion this week. Lest you think the work gets any easier:
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/academics/courses/fall18/csci1200/hw/06_inverse_slitherlink/hw.pdf
They had already done some recursion when we were there – they did one of the examples in class using recursion.
What we’re looking at when we visit a class is primarily:
a) what is the level of instruction (how much intelligence and recall of prior classes is assumed)
b) how do the students act in class, are they engaged, do they ask good questions, etc. (my middle son ruled out a different school when we visited a class with about 25 students and they acted like they didn’t know one another when arriving, for instance)
We’re not really judging the teaching quality of a single professor, as that is obviously going to vary between different courses.
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(my middle son ruled out a different school when we visited a class with about 25 students and they acted like they >> didn't know one another when arriving, for instance
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Hahaha… everyone has their eyes glued to their smartphone. It is really weird walking into a lecture hall and it being relatively quiet compared to the old days when prof had to ask us multiple times to quiet down. Even adults do it all the time now. In the elevator at work, at least half the people at any time are looking at social media. I am guilty of it in the morning when I am reading emails before I get to my desk.
As for the DS class. My son said they covered basic recursion when you visited. It was the basic stuff, like the Fibonacci problem. This current problem with backtracking is really tough. He has about 10 hours in so far and is pretty much done. He is an outstanding programmer though and already knew a bunch of languages before starting at RPI. Someone not at his level will be closer to 20-25 hours or worse.
I hope your kids find a school that works. I know my S loves the academic challenge at RPI. All the other stuff going on at the school with the administration is of interest to him tangentially. Older sibling who is a math/stats nerd needed a bigger school to find a good friend group outside of roommates. It took a few years, but it finally happened with people from on-campus job and clubs. I’m not sure RPI would have worked for that.
Just in case someone in the future reads this. Got a text that he is still working on the problem so that 10 hour estimate to completion is not happening. I’m betting closer to 20 hours total by the deadline.
@NoKillli , my son graduated from RPI in 2017. Information Technology and Web Science major. DS and Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) were killers sophomore year! I did receive a few phone calls questioning whether he made the right choice to attend RPI. He made it through both classes (he’s a very good programmer), graduated and found a job right away. I wish the best for your son!
@123France I hope you do not mind sharing …what was your son’s concentration? What was his experience in getting internship?