I committed to RPI about two weeks ago, and besides the 7:3 male to female ratio (oh boy lmao), I’m also pretty worried about all this talk I hear about how incredibly devastating the classes are at RPI.
Are these difficulty complaints actually sound or are they just coming from people who don’t know how to set aside time for study? I’ve actually learned to tackle my work (somewhat) responsibly in 11th and 12th grade, unlike a lot of my friends or classmates who are still the “cram review questions the night before” type. If I’m willing to put in enough time should I be good to go at RPI? And if so, how much time would that be? Enough to noticeably impact my social/recreational life?
How hard would it be to maintain at least a 3.0 through freshman year?
My daughter was able to maintain a 3.2 while competing on the swim team and being an officer in a club. She is a very hard worker, not a crammer. Yes, the work load is rigorous and she found some classes soul crushing. There are no easy As to be had. I will offer that one of her peers was a straight A student in engineering (ChemE I think). He was a 3-sport athlete and went to NCAA nationals for at least 2 sports his senior year.
@ThatDriver20 My son entered last year comp-eng but sort of undecided (he just knew he wanted something related to math). He never took anything related to computer science or programming. Data Structures class is known to be the hardest for that major and he knew that going in so he dedicated his priority to that above the rest and got an A- in the class.
What @Polar2000 said is EXACTLY right, RPI is rigorous but if you apply yourself you WILL do well. You asked how hard it is to maintain a 3.0 in freshman year, I think it is rare that anyone goes under 3.0 in freshman year. If you find you are failing a class you just ‘officially’ drop the class but try to keep attending and studying it, then register again the following semester and now that you know everything that will be taught you ace it.
You ask if it the level of work will impact your social/recreational life, It will diminish it sure, but the amount will be dependant upon how you schedule and organize everything you do. For example it would be great to get a sport in (swimming, karate, b-ball, etc) atleast 2-3 times a week and your social set to a regular day and time as well. Same deal with wake-up and sleep time. If RPI accepted you, they know you can do it. It works against them to accept people who would fail-out, it ruins many of their stats if they accept people who can’t graduate. If you got accepted you can do it.
RPI is a hard university. You go from being a top high school student to having to compete with people that were all top high school students. However, it’s possible to do well - you just need to work really hard at it. My GPA was a 3.0 first semester, went down to a 2.5 second semester, and now is over a 3.2 (after my fourth semester). Just be sure to take humanities classes freshman year as a GPA boost just in case something goes wrong and study hard, go to office hours, etc. and you’ll probably be fine. Granted, I know a lot of people that have failed out - don’t take it lightly, there’s a reason RPI has a strong reputation in industry.
[THIS LINK](https://yacs.cs.rpi.edu/) on the top left is the full list of all of RPI’s humanities and social science courses offered. Click on each for a full description.
My son graduated from RPI May 2017 with a degree in Information Technology and Web Science. Data Structures and Foundations of Computer Science were probably the hardest courses he took. I did receive a few phone calls sophomore year (his hardest year) late at night saying that perhaps he had made a mistake about attending RPI. Believe it or not, joining a fraternity his second semester sophomore year gave him a support system and study buddies and his grades improved. He made Dean’s List junior year. RPI is tough but, IMO worth it. He’s now working as a software developer. He had no problem landing a job.
@reformedman thank you.
Do you know why there are different time periods for a course? say
CSCI 1200
01 61051 Cutler **Tue 2p-3:50p Wed 10a-11:50a Thr 6p-7:50p Fri 2p-3:50p **
are those the tutorial periods?
@123France good to hear. I expect those courses are difficult for my kid as well.
@annamom
For those who may not know what you are referring to, [this page](https://yacs.cs.rpi.edu/#/courses?department_id=336) shows that everyone meets together Tues, Thurs, and Fridays but on Wednesday there are very many different scheduled times to chose from during registration.
The days where everyone meets together is in an auditorium styled classrom called a lecture. The smaller Wednesday class is called a lab and is the time where an assignment might be given and the instructors can walk around working directly with the students.
@reformedman thanks again. The schedule seems to be strange as they meet at different times during the week. Using the above example, the students meet on Tuesday 2:00 to 3:30 on Tuesdays/Fridays, but at 6:00 pm to 7:50 pm on Thursdays. Any idea why a college would set up schedule like this? I thought normally the meeting time is the same for everyday.
@annamom Oh you are talking about the non lefture days, I thought you meant the lab days. Yeah, it’s strange that it would vary so much through the week. It happens with most 4 credit courses as I have seen but not sure why they feel that it’s more efficient this way. I only see more potential in this method causing class time-conflicts. Maybe it’s just to take the boredom out of scheduling and shock the system a bit, not sure.
When I attended years ago, for most of those 4 credit classes, you would sign up for a lecture, a recitation, and a lab - 3 different “classes.” Perhaps they are bundling those 3 classes, to ensure that the people in a given recitation or lab are all in the same lecture. I recall their being multiple times for Chemistry and Physics lectures
I think at any highly competitive school, you need to find the right major for you.
You can get As if you work hard at something that you enjoy and for which you have some aptitude.
But if you dabble in something else, be prepared to compete with the best in every area of STEM.
Also note engineering his the toughest major in most colleges, and this college is above avg in difficulty.
I would like to give the following advice. Working Hard does not mean Working Long Hours but Working Smart. Doing what you are used to doing might not work. Be open to new methods… Part One. You will likely be required to prepare for class (lecture, recitation or lab). Find out what is required and what is expected. If you are supposed to read 60+ pages to prepare for class how much of it is text, (not examples or graphics). What are you expected to get out of the reading? Why was the reading assigned? You are owed this. If your instructor is not a part of the tenured or tenure-track faculty you have the right to know how and why they were selected. .