RPI vs RIT

<p>I have posted this in other areas of the forum and haven't gotten many answers so I decided to post it again in here since I usually get a good response from here. But I apologize if you have seen this post before. I committed to Rochester Institute of Technology, then days later found out I was accepted, from the wait list, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My major is computer engineering. With my financial aid packages from each school, it would cost about 5k more per year to go to RPI. I know RPI has a great engineering reputation but I don't know much specifically about their computer engineering program. I do not know if I should stay where I am at RIT, or switch and choose to go to RPI. Can anyone help me out? Any input at all?</p>

<p>I would post this question on the engineering forum you may get more answers there.</p>

<p>They both are great schools for computer engineering.</p>

<p>Engineering programs have to nationally accredited, which reduces the differences in departments quite a lot. </p>

<p>What would be the difference in total cost and total debt? </p>

<p>You probably want to check this out on each school’s Common Data Set, but I know that they have very different 4 year and 6 year graduation rates. My daughter considered both schools, but went to another. </p>

<p>A quick google says RPI had a 60% 4 year and an 84% 6 year and RIT has a 27% 4 year and a 63% 6 year. </p>

<p>The 4 year figure at RIT is distorted by the fact that many students at RIT are in 5 year programs that include co-ops.</p>

<p>Are there professors at one of the schools you would like to work with? Where are the graduating CS students getting jobs? Salaries they are being offered? Those are things I would look at.</p>

<p>I think of RPI as having a much stronger program than RIT, with a stronger student body, and would prefer to hire an RPI grad over an RIT grad. (I have actually hired engineers who had graduated from both schools.) How important is the extra $5k/yr to your family? RIT is known for its co-op program, so that may be a factor if that is important to you.</p>

<p>RPI also has a very good Co-Op program. Many kids will do a Co-Op summer in Fall or Spring into summer of JR or SR year. </p>

<p>Kids from either school should be able to get good paying internships over the summer which I think makes the value of the coop program less important. I can’t really help you with the decision, my very strong student had RPI as a safety. I liked it a lot. The students seemed smart, dedicated and fun in a nerdy way. The two students I know who attended did very well on graduating. I have never looked at RIT so can’t comment on it. Seven years ago the average starting salaries coming out of engineering/comp sci at RPI were around $60,000 a year fi I am remembering correctly.</p>

<p>After running numbers to see how much I can pay for school per year with my financial aid packages, I would graduate with about 60k worth of debt if I went to RIT and about 90k worth of debt if I went to RPI, after looking at the number again with miscellaneous expenses, my parents and I calculated a little more than 5k difference per year. its more like 8k more to go to RPI per year. Still not too bad of a difference, but it makes the total debt a little scarier to look at. I’ve compared the curricula at both of the schools for the computer engineering program. They seem to be extremely similar. I’ve seen corporate partners from RIT and they include companies like Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, NASA, iRobot, Harris, Boeing and more. I haven’t found many things about RPI’s corporate partners, only a couple such as Microsoft, IBM, and Intel. I don’t know what I would like to specialize in just yet, but I have an interest in working for a large computer company, or I would like to pursue something in the robotics field. I would also like to do a co-terminal program at both of these schools, where you graduate in 5 years with a masters and bachelors degree </p>

<p>Rpi has a co-terminal program, and they give you the same merit money you earned for undergrad if you do the 5th year masters. </p>

<p>IMHO, 90K in debt is too much.</p>

<p>Also consider the locations of both schools. Rochester isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity, but Troy is, well, closer to Vermont, which is great if you like to ski…</p>

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<p>Many would consider even $60,000 in debt to be too much for undergraduate study.</p>

<p>But yes, a high co-op frequency can lower four year graduation rates. What may be more important (but rarely published) is the 8 semester (or 12 quarter) graduation rate, which reflects four academic years in school (excluding co-ops or other semesters off school). But even that should not be overly emphasizes, since graduation rates are strongly related to admissions selectivity. The difference in your personal chance of graduating on time probably varies much less from one school to another compared to the difference in the schools’ graduation rates.</p>

<p>If you are up to the task, RPI will be a much more rigorous academic environment. You need to be honest with yourself about whether or not you have the stamina and the intellectual horsepower to succeed in that program. If so, the RPI CE grads I know have done amazing things with their careers.</p>

<p>Even $60,000 in debt is really high. RPI is not worth $90,000 in debt, but RIT is not worth $60,000.</p>

<p>Is there anyway you can reload and try different schools? Consider applying now to a school for January of 2015. Sorry, but you do not need to graduate with that kind of debt. $20,000 to $25,000 is manageable. Going higher is getting into risky territory.</p>

<p>There used to be a rule of thumb that the amount of reasonable debt was what you could expect for your first year’s salary. I don’t know if that makes sense in the current economic climate or not. I’d definitely check out whether either school has done employment surveys for their graduating classes - I know when my older son was all the tech schools had the numbers at their fingertips and some on their websites as well.</p>

<p>If you want career survey information:
<a href=“Salary and Career Info | Career Services and Co-op | RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/students/salary&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Students | Career and Professional Development”>Students | Career and Professional Development;

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I grew up near RPI and took some classes there during HS. Troy is an industrial city in decline. I wouldn’t exactly call it a desirable area or hotbed of activity. There isn’t a lot to do, and a few areas can be unsafe (not near campus). Some related quotes from posters on this forum are at the bottom of my post. Persons interested in skiing typical went to one of the mountains in upstate NY, rather than Vermont. There are some decent places ~1 hour away from RPI. Some of the same things could be said about Rochester, but if considering only location, I’d favor Rochester over Troy.</p>

<p>*“Downtown is pretty ****ty, there’s pretty much only one place street to go to, 4th street. Theres a few pizza shops there, and a bar and a club across the street from eachother. Other than that there isn’t much that you’ll be doing in Troy. The areas around RPI are mostly residential so they’re not too bad, lot of decent places for off campus apartments.”</p>

<p>“-Troy is a ghetto. You don’t want to walk around the city alone at night… RPI’s campus is great though.”</p>

<p>“Troy is the 'hood. It’s really rundown, cold, snowy, and too dangerous. RPI campus is really viewtiful tho.”</p>

<p>“There is no college town, no coffee shops, very few restaurants, places to walk around and shop and/or relax, etc. There is really nothing to do in Troy; it is still an ugly town really.”</p>

<p>“Downtown Troy is fairly nice, really, and it’s plenty safe during the day. There are some sketchy streets though, and I’ve been confronted and asked for money before (in an intimidating fashion but not an openly threatening one) on some of those streets around sundown. Basically, if you don’t see anyone on a certain street, you probably shouldn’t walk down it.”*</p>