Honest Review of RPI after 2 years

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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I’m surprised by how few current students interact with RPI’s college confidential page considering how many prospective students and parents make major life decisions off of what they see on this page. Based upon just looking through this page for a little, I feel this school is misconstrued by two types of current students, those who share only their positive experiences/ love for the school just to make it look better and those who hate the school with a passion for various reasons (i.e. it’s not as easy as high school boo hoo). I have decided to write an in depth review of my experiences and viewpoint of RPI in the most unbiased light possible. I will apologize ahead of time for my rambling and writing skills (or lack thereof).

Background: I am a guy from the Midwest who at the time was looking for colleges with a solid engineering program (leaning BME) and competitive division 3 athletic sports team. The main schools I was looking at were RPI and Case Western, both of which I was only accepted into because I was recruited for athletics. My stats were, GPA: 3.5 (weighted) SAT: 1290 (690 Math and 600 Reading). I ultimately decided on RPI because I received more money to attend and I liked the coach/team a lot more. This may seem trivial to a lot of people especially considering Case is a top tier BME school but your coach and team members are people you will be quite literally living with for the next 4 years of your life.

After I decided on RPI I started getting nervous that the workload would be too extreme to maintain a decent gpa and play a college sport. This was especially considering my sub-par academic credentials. I quickly realized after my first semester that a person’s gpa and SAT scores in high school meant literally nothing. College is all about how much effort you put in, many students who came in top of their high school classes expecting to breeze through college suddenly found themselves getting Cs and Ds in intro level RPI classes.

I am currently top third of my BME class here at RPI, in route to get between a gpa of a 3.6-3.8 this semester (well above top third), have really cool research lined up for the summer, and am starting on a nationally ranked division 3 team. I don’t mean to write this to brag about myself, just want to give inspiration to kids who didn’t do so hot in high school. If you work hard and are motivated, you will do well.
–now to get into the meat of the review

Social Life: This seems to be the biggest concern on the thread and so I wanted to address this first.

The worst things I hear about this school is that it is full of total nerds who have no social skills, if you have social skills or want a social life, stay away. This is something commonly posted by a student who never left his bedroom to find friends and is ironically probably playing League of Legends in his room by himself right now. Now the honest truth is yes, a decent amount of kids that go to this school are nerdy. There are also a lot of really awesome kids that have active social lives and if you make enough friends, will have no problem finding events/parties to go to on weekends. The similar people seem to attract to each other, the nerdy kids find the nerdy kids and the frat stars find the frat stars and the athletes find the athletes. I’m not saying the groups don’t intermingle, I have plenty of friends who love video games all week but still party and athletes who are in frats etc etc. Side note: everyone here is at least little nerdy no matter how hard they may try to hide it. So to the people saying it’s impossible to have a social life here have clearly never tried.  A common phrase here is, “work hard play hard”. 

Another common problem is people complain that there isn’t enough to do on campus…again extracurricular activities aren’t going to be handed to you. Your mom isn’t going to sign you up for clubs, classes and clinics; you are expected to do that on your own now. One of the busiest kids I know is on like 3 intramural teams and in student government and I swear he knows everyone on campus.

Conclusion on social life, it is what you make of it. There are a lot of extremely interesting people coming from all different backgrounds and origins waiting to be met.

The Ratio: Ah, the infamous 70-30 ratio. Anyone telling you the ratio is hardly noticeable is straight up lying. There are perks and downfalls to being either gender. This section is going to be full of brutal honesty so I hope you readers aren’t easily offended.

As a guy: The lack of women on campus makes it easier to focus on school, plain and simple. I doubt I would’ve done this well in school if there were more girls on campus to get distracted by. I’m not saying I don’t talk to girls; I have plenty of female friends on campus and have been through a couple of sorta relationships while here. The downfalls is that due to the ratio, a decent amount of girls gain a significant confidence boost by constantly being hit on by guys. As a guy, this is a huge turnoff especially when I overhear girls loudly talking about the different guys they have been hooking up with over the weekend. I’ve been to other college campuses and I understand college is a huge hookup culture but I rarely meet girls that are as incredibly over confident and cocky as some of the girls I have meet here. Another problem is the ratio puts a heavy strain on any relationship as the guy will be desperate to hold on to the girl, while the girl can easily quit the relationship and just find a different guy. There is also clear favoritism given to girls during hiring process as there is a strong push to get more females into STEM jobs. I just want to say, I do know a lot of really awesome, cool and talented girls that go here that I hang out with a lot. I don’t want this to be a terrible stereotype on all RPI women.
Protip: If you are a confident outgoing guy you are much more likely to stand out from other guys and get more opportunities to meet girls. Also, being in a frat gives you a lot more chances to me the ladies on campus because of the mixers, formals and parties that frats hold.

As a girl: The ratio is a double edged sword, it can be awesome for you but can also be a huge distraction. Like I said, girls have a lot of power on campus and most girls will have plenty opportunities to go to a lot of parties, frat formals and be in relationships. It will also be a lot harder to stay focused on school when suddenly introduced to all these distractions. The girls that are able to balance their school and social life will have great access to internships and employment opportunities.

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Academics: RPI’s forte and something I feel isn’t properly represented by rankings. A lot of engineering rankings (US News for example) seem to give heavy favoritism towards universities with larger graduate programs and national recognition. I have a lot of friends who study engineering at a lot of the top Midwest engineering schools (like Purdue and UIUC) which are higher ranked than RPI yet a lot of my friends do very similar work and take extremely similar classes for the general engineering work. I’ve even compared tests and theirs may almost be considered slightly easier (and less comprehensive). I have a friend here studying Electrical Engineering (EE) who has a gpa of ~2.1 telling me about his internship experience. He was with two other EE interns from Stanford and Cornell and he was definitely the most highly regarded in the office and the only one of the three who was offered a return internship for next summer. So ya, the academics are hard here, but if you graduate you will know what the heck you are doing.

At this point I have decided to stop writing just to see how much interest there is in reading about this. I would be more than willing to do a continuation of this review to talk about other topics but only if there arae people interested in reading. Please comment below if you guys want to read more.

I realize this is a little late for current seniors but I hope I can help rising seniors make a college decision. I may consider reposting this before decisions for next year but it all depends on the reactions.

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Thanks for your comprehensive review. So I’m a parent of an incoming transfer student. She’ll be a student at Lally and although she’s pretty outgoing I still worry that she’ll have a tough time making friends initially without the benefit of NRB. I’m also insanely worried about her safety or lack thereof when she travels off campus. Can you please comment on either of these concerns?

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I will admit that making friends as a transfer student can be difficult if your daughter is introverted. If she is outgoing like you say than it really shouldn’t be a problem. The nice part is the kids in the business program are much more outgoing and less introverted (and also have more free time) than the kids in engineering/comp sci so it will be easy to meet people in her classes. As a girl, she will probably have guys approach her to go to events/parties and will be welcomed almost anywhere she goes. Also, highly recommend she joins a club or some extra curricular.

As far as safety off campus, Troy and the surrounding Albany area really isn’t as bad as people make it out to be but general street smarts apply. Don’t go wandering around by yourself late at night far off campus, just make sure she surrounds herself with a few friends and its fine. A lot of people overestimate how much they will be going off campus and as the academic year picks up a lot of people end up too busy with schoolwork/ on campus activities to go off campus very often. As far as places to avoid, DO NOT go into South Troy. Luckily it isn’t within walking distance but a place you should probably warn your daughter about.

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My son is an incoming freshman (leaning towards ME) so I appreciate hearing this honest review. Can you also give tips on how to get textbooks at a lower cost?

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DO NOT, under any circumstances buy from the book store. The best way to buy books is on RPIs Free and For Sale facebook page where students sell books and a bunch of other random things for pretty cheap. Also online sites such as Amazon work fine but generally not quite as cheap.

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Thank you randomdude532. I really do appreciate your response and advice. I’ll be sure to share this with her.

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mamato4, maybe have him rent at least some of his textbooks…at least for the classes that are not in his major.

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Will def check out the Facebook url. Thanks again!

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Much thanks for the book buying advice. We were planning on renting some books also.

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randomdude My son is interested in baseball and engineering (ME too), finishing his junior year in HS now.
What sport do you play ? I was thinking the same 2 schools, though we live in NY and of course biased
to have my S closer to home @ RPI than CW. Have a niece who went to CW so a bit familiar with it too.

One of things I am wondering, he took the ACT twice as a junior, not SAT.
While he did great on the science part (31), not as great on math (27-28) and below 25 on reading/english.
He plans to take ACT once more in June and maybe SAT in the fall during senior year.
I am wondering if he should reach out the the coach now,
given his current 26 score or wait until he gets closer to the average for RPI and not waste his/coaches time.
I understand in D3 one can even walk on and try out. But wondering if contacting the coach earlier to help
with admission process makes sense with such mixed results on the ACT. He also participates significantly
in FIRST robotics, and another sport, so he has lots of EC that hopefully will impress

Wondering about impressions of CW, had you not gotten into RPI and/or on the team,
would you have gone there from what you saw ?

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I’m going to leave my sport out of it for the sake of anonymity.

I reached out to the coaches of my interested schools sometime around junior year just stating my athletic and academic credentials and that I was interested in attending/playing on their team. If the coach likes you and wants you on the team it can have a huge effect on the admissions process and help a lot to get you in and maybe some extra merit award…even though you really aren’t supposed to cause it’s D3. So yes, reach out to the coaches now especially because baseball is one of the more competitive sports here.

With test scores I would recommend taking the SAT too because certain people are better at a specific test.

As far as looking at CW, the coach (in my sport) was sort of an ass and their team was top 10 in the nation. So I would have been on the team but riding the bench all 4 years which didn’t really appeal to me. It is also in heart of Cleveland which isn’t exactly the greatest city ever and again, I got like no money to attend there. Case is a great school but things just didn’t really add up for me to choose it over RPI. The other school I was considering was Stevens Tech but it seemed way to small for me and not very well known on a national scale. So if I didn’t get into RPI, I probably would have done financial appeals to Case and Stevens and see what happened from there. In your case, RPI for ME is definitely the strongest of the schools.

Protip: Make sure to appeal your merit/financial aid package after admittance because they will likely give you more money. I received about $7k more a year for four years (one simple letter worth $28k haha).

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randomdude Thank you. Surprised you say baseball is so competitive since I don’t see them on the list of schools at Headfirst which they attended in the past. Seems to be the place where top academic schools look for baseball players. MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Duke etc. I was not seriously considering that because only interested in D3. I don’t think engineers should play D1. Also considering small liberal arts D3 schools that claim to have engineering (Swarthmore and Union, Union seems more in line with test/gpa requirements, Swarthmore a bit tougher to get in).

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I have a colleague who graduated from Stevens and liked it. Not sure if I want my son
right outside Manhattan. We are in the area, he needs some different scenery.

For us the possibility of merit aid is important hence the baseball interest.
Don’t want a D1 athletic scholarship really. I lean towards RPI as a I have a friend whose kid
loved it there. As far as baseball, my kid is not that huge (only a HS junior so we’ll see)
so that may limit which schools a baseball related merit scholarship is feasible.
Talented but avg height & lean. I see they have mostly larger kids on the roster at RPI,
not sure how much growing there will be between now and any recruiting process deadlines.

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Great review randomdude532. Question. What are the living conditions really like? Dorms seem awful to me. How is the food and can you eat in any cafe or just the freshman quad one? The whole place seems a little run down…for 66K a year. Where did you live for the 1st two years and what are you doing in the upcoming year? on or off campus?

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For living conditions I was extremely lucky to live in Barton my freshman year which is one of the best dorms to live in and is very nice and new. The triples aren’t bad because the rooms are huge and the kids in Barton are generally more social (dorm choices seem to give preference to athletes and people coming in with a lot of extra curricular). I didn’t go into the other main freshman dorms very often but when I did the general consensus is they are pretty terrible. The rooms were average sized for doubles and the buildings are definitely out dated and need renovation. BarH was possibly the worst because not only was it farthest away from campus, a few of my friends had forced triples which is terrible. I have visited a few other college campuses and honestly the freshman dorms weren’t that much better, just need to luck out with housing selection.

My sophomore year I got stuck with my last housing choice, Quad. This is a very similar situation to freshman housing where the doubles are pretty small and place is outdated. They are actually about to begin renovation on the quad this summer but of course right after I leave. There are a lot of great housing options as a Sophomore with places that look outdated such as Sharp, Stackwyk and RAHPs but are actually very nice. Generally the housing options get better the farther you move away from campus which is unfortunate but the on campus bus system is really good at getting people to class and will be at your door every 10 minutes or so (there is an app that tracks the buses).

After sophomore year I will be living off campus because living in the suburbs around RPI is much much cheaper than living on campus. I will be paying about $450 a month ($5400/year) including utilities for a huge single with a huge family room, kitchen etc etc and living with a few of my friends so we have the floor to ourselves. This is about $2000 cheaper than my crappy double in quad…of course I don’t get my bathroom cleaned once a week but for $2000 who cares. This is what most upperclassmen choose to do because it is so much cheaper and RPI seems to like to mooch people of the most money possible for the 4 years they are here.

The food here is meh, Commons (the main freshmen cafeteria) is ok. Assuming you aren’t a picky eater and only eat pizza and chicken nuggets you can maintain a pretty diverse diet there. Sage and Blitman are two other dining halls which seem to offer slightly better quality different food at the same cost of one meal swipe. If you decide to get away from the main dining hall options and try some of the places on campus that charge flex (on campus currency that comes with meal plan) or cash then the options are much better and more diverse. Some great places to go that (many of which I’m just discovering and trying this year) main floor or basement of student union, library cafe, Tera Cafe (at EMPAC) and the Sage beanery. These places are mostly untried by freshmen because most are on meal plans with a lot of swipes and not a lot of flex. I would say about 30% upperclassmen go off the meal plan to save money and just eat food at the places on campus not at the main cafeterias.

The place is a little rundown, especially the freshman housing and quad, but most colleges are similar. It’s mainly because of the recent infrastructure growth on campus with buildings such as ECAV and EMPAC which has definitely left RPI a little short on cash for necessary renovations. As far as paying 66k, you should not pay full ticket price to come here. If you do you are either crazy or extremely wealthy, but luckily financial aid and merit here is generous (I think over 94% of kids receive some sort of aid). If someone desperately wants to come here but can’t pay the full price I recommend going to a state school/community college then transferring in for the last 2 years to save money. It is definitely easier to get in as a transfer because of how many kids drop/transfer out.

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and yes, you can eat in any dining hall on campus as a freshman.

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Great post, thanks.

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Is RPI good with financial aid? My parents only make 30k a year and I’ll be paying for college myself.

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You should put your financial information into the net price calculator, sooner rather than later. With an income that low, you may do pretty well with financial aid, and if your grades are really good, then you’ll get merit money too. But it may be too much for you to afford on your own. Good luck. It is a great school.