DS was accepted to WPI. Looking for feedback on school life, internships and co-ops and dorms/Freshman dorm selection process, etc. Anything you can share is greatly appreciated.
@FlightGirl103 - Our youngest D is a freshmen biotech major. She is in a triple room in a dorm connected to the main dining hall - great roommate match via social media outreach on her part before the formal housing process. She will be in a double room in sorority house next year - one block from her current dorm. She is involved in intramurals, Colleges Against Cancer, and Greek life (her sorority hosted a charity gala for womenās heart health last weekend). Lots of ECās for students. Curriculum is challenging - combo of STEM and humanities classes so far. Sheās very busy, but absolutely loves it. Sheās independently pursuing summer internships and REUās in her field. She hopes to get into one of the labs on campus down the road - lots of opportunities.
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Iām an alumni (BS & MS EE) from the 80s. Back then there werenāt many girls. I toured with my son, who is a credit junior EE major (class of 2022 but heās going to move it to 2021 but stay on to get his MSEE). I was amazed at the difference in surroundings and support and just how many women there are.
There is an intensive welcome orientation for Freshman. Dorm selection was in the summer if I recall correctly and you ranked by preference. He chose Morgan, which back in my day used to be male now has co-ed floors. I was so happy to see how many women were on the floor.
My son found an apartment right off campus after Freshman year which heās really happy with, he doesnāt have a car so he needed to be close which he is.
My daughter also got in this past December (with a much better merit package so if she wanted to go it would work). Sheās not sure yet because we live in CA and sheās waiting on UCs before she makes her final decision.
Meanwhile? Back in the day we had the project based system and now it really has grown in to what they envisioned all those years ago. There are so many interesting IQP opportunities and a project center to help you figure it out. My son just texted me that heās locked down an MQP that heās really happy with, working with a team he really likes. One of the projects has changed, the humanities project used to be called a Sufficiency so my son just talks to me using that because he got sick of me say āoh, you mean the sufficiency?ā Sigh. Okay mom.
He is thriving there. When we left him Freshman year I was telling my husband (also a WPI alumni) that I would have loved to go to this school the way it is today. The President is a woman too which also makes me so happy.
There are so many opportunities to not just learn but to personalize your education.
Congratulations to your son!
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ChillDadās daughter here!! He seemed to give a good overview of things, but if you have any more specific questions Iād be happy to answer them! I do absolutely love WPI and am very happy with my choice 
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Worked at WPI for ten years at the time of the āWPI PLAN,ā i.e. project education, implementation. This started in the late 60ās when I was still a student.
Hopes and dreams were very strong, there was electricity all over the campus. The concepts largely survived and were highly refined. The community dedication and spirit were very realā¦ it appears to not only have survived a revolution in educational approaches, but continues to be refined on an ongoing basis. Constant refining of the educational processes were specifically designed into the program.
My job was to explain this radical new program to educators , parents and students all over the east coast and South America.
Good ideas do not stand still. I could not be a prouder alumnus. I left the college for money, but never had a better job!
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BSEE '92 here and my daughter is a freshman there in BME. She is also a varsity athlete. Dorm rooms are almost all forced +1 on capacity. She is a 6 person (3+3) Founders suite that used to be 4 person when I was there. It is tight and many move off campus 2nd year.
The project based curriculum is WPIās strong point and I am probably in the minority that would express dissatisfaction with how the IQP and humanities components have evolved. When I was there the humanities āsufficiencyā was closer to a minor. Now the same degree of concentration is not required. Also, the IQP used to be more topic-focused and not ālocation-focusedā as it is now. The project was generally spread across 3 or 4 terms (quarters) working on a cross-disciplinary team on a project that the students selected based on topics. Now everyone focuses on where they want to go and many have no idea what the project when they are assigned a location. Spreading the project over 3 or 4 terms meant that for the majority of your junior year, you only had 2 intensive classes per quarter. Now the IQP is done in one term and the other terms are fully loaded.
As someone that went to WPI then spent the next 14 years at RPI for grad school and as a professor, WPI has a significantly better campus life. If you visit you can see the students and the campus is vibrant. And Worcester, while a gritty blue collar city, has a lot to offer to students.
The dorm selection process changed last year and leaves a lot to be desired. It seemed like it caused a lot of stress for the current freshman, but you do have the ability to select who you want to live with if you can identify them. Your group leader is assigned a selection day and they do a virtual race to pick rooms or suites. D had a group of 5 and her leader was only able to get a 6 person suite, so WPI assigned a 6th. That did not work out so they only have 5.
Recent classes have been over 40% women and WPI has been giving larger merit scholarships to drive that demographic shift. My older daughter is a 2nd year at another school and the merit scholarship she was offered with her EA acceptance in December 2017 was about 10% higher than what other women with similar stats seemed to be getting a year laterā¦so they might be moving things more into balance for the men.
Students generally secure internships and coops either through department contacts or by going to one of the two career fairs that are held each year. I would expect to see a lot of contraction there for the next few years as tech companies regroup post-coronavirus.
First year - first semester in particular - is the toughest. Students are adjusting to college, the crazy pace of the quarter system, large classes with underwhelming access to professors, and lots of required math/science classes that inevitably donāt excite the students as much as the in-major courses that start to him sophomore year. A/B students in HS should not be surprised to see there first Cās and maybe even an āNRā - which means that WPI does not record classes that you fail (i.e. score below a C).
Having said all of this - D loves it. People complain about the food - my daughter actually has not complained. She has a good friend group in her team (and the menās). The freshman are part of the upperclassmen social groups but she also has a very friendly floor.
Good luck!
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Thanks so much for your input. DS has not committed yet, and unfortunately will not be able to visit prior to committing.
I am concerned from the lack of communications for admitted students compared to other universities, and wondering if there is any reason behind it (other colleges are doing online student sessions, specific sessions by major, delaying decision date to June, etc. - the parent chat/virtual tour that WPI offers, is really not enough)
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Have you gone through information @ https://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/visit ?
What is your anticipated major (aerospace)?
You may e-mail questions the departments of interest. For aerospace see https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/aerospace-engineering.
Write/call them directly and ask directed questions.
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FYI RE admissions, ETC, see https://www.wpi.edu/news/coronavirus/faqs#undergraduate-admissions
This is my first post, and Iām using an old thread, because I think this info could help people and I didnāt know where else to put it.
People talk a lot about the 7-week terms and how that makes things really fast-paced, but here is what we didnāt understand about 7-week terms, even though a cousin and a best friend were already at WPI:
- The problem of timely grading
Timely grading is a problem anywhere, but a 7-week term hugely exacerbates the consequences of delayed returns.
Calculus solution: No solution - they handed graded stuff back long after it mattered, if at all. By the end of the 7-week terms (both A and B), my son had only half of his calculus work returned; he had no relevant work returned before heading into any of the tests. Not getting timely graded feedback also means you canāt adjust how you are approaching the class if you arenāt doing well, because you donāt know youāre not doing well until it is too late to do anything about it. (There was a similar problem in a social sciences class - by the end of the term, he did not have a single graded assignment returned, so he had never had the opportunity to make adjustments in how he responded to the assignments to better match teacher expectations.)
Physics solution: Autograding - everything is on computer, answers are entered into text boxes (NOT multiple choice). You find out immediately (problem by problem) if you got the right answer or the wrong one, BUT there is no way to tell (1) if you had the right answer but you just didnāt match the expected form, or (2) if you had exactly the right idea but made a small mistake somewhere, or (3) if you have a major misconception. So it is infuriating and useless for learning. Also, no partial credit in the traditional sense; it doesnāt matter if you lost track of a factor of 2 along the way or you had the problem completely wrong from start to finish - itās the same outcome. Partial credit does exist in the sense that you can do multiple submissions for decreasing credit for a right answer, but my son often found he used that only when he realized his answer was probably marked wrong because of formatting.
- No opportunity to settle into a routine
Itās always hard starting a new term (high school or college) - you have no idea how difficult you will find the assignments, how you will need to pursue the material for the best outcome, what the best way is to get additional help, how to balance the different classes. It takes a few weeks to get it all sorted out. But with 7-week terms, just when youāve got it all sorted out, the term is over and you are starting 3 new classes. It was actually this piece that made us realize that WPI would probably be a bad fit for our other son, who always has a rough month at the beginning of each school year, but then things settle out and the rest of the year is fine.
Hope this is helpful.
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@HomeschoolMomMA Thatās unfortunate about the calculus. My daughter took calc 1-4 last year and didnāt have any issues with timely grading, even during D-term when everything did a fast pivot to online. So maybe this is isolated to the particular professor. My daughter had some very good TAās as well. In my experience with WPI (I went there), the 7 week term requires you to face facts brutally - you either get the material or you donāt. If you donāt, you need to get extra help fast because thereās probably a quiz or test within a week and then on to the next topic. Freshman usually are hesitant to seek help.
Regarding the physics, my other daughter is at a top-25 university and they do use a similar approach. I think it works well on homework because if the student gets immediate feedback then they are forced to review the entire problem to find the errors. In one instance where she found the problem was wrong when she thought it was right, there was a mistake in the programmed solution. The problems always made it clear what format or number of significant figures were required. The strategy needs to be to assume that the answer is wrong and go back to find the mistake. One of my daughters initially assumed her answer was correct and that it must be formatting entry. All that did was result in burning through all but one of her remaining attempts. I think it is problematic on the tests for the partial credit reason that you describe, as well as the time constraints that often leave students short of time. I found that over time at WPI my quizmanship skills increased and test scores increased as well.
This is an unusual year and nobody is having an ideal situation. MY daughter is sophomore and her grades are higher than they were last year, even with the harder classes and complications of being online. Adjustment first semester at WPI is definitely harder than many other schools, but my hope (and belief) is that your son will find his groove this semester.
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I went there in 1982 and I hated a lot of it. It was so sexist and 7 week terms are hard. My kids are there now. My husband went there too (we didnāt date or marry until years later) and he was so opposed to my son who is graduating in May going there. We live in California and my husband was pulling for Berkeley. After the tour though my son loved WPI and so did I. I told my husband THIS is the school I wish we went to. Meanwhile my son didnāt get in to Berkeley which made him so happy because he didnāt want to go there. I had to listen to the āthis isnāt what I want to do Mom on the tourā. WPI ended up being the right place for him. My daughter didnāt get in to UCLA and that was our agreement. If you donāt get UCLA then WPI will give you more options. You can change your major every day without blinking. And it has become a super welcoming place for women.
This year has been horribly isolating in general. She entered taking Calculus 4 and did well on the midterm not so well on the final and ended up with a B. āMom, if I had in person classes I might have gotten an Aā Why is a B something you think you should explain to me. If I get a B to this day in whatever Iām doing I consider that a win.
I had to talk her down her tree over a Linear Algebra quiz. Mom. I did terrible and I donāt think this school is for me. She got an 80. I was so exhausted.
WPI has built a lot of structures since I was there to make sure the students succeed. Itās not perfect. Covid has put everyone back and even though they are on campus itās so stressful.
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I found this very helpful. Currently my daughter is deciding between MSU and WPI. She likes both schools a lot, and is majoring in Game Design and Simulation (both schools have nationally ranked programs, ranked 6 and 7 in the country).
The schools could not be more opposite:
MSU:
- 4000 acre campus with 2 golf courses on campus, spacious, green
- 50,000 students, tons of majors
- Full college experience, parties, Div 1 sports, ALL kinds of kids
- Youāre probably just a number at some level
- Large number of āparty animalsā, Frats, etc (sheās not into that scene)
- Some STEM kids, but mostly a very diverse student body. 100 majors.
WPI:
- small campus, quaint, with character, but warts as well.
- dorms/food do not strike me (or get rated) well
- 6500 or so students, smaller everything. 25 kids graduate each year in her major, usually 20 men and 5 women.
- Stronger students on the average, for sure, and I am certain a much higher floor
- I am hoping/assuming, better administration:student ratio when it comes to helping them succeed, change majors, find jobs
- STEM kids. 33 majors (and letās be honest, some of those have like 3 kids per year)
We joke that the combination of these schools is the perfect school, but both have the strengths of the otherās weaknesses. Sheās a digital art kid that wants to also do tech, not quite a typical āengineerā or your traditional fine arts student.
But some of the things you said do concern me, and I am glad you mentioned them.
D2 here, is the sort of kid that always needs a little time to figure out the teacher. She took AP US History in HS and came out of the gates struggling, until after a poor first exam, she started to learn how the teacher worked, and worked her grade up from a C+ in Q1, to a B+ for the year (finishing with A- grades). Same with honors math, took her some time to figure out how the teacher actually approached and quizzed, what mattered and what didnāt.
Your description of the effects of WPI delayed grading combined with shortened 7 week terms sounds terrifying.
FWIW, MSU offer is 12K per year cheaper than WPI.
We realize that WPI is a higher ranked school, and may even be the best option.
Itās a tough call for her right now.
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Thanks. Has your daughter decided?
She chose WPI. She had been on the fence and financially I liked Michigan State being net cheaper. But her heart was WPI even if it meant her taking more loans. They are apples and oranges in terms of 50k student state school versus 7k private. So hard for me to compare them with her. Sheās very excited and starts next month.
I will say both she and I didnāt have high hopes for Michigan State initially, but when we visited we were both extremely impressed, the school seems great. Campus was impressive. Her younger and older sisters said she was crazy not to go to MSU after seeing it. I personally would have chosen MSU as well. So the decision wasnāt easy.
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Best of luck to your daughter!
Hope itās ok to ask more questions on this thread? My D22 is trying to confirm she wants to apply to WPI as it looks in so many ways to be a great fit for her. We attended a virtual session but D came out concerned about the pace of the 7-week sessions.
She thinks it could be too stressful always having a midterm or final coming up. But others told us it isnāt so bad since you only have 3 classes per session and Iām reading mostly positive feedback about the set up and how collaborative the students are.
Any other feedback on the pace/stress levels at WPI?
@FlightGirl103 where did your son end up? Is he happy?
@HankCT how is your daughter enjoying WPI?
My concern would be the 4 underclass men deaths this fallā¦the number of suicides and the delay in access to counseling. Very heart breaking.
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āthe pace of the 7-week sessionsā:
- It can be good or bad.
A thousand years ago, I took differential equations as a freshman.
For some reason, I just wasnāt getting it. I think I got a C on the 1st exam. I started to freak out, since I donāt have much time to bring up my grade.
But after a lot of office hours and tutoring from a wicked smart friend, I aced the rest of the term and somehow came through with A- (I think).
So itās easy to fall behind if you donāt start off well.
But the flip side, I remember taking some writing class that I didnāt enjoy (totally a STEM gal here), and I was grateful that I only had a few weeks remaining in the term.
ā
Funny.
My WPI friends and I just went to dinner last night, and we talked about how we did our Freshman year.
It seems that a lot of your freshman academically depends on how well your high school prepared you.
One gfās tiny HS didnāt have AP classes and she really struggled her 1st semester: she failed 2 of the 3 classes, and got a B in the class she did pass.
My HS offered a lot of AP classes and I took many of them.
So I believe I passed all 4 classes of 1st semester
(I often took a 4th class because it was something cheap like $100 for the 4th class) with all Aās or maybe 1 B?
I did my fair share of partying (with work study and club sport), so it wasnāt like I stayed in my room constantly studying.
So think about how challenging her high school classes have been. That would be a better indicator of how she will do at the faster pace of WPIās 7-week terms.
ā
Same gf who failed 2 classes has a daughter who is a freshman at WPI, so weāve been talking about these 4 deaths.
Gfās daughter is feeling anxious, so sheās reaching out and weāre talking with her and helping as best as we can.
Itās hard to really know what is really going on for someone to choose to take their own life.
So hard.
LOVED my WPI experience!
Good luck!
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