<p>bumping this, i’m torn between WPI and RPI</p>
<p>@Orinox18: what are the differences in the personalities of the students?
and is there really that much of a difference between name-recognition/prestige between RPI and WPI?</p>
<p>WPI is highly regarded in the northeast. I feel that WPI is very underrated. Im also biased because I received my masters and PHD at WPI. You have excellent choices so good luck.</p>
<p>Both are very good schools. WPI is well regarded in New England, but somewhere in NY it starts to fade quickly - by the time you get beyond NJ or into Ohio it’s pretty much gone. RPI has more of a national reputation, but it doesn’t exactly have the name recognition and image of MIT/Stanford/Caltech or even GT/JHU/Cornell. People have heard of it and recognize that it must be good, but they don’t know much about it or, in many cases, where it is located. Because I went to RPI and used to live in Worcester (and attended events at WPI) I’ve had many funny experiences with people outside the Northeast trying to place or pronounce both. </p>
<p>“RPI, I’ve heard of it - good school - it’s in Rochester, right?”
“How do you spell Renssa…RPI?”
“Troy, is that a small town.” (or worse, “Isn’t that where the bridge collapsed into the Hudson?” A: “Yes”)
“I’ve got your Wor-che-ster address.” (or they pronounce it like Wooster in Ohio)</p>
<p>While those anecdotes are humorous, the good news is that people in the engineering profession are usually (but, unfortunately, not always) more aware of both and the quality of the education they provide. I’m biased toward RPI but I’d recommend that you pick the one you are most comfortable with and can most afford.</p>
<p>S got accepted to both.</p>
<p>I like the RPI campus a lot better. I got annoyed at all the traffic in the center of the WPI campus, there is a parking lot right in the middle and non-stop traffic. RPI campus is bigger and more spread out, a lot more green space. This might be a disadvantage in the winter… having lived in both Troy and eastern MA, I can say the weather is worse in Troy. RPI seemed to have more new buildings than WPI, and just opened up a really impressive Performing Art Center.</p>
<p>WPI is on a quarter system, each class lasts only 7 weeks, very intensive. From what I’ve heard, if you fall behind (sick, whatever) you can be in a world of hurt. WPI’s off-campus project you do as a senior is an interesting concept. RPI has the more traditional semester-based classes.</p>
<p>Athletics - RPI blows WPI out of the water. If you play sports or like to work out RPI is much better. RPI has more varsity sports and is division 1 in ice hockey, and has a large number of club sports/intramural activities, and RPI’s facilities are way better. RPI just recently opened up a state of the art fitness facility, it is really nice. </p>
<p>I would say Worcester is moderately better than Troy, although WPI is not that far from the really crappy parts of Worcester. Off-campus housing has gotten a little tougher at WPI because the city is clamping down on a law that says it is illegal for more than 4 unrelated people to share an apartment. There are a lot of big houses with large apartments around the WPI campus.</p>
<p>RPI has a very interesting student-run student union, they have some ridiculous number of clubs. I can’t even remember if WPI has a student union, it wasn’t on the tour.</p>
<p>I think both will give you a fine education, although my perception is that RPI is much better known nationally.</p>
<p>*disclaimer - I went to RPI, although it was a loooong time ago… so I might be biased.</p>
<p>Just to clear up a few misconceptions:
WPI does have a nice fairly new campus center and will have a big multi-million dollar sports complex that will open next fall (2012). However, the campus is definitely smaller than RPI and overall RPI has more/better facilities. RPI also has more playing fields and sports teams.
RPI is better known nationwide especially when talking to the average person, but I do think that people who work in engineering or graduate schools DO know about and respect WPI.
In any case, visit the schools under consideration at length and then choose based on YOUR criteria, not someone else’s!</p>