<p>My son has applied to 2 STEM school and the others offer more rounded majors as well as engineering. During a meeting with one of the rounded schools, the engineering professor he met with basically said it is a matter of deciding whether you want to go to school with others who are mostly like you or be someplace where the people come in all varieties.</p>
<p>Did you or your student struggle with this choice and what convinced them that RPI was for them?</p>
<p>I feel that the furthest someone can go with the generalization that everyone at RPI are mostly alike is the affinity towards being “mathematically inclined”. That goes out the door for econ, management, gsas, and emac though. </p>
<p>With the amount of clubs RPI has and the high attendance to regular meetings, it is pretty clear to at least me that we are not all identical robots.</p>
<p>Your son should come up and tour RPI/stay overnight with a student host and decide on his own whether he likes RPI enough to apply/matriculate.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply JoshuaGuit. I don’t mean to imply that STEM students are identical robots. It is really the same question an Art major would ask about going to a pure art school like Pratt versus one that has a variety of majors such as Syracuse. </p>
<p>My son did visit RPI and liked the school and vibe he got from the students so is applying. But I would imagine other students have pondered this criteria in their decision making so I was curious how they made their decision.</p>
<p>As Joshua has suggested, my S did the overnight after being accepted in the Spring. The program that the school had set up for him was a little over 24 hours. He met a lot of people, stayed in the dorm, ate in the dining hall, sat in on classes, met staff, students and faculty from the major the was interested in, saw the facilities for the major he was interested in, they arranged a lunch for him with a student in his major, etc.</p>
<p>That overnight sold him on the school. He has done very well at RPI and really enjoyed it. I think he would agree with Joshua that the common trait for most of the students is that they are mathematically inclined. Other than that, there is a very wide variety of interests among the students.</p>
<p>An overnight sounds like a good idea dadinator. That would be something to consider if my son is accepted.</p>
<p>Have you visited a larger or more comprehensive university? We visited Northeastern, which I thought had a great program and a lovely campus. S saw the academic diversity and larger campus and didn’t feel it suited him. He much prefers the tech focus. I went to a large state school with big time football,etc, and loved it. To each his own.</p>
<p>My husband and son have been doing the visits while I do the research. My son is not a big club person nor cares at all about the sports scene. He is a big snowboarder and RPI is close to that activity so there is a good match. So it is not that he needs that side of rounded campuses. He is also drawn more to smaller campuses. </p>
<p>Mostly, my thinking is that a lot of his current friends are musicians and theater types not engineering types even though he is a math/physics kind of a guy.</p>
<p>My S began this process wanting a rounded school but after a year of research decided on applying to the best engineering schools and has applied to RPI. He enjoys math/physics and chemistry, is in the top 5% of his competitive hs class but is not the nerdy type at all - actually quite the opposite. While in school his core group of friends are the brainiacs and he thrives on the mental competitiveness and out of school he races a dirt microsprint where the majority of his peers attend community college or none at all. I believe he will be a success because he can blend within the different social groups and see himself as an equal understanding that others bring different unmeasurable positive qualities. Good luck.</p>
<p>One thing I’ve noticed that I think is a huge advantage to going to a school like RPI as compared to a more rounded school is that here you’re not required to take any classes that are useless toward your major. You won’t have general classes freshman year like most other schools require you to take (English, History, Art, etc.) The most basic classes that everyone has to take are Calc 1 and Calc 2, but other than that, it’s pretty much just classes toward your major, which should be stuff you’re actually interested in and that has a purpose for what you’re studying. (Other than HASS electives, but you can still generally pick some that are relevant to your major.)</p>
<p>Another thing I love about it here is that everyone here is very, very smart. (With a few exceptions being those who are only here for a sport, such as ice hockey, and really don’t know anything about anything other than hockey.) You won’t really run into any stupid people here, and if you want to make jokes about anything having to do with math or science or engineering or computers, chances are everyone will get it. You can have intelligent conversations with friends and acquaintances here.</p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that we do have over 200 clubs on campus, so no matter what someone is interested in, chances are they can find a group of people to hang out with who are interested in the same thing.</p>
<p>Thank you both for your input.</p>
<p>What minors are available for engineering major?</p>
<p>Lakemom - one more advantage of a STEM school is most friends/classmates have similar work loads, vs majors where the weekends begin on Wednesday or Thursday nights while engineers tend to have problem sets, exams and design projects that keep them quite busy. My oldest at a non-STEM school used to be frustrated by roommates that watched all the games and TV shows and partied while she barely slept as an engineering student. My RPI children tend to have friends from classes, projects and clubs, and most have similar work loads (though my kids tend to take the extreme side of 20 credits a semester plus clubs). </p>
<p>As far as minors, RPI is excellent for allowing double majors and minors. Both my kids have double majors and one a minor in music on top of the double major.</p>
<p>That is a really good point. It is always better to feel that you are not the only one with a lot of work to do. Or if you have to leave a group of friends you are visiting to finish your work and have them totally understand.</p>