<p>I have some questions about WPI, where I will be attending this fall. </p>
<p>First of all, I realized that a lot of students do the 5 year BS/MS program at WPI. Is this because students are unable to get jobs straight out with a 4 year degree? I am interested in working immediately after college and will this work out (I know this is too late, but still) and doing graduate school (likely a regular 2-year MS/Ph.D., year program hopefully with funding after getting some work/research experience). Does this 5-year program cost extra money?</p>
<p>Secondly, the WPI manual speaks about how there are housing apartments. On the packet that we send, it says that there is one suite solely for upperclassmen but online, it says that the apartments are also only for upperclassmen. Which one is correct?? I wouldn't mind saving money by not paying for room and board.</p>
<p>Suites are primarily aimed at sophomores and juniors. Apartments are aimed at juniors and seniors. But there is nothing stopping a sophomore from getting an off campus apartment. </p>
<p>In general, you should be able to get on campus housing unless you want to live in a specific building with a group of say 6 other people. If you are flexible, it should not be a problem.</p>
<p>It’s cheaper and quicker to earn a Masters through the 5 year program. When you couple that with the higher starting salary from the Masters degree, earning a Masters is a good return on investment. Also, some students would rather be done with their schooling in one sitting. They figure their careers will lead them to pursue a higher degree anyways, so make the commitment now rather than later. </p>
<p>While plenty of students take advantage of the 5 year program, the majority doesn’t.</p>
<p>This is one of the things that really annoys me about the college system in the US. Colleges should have to hire public accountants to record the median income of their graduates, and the professions that all of their graduates take, and then be required by the government to publish their statistics accurately and completely. </p>
<p>But as it stands right now, any data that gets published is totally voluntary. If a school has some bad numbers, it’s going to either not publish anything or publish a misleading statistic (a lot of law schools report the median salary of graduates at private firms, even though only a tiny fraction of the class gets into private firms). </p>
<p>So do all WPI graduates end up getting jobs after graduation? Unless US News reports that statistic, I can’t think of any way for us to know. What is the median salary of those jobs? We don’t really know, since only a tiny fraction of the student body submits job offer forms to the career development center. I’m not picking on WPI here, I’m criticizing the lack of transparency in the entire US higher education system.</p>
<p>Nice explanation al6200. Thanks for your excellent response. I think it is too early to decide whether or not the five year BS/MS program is right for me and I don’t want to stunt my social life in college anyways by living on a suite as a freshman.</p>