<p>hey guys, I'm a junior in high school planing on looking at colleges over the summer. I know I want to study engineering, either mechE or maybe some electrical (not really electronics-based though), or maybe even both, and I also know that both RPI and CMU are awesome engineering schools, but I'm not sure which one I like more. Any opinions? I do know that RPI will probably give me more money than CMU, but I don't want to base my decision on that alone. I'm interested in entrepreneurial stuff too, and kind of hope to get involved in a startup while I'm an undergrad, and then maybe switch over to get an MBA later. Thanks!</p>
<p>Both schools are great for engineering, but you really have to visit them in order to get a "feel" for the school and see how comfortable you feel there. I actually visited both when I was looking for schools, but ended up at rpi because of how comfortable I felt when I visited. It was a really tough decision for me -- CMU, RPI, or UMich...but I specifically wanted aerospace engineering (which CMU didnt have), and Umich just felt like too big of a school and I thought RPI had the most comfortable size and attitude....so, definitely visit every college u are considering and it will probably help with your decision.
good luck..</p>
<p>RPI has the best enviroment. It's a tech school so everybody studies, and you won't be distracted. Both are excellent for engineering. RPI is smaller. But, if you're from a warm climate, then you might wanna reconsider. I hear CMU is in a ghetto, but so i RPI. RPI does have lots of nature (mountains, woods, falls) in the locality (it's upstate NY). So after considering, RPI has a far better study environment. But the location, well that depends on your taste.</p>
<p>LVQ, both are well regarded, but CMU is higher ranked and an overall better school with many programs ranked in the top ten nationally. For the record, CMU isn't in anything close to a ghetto; the area of Pittsburgh (Oakland) that houses CMU (and U of Pitt) is quite nice, with museums, coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, and nearby upscale shopping.</p>
<p>LVQ, both CMU and RPI are great engineering schools. My wife is an RPI grad and my son just finished up his first year so I know a bit about the college. If you are interested in power engineering vs microelectronics, RPI has a specific major in that called Electric Power Engineering.</p>
<p>As far as your entreprenural interests, RPI may be second to none in this regard. They have on-campus and off-campus incubator centers which can aid students, faculty and alumni in getting start up compainies off the ground. see <a href="http://www.rpi.edu/dept/incubator/homepage/%5B/url%5D">http://www.rpi.edu/dept/incubator/homepage/</a></p>
<p>In addition the School of Engineering has the Inventors Design Studio(<a href="http://www.eng.rpi.edu/soe/feature_inventors_studio.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.eng.rpi.edu/soe/feature_inventors_studio.cfm</a>) and the OT Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory(<a href="http://www.eng.rpi.edu:8080/mdl/%5B/url%5D">http://www.eng.rpi.edu:8080/mdl/</a>) for their undergrads.</p>
<p>While I do not know what CMU offers in this regard, I know that RPI is highly regarded for the entrepenural opportunities offered to its students.</p>