RPI vs Case Western

If I were you, I would take RPI’s offer. Why?

  1. RPI wants you, that’s why they’re giving you a lot of money. Case just want you to fill in for their Spring.
  2. If you’re graduate in Dec 2025 instead of May 2025, you will be missing out 6-7 months worth of salary, so not just $40k different.
  3. Even if you said you will take cc courses, how do you know for sure Case Western will take your those credits from cc? Just too much hassle IMHO.
  4. If you’re from around NYC, RPI is within 2-3 hours away, and Case is 7-8 hours away. You have more friends and family close by. Cheaper/easier to visit or travel. We’re not talking about 1 year, but 4 years.
  5. Personally to me, it’s just feel odd to start in the spring and graduate in the fall.
  6. $40K is a lot of money, Case and RPI are pretty much similar ranking, or at least same tier in term of academics for engineering.
  7. You keep saying you have a feeling Case is better fit for you. Sometimes it’s not the school but the people you’re dealing with. One person or class could ruin your college experience if you got a bad professor, or 1 nasty roommate or friend/girlfriend, etc.
  8. Doesn’t matter which school, you will be fine at either Case or RPI if you’re study hard.

I wouldn’t try to convince the OP one way or the other because both are fine universities, so he can’t go wrong either way. But since rankings have been mentioned a couple of times now, RPI is clearly the higher ranked school in computer science engineering. CWRU’s strengths are in other areas. In addition, Best Colleges ranks RPI Top 20 on their list of technologically most advanced colleges. I would think that might matter to CS Engineering majors.

If all things were equal, I would choose/recommend Case over RPI 100 times out of 100, FWIW. It’s only the money and spring start that make this more complicated for me.

And if we are to take the idea of “fit” seriously at all, it seems pretty important that OP isn’t comfortable with RPI at all, and $40,000 and starting in fall doesn’t change that.

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OP- Are you planning on working after college or going to grad school?

Take a look at the destination survey for new grads at both schools.

If you are sure about engineering, RPI is more career readiness focused. My H’s company stopped recruiting engineers at Case years ago.

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I’m going with RPI on this one. I believe it has stronger academics for your field and better network connections. Better name recognition in the field too. That’s not to say CW is a bad school, just that it comes in a little behind RPI after all things are considered in this mix.

I think you continue to be spooked about RPI because online posters got to you. In case it matters to you, a list of several hundred regional valedictorians/salutatorians was recently released in my area, and a number of them are headed to RPI. Not one for Case. I do realize this could swing the other way in any given year; it just seemed interesting to me, given your current dilemma. You may have talked about this before and if you did I apologize for this question: can you get to both campuses in the very near future? Not ideal conditions to visit either because classes are done and probably no live tours are happening, but it could help.

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Nobody can answer this question for YOU.

The posters who say one is better than the other based on ranking don’t understand the folly of those statements. USNWR especially is soft as it ranks one metric, institutional reputation as asked of deans of the schools. It’s self perpetuating. There’s no employment or success metrics at all. None. The others rely heavily on research production which is a proxy for size and eliminates schools without doctoral programs. As a result, great schools like Rose Hulman, Harvey Mudd, Olin and Cal Poly aren’t even ranked! Proclaiming differences of a few slots is meaningful, us patently silly.

None of them have attended both schools. It’s improbable that any of them have set foot on both like I have. They are doing the best to advise, but we all are relying on insufficient or even bogus data.

The bottom line is this. If your parents can’t or won’t pay the difference, you’re going to RPI. If that’s the case, start leaning into the ways to make the experience the best it can be for you.

I will leave you with this. One of my patients managed a very large NASA program. He had a PhD in both math and physics. When he found out my son was interested in engineering who straight up said “you need to know it doesn’t matter where he goes to school.” He said what was important was curiosity and drive. He went on to say that some of his worst engineers were from Caltech, the school he taught at while at JPL, and that some of the best were from no name schools. He was adamant that no school had a lock on producing the best engineers. He should know. He was able to hire from all over the world because that project was one of the most exciting things on the planet at the time.

Good luck! Your success will be in your hands either way.

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The RPI debt amount is in the higher end of what you can borrow without a cosigner, while the CWRU debt amount is just beyond what you can borrow without a cosigner.

This suggests that RPI is affordable within a somewhat-stretch budget, but CWRU is just barely out of reach financially (cosigned student loans are generally not a good idea).

CWRU’s transfer credit policy is at https://case.edu/ugstudies/academic-policies/study-other-colleges-and-transfer-credit and AP, IB & College Credit | Undergraduate Admission | Case Western Reserve University . However, you will have to ask specifically about any specific courses at the community college. Note that if you start in the spring there, it is best to have at least calculus 1 completed (in additional to enough other useful credit for courses like natural sciences and/or general education) before then, either through AP credit or accepted transfer credit from a community college, so that you will be on track for graduation in 7 remaining semesters.

I’m taking Calc BC right now, and I am fairly certain I can get at least a 4 so that would mean that I could skip calc 1 and 2 right off the bat. That’s pretty much it tho. I have some other aps but they either don’t relate to my major or are too introductory to count for anything like Computer Science Principles and Algebra Based Physics 1. The plan is to take those classes (physics 1 calc based, and some intro comp sci course) at community college, transfer them over, and maybe even try to take calc 3? I just need to confirm that those will be transferrable and I think I should be ok to graduate in 7 semesters at Case.

If you do this, follow @ucbalumnus’ rules of success. Get the old syllabi and tests for both the classes you’ll be testing out of. Take the tests, timed. If it totally foreign, consider repeating. If rusty, brush up on Kahn over the summer. If it’s a breeze, charge forward.

My son was invited to an Honors Section of Calc III based on his 5 in AP BC. Every student in the class had a 5, but as he learned, not all 5s are created equally. On the first test, with no curve, there were quite a few scores in the 30s.

Don’t take that risk. Insure that you are ready.

Why jump through all these hoops for CWRU? Treat this as a negotiation. Counter their offer of acceptance with an agreement to attend but that it must begin first semester. Ask what it will take to get that done. After all, they do want you as a student. If the issue is dorm space, tell them you’ll do off campus housing. Refer them to their own core SAGES program which begins with “First Seminar” in FALL semester.

The more I think about it, I really find this unacceptable on their part. This is your life and you deserve better than scrounging for community college courses or putting your life on hold for 7 months after high school graduation. You’ve worked hard to get to this point and you don’t deserve to be treated this way.

Exactly - it’s classic marketing. They make the kid feel like they’re lucky - and many fall for it. The truth is, this is solving a 2nd semester revenue problem for Case. They have grads and those who will drop/transfer out -and that’s why these schools do this.

There’s no love here - yet they package it in a way kids think there is.

I agree wholeheartedly! CWRU and RPI consider themselves peer institutions. I’d call Case and just say, this is what I got at RPI. My parents want me to attend RPI based on the price, but I think I’d be a better fit for Case. What wiggle room do you have on increasing Merit Aid and Fall start? Either they’ll say here’s some more money and flexibility, or they’ll say “Suck it Trebek! This is what you get!” Then you’ll know who really wants you.

I’m of the opinion that 1 semester, in the grand scheme of things, just isn’t a big deal, considering that the OP can be expected to live for over another half-century. We know why CWRU is doing what it does, but better to be happy for 7 semesters than unhappy for 8. The big question the OP has to determine is if the difference is that big between the 2 schools. Depending on who you ask, they may consider RPI and CWRU (and CMU) to be similar socially.

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In the end, the folks have the check book - they are making him go to RPI. So if he wants to go to Case, he needs to convince them, not us.

The folks with the checkbook should read this thread.

They should also weigh the happiness of their kid. A semester of CC would also save a bit on costs, making the cost difference between CWRU and RPI less.

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I had a talk wit them and outlined my reasons and arguments for each school. They ended up giving me the final decision but are still against it. I am also still kind of on the fence. Spring admit is VERY not ideal. I called Case up and they told me that they admitted the largest spring class to date, and all spring admits dorm together, so I don’t think I have to worry about the whole fitting in thing. I just don’t know if I wanna delay starting my college years by a whole semester…

If all the spring admits room together, then you get “instant community”. In your previous posts you seemed to like Case a lot more, and if you can take some community college classes in the fall ( and maybe in the summer), you may end up not really “delaying” at all.

If your feelings for Case haven’t changed, I would think the new information re: the dorm would be really reassuring.

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Did you ask about the potential to add to your merit aid?

I did, they already gave me 24k in merit and they basically said that’s as much merit as they can give me. Need based won’t change because fafsa is the same. What I see is what I get I guess.

$24k per year or $6k per year for $24k total?