Hi all,
Our daughter has been accepted and is considering RPI for the fall. Are there any current/past female RPI engineering students here who can provide some perspective on their experience?
Thanks in advance!
Sign up for the webinars. She should have gotten an email about them. It’s all about RPI from a female perspective.
Thanks, she’s catching those. Official student panels aren’t all that informative though - the students are usually chosen because they’re positive, or they are careful to be mostly positive.
I’ve been reading some old threads here and in other sites, don’t know if the issues described are still a concern. We’re curious if it’s still common for male students to be dismissive of female students - e.g. claiming and being resentful that women are accepted more easily or with more generous scholarship. Also concerned about what some male RPI students described as RIBS (ratio-induced b* syndrome) - is it common for male students to think of female students at RPI this way?
@dazedandbemused I’m not a girl, but I am a current student at RPI. I can’t say I know how it’s like to be a girl, but I have a lot of friends that are girls and I’ve never seen/heard of them being treated dismissively for being a woman in the academic environment at RPI. If a professor were to say something sexist, racist, or demeaning in class to any student they’d be fired very quickly - there’s a very strict Title IX policy.
RPI has a very socially liberal student body/faculty and the gender ratio has improved in recent years. Women also, on average, do better at RPI than men (if you dm me I can send you that stat) and in college in general.
A few years ago the gender ratio was worse and RIBS was a more common saying, but it wasn’t really used in the literal sense - it was more of a meme. A grad TA in one of my classes actually asked in class this semester to see if things have changed and found that only a handful of students knew what RIBS meant - typically from older siblings. The saying is pretty much dead at this point.
There are also a number of student and college task forces in academic departments, clubs, student government, Greek Life, etc. on campus looking to encourage diversity and inclusivity. It’s considered a priority of the current college administration.
Interested to know as well. I watched one of the webinars and was concerned when one of the students mentioned that sometimes her suggestions were not taken seriously. (I thought I heard it right as it was quite difficult to hear).
Thanks, @joedoe - that’s very helpful!
My oldest daughter graduated in 2016 with a dual degree in microbiology and science, technology, and society. She saw the RIBS effect, but never spoke of it being a problem for her. I think you will find misogynistic boys at every school. Is there are heavy concentration at RPI? I don’t think so at all. Most of her male friends are nerdy, goofy boys who are pretty inexperienced around girls. Most are smart and opinionated too. If your daughter chooses to RPI, she may experience some boys who treat her poorly, but as long as she is a kind soul, she will find the friends who support her. My daughter now works in a fairly male-dominated space, and her experiences at RPI have helped her to understand the personalities she is dealing with.
especially as a woman in like compsci or engineering, I think being at RPI would definitely help women to get used to being around boys constantly since in that’s how it will be in the workplace
Thanks all! My kid is already around boys constantly - she’s one of the few girls in her AP STEM classes and hs engineering classes, but her hs teachers make sure everyone behaves. Am glad to read that RPI isn’t likely to be any worse than anywhere else, despite the lopsided ratio.
I joined just to respond to this thread.
My daughter is an engineering major and says RIBS is absolurely a well known term among students.
She said you have to realize there are basically 2 different types of students who go here the socially impaired types who stay away from most social situations and in a classroom setting would have no idea what’s going on & the average student who dates,goes to parties etc.
She said since there is a large portion of mostly male students who are not social you really don’t notice the difference in the amount of students at all.
She said RIBS should totally be embraced by a female student. She’s asked to every formal & they’re a always someone who wants to be a study buddy. She’s never felt that any of the young men or professors were dismissive to her because she was a female but some of the awkwardness can come off that way if that’s what you’re looking to see in people.
So YES RIBS us real and a term often used lol
Thanks @honestmama for sharing your daughter’s experience.