<p>My daughter got into these colleges. She hasn't decided about the major yet but wants to do something related to engineering. It could be mechanical engineering or computer science or aerospace engineering or something else. What are the pros/cons of these schools and which one would you choose.</p>
<p>All excellent choices. Congrats to your daughter. At this point, just let her decide. Break away from the crowd during visits and let her talk to current students and staff. She has to also ask herself, does she want to be in a big city or smaller city? Warmer climate? North or South? My son chose RPI over Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, and other great schools. He has not regreted that decision. His decision was based on visits, career placement services, dorms, costs, and campus “vibe.” If she knew for certain what she wants to major in, that would make it easier. But few kids know 100% what they want to major in. The good thing is that she seems pretty sure she wants to be an engineer. So, either may work for her. Bias time … I don’t think she’ll regret choosing RPI.</p>
<p>Thank you @PEARL2 for the inputs. She likes colder climate and smaller towns, so RPI, Case, WPI all meet her criteria. I myself am leaning towards RPI too, although in the end, it all depends where she wants to go. However, RPI has fewer girls and I am not sure if that would be an issue. Which year your son is in? What is that your son likes the most about RPI. Would it be worth going to admitted students event?</p>
<p>I will leave the ratio issue alone. Don’t think it’s a huge deal though, particularly for girls. Class of 2017. His decision was based on the school’s reputation, the small but not too small-more select student body, campus facilities, clubs, and job placement potentials. I strongly recommend admitted students day, if you’ve never visited and remain undecided.</p>
<p>Remove WPI and insert University of Maryland, College Park, and my son had the decision to make in 2012. He chose RPI and has been very satisfied. GT is a fine school, but I was not very satisfied with the contacts I had with them during the acceptance process. We never visited Case, because it was lowest on his list. </p>
<p>My daughter is deciding between Northeastern, RPI and Stevens Institute for CS. All three offered great merit scholarships. RPI and Stevens offer getting a masters at the same discount as your undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>Northeastern has its great coop program and Boston environment, RPI is probably the strongest technically, and Stevens has Hoboken and NY and is a quick train ride from home.</p>
<p>If you look at the 25-75% test scores, Northeastern is actually the highest on the list. I don’t think anyone would have realized how much the student body has improved at Northeastern in the past 5 years alone.</p>
<p>I really like the idea that RPI doesn’t have a GPA requirement, to keep your scholarship.</p>
<p>We ruled out WPI early on. They didn’t offer her much merit aid, and I am suspiscious of their 3 classes a quarter system.</p>
<p>She really wants to be able to go out for Indian food,and we noticed one restaurant near Troy.
I think she would fit in very well socially at RPI. We’ll be up to Troy on Saturday for another visit.</p>
<p>Marymac, We are facing the same dilemma. Northeastern, RPI or Stevens. I am sure she should choose RPI but she is not 100% sold. We are going to go to the admitted Student Event this saturday and hopefully she gets positive vibes.</p>
<p>Even though she was accepted to the Stevens Scholar program and was given a nice scholarship, I am apprehensive about Stevens for a few reasons. Only 56% of the faculty are full time. RPI has 81% full time. Stevens is a respected school within the immediate area but no one outside of NY or NJ has ever heard of it. Also, my daughter has an artsy side and I want her to be able to take studio art classes as electives. </p>
<p>She attended the summer program at Stevens and loved Hoboken but the campus itself is the pits. Yes, beautiful views and access to NYC (we only live 1 hour from the city so that is no big deal to us) but also has run down buildings and dorms. even though RPI is a tech school I feel she will be surrounded by a more diverse and larger student group than Stevens. </p>
<p>Now Northeastern is her favorite but the scholarship money just couldn’t match RPI or Stevens. No one wants to graduate with tremendous debt.</p>
<p>RPI has a great reputation and real college campus with a lot of school spirit.</p>
<p>I am not sure what you mean by “RPI and Stevens offer getting a masters at the same discount as your undergraduate degree.” - For us, Stevens offered us a Masters degree in 4 years (taking classes during the summer) but her scholarship was good for 8 semesters. If she needs to go a 5th year to finish (more realistic), we would pay the full tuition. RPI offers a Masters in 5years (co-terminal program) but RPI will extend the grant for 10 semesters, making the fifth year the same price as 1-4.</p>
<p>Lastly, rankings, Stevens: Ranked Nationally #82 Usnews, #212 Forbes, RPI Ranked #41 Usnews, #105 forbes</p>
<p>All the schools mentioned are excellent schools and when it comes down to schools at this level, perhaps are best decided on based upon “fit”.</p>
<p>That said, I have always been nervous about Northeastern, as I have not been able to find job placement information that they make public.</p>
<p>All the other schools mentioned provide comprehensive data on salaries, placement rates, etc. that is easy to find on the web, but I haven’t been able to find similar data for Northeastern. Just makes me a little nervous.</p>
<p>As an overall school, I’m thinking that Georgia Tech is likely the highest rank - overall as a school but i"m thinking also in Aerospace, I believe they were ranked #2 in the country (MIT is #1 ) <a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical</a> My daughter visited Ga Tech and we were blown away by the beauty of the campus and the buildings…a great surprise to us. She’s leaning towards georgetown (she’s going for international relations) but i have a great liking for Ga Tech. </p>
<p>My son was accepted to both RPI and WPI and is walking away to accept USC. Yeah sunshine!</p>
<p>My son was accepted to both RPI and WPI as well. We were quickly and surprisingly able to rule out WPI (my son just didn’t like the atmosphere there). RPI is a fantastic school all the way around and the most reputable IMO. There are good internship opportunities in engineering with RPI and great school spirit. During our decision making process we spoke to friends who are alum at RIT, RPI and WPI, all happen to be in engineering and I just don’t think you can go wrong with any of the schools you mention. Ultimately my son chose RIT as we felt it was best option for his major (game design) it all came down to the program, the professors and just a gut feeling of where he would have a great experience with the particular opportunities he was seeking. Congrats to your daughter for having such wonderful options, she really cant go wrong with any of these schools - perhaps concentrate on what type of experience she is looking to have in college, explore the courses, don’t rely too much on rankings and ratings and go with her gut. </p>
<p>My son was also accepted to RPI, WPI, Case Western and Univ. of Maryland (among others). He is actually leaning toward Case Western right now (although we are going to overnights at Maryland this weekend and to Boston Univ. on April 18). We went to the admitted student overnight last weekend, and he really liked the campus and the programs and the faculty and the other students. We’ve ruled out RPI because every interaction we’ve had with that school so far has been rather curt and dismissive. No warm fuzzies, to be sure. My husband described it best: He said that RPI’s attitude throughout the process has been, “You’ve been accepted. You’re welcome.” Our thought is that if the administration is that way when they are the period of “wooing” accepted students, what woudl it be like after submitting that enrollment deposit? It’s been in stark comparison with the staff at Case Western, which has been falling over themselves to be welcoming and gracious and helpful and enthusiastic. (Also, the male-female ratio is much more even at Case – they have a very strong nursing program that brings in more female students than an engineering-heavy school.) That’s just our opinion, however-- hopefully your experience has been better. Good luck to your daughter in making her decision! </p>
<p>Your right! I had forgotten to mention that aspect of our first RPI visit. There was definitely an elitist attitude by the RPI admissions folk (here’s why we are great, too bad you probably wont get in). RIT had a decidedly different approach (if you are hardworking and ready to challenge yourself we want you) very welcoming and encouraging. My son wanted to attend school with other inspired students, SAT scores cant measure that. We were pretty confident he would get in to both schools so didn’t give the attitude at RPI much thought but perhaps this helped form our opinions more than we realized. All schools have pros and cons, guess its just a matter of what matters most to your daughter…</p>
<p>Our experience with people at RPI has always been Very positive, and on at least one occasion they went way above and beyond. Sorry to hear about some. Less than stellar interactions.</p>
<p>my daughter and I attended their fall open house, and RPI pulled out all the stops to impress and inform applicants about the academics and activities available.</p>
<p>I left the school with an extremely positive impression about the academics.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that the admitted student day will be better.</p>
<p>Their materials engineering program is one of the strongest in the country.</p>
<p>As an RPI alum, it is always dissappointing to hear of someone being turned off from the school due to a perceived attitude or slight from someone in the RPI community. My interactions with the admissions staff while college shopping with my daughter have been positive and enthusiastic, but not over the top gushy like many other schools. I kinda liked that.</p>
<p>A couple of points for folks to remember:</p>
<p>The admissions staff are the salespeople for the college - they are selling the place and their career depends on recruiting the students their bosses want - making the numbers just like any salesperson. That doesn’t mean they personally are fake and uncaring, but that is their job. And each school has an image they are trying sell. Some schools project themselves as exclusive, “an honor to attend”, blah blah blah. Some other schools market themselves as more relaxed, homey, etc. Others are hands on, practical, while others are intellectual. And they tailor their consumer experience to line up with that image. What some might see as arrogance, others might see as confidence. What I think is over the top gushy, others might feel is warm and inviting!</p>
<p>The second point is once you submit your deposit, you will likely never see or talk to an admissions person again. So don’t let your experience good or bad with them paint the entire picture of the place. You should go see what the place is really like - leave the tour and canned presentations and talk to students, professors and alumni out in the wild. We did some of that while on a visit at RPI and what we found was the same as what I saw when I attended there years ago - a bunch of bright, hard working, career oriented students. It is a challenging, rigourous school and it’s not very warm and fuzzy - not cutthroat, but it is intense. But the students we talked to actually liked the environment and the challenge and they all said they could get help or support if they needed it - just don’t expect help to come knocking on your dorm room door! In my opinion that environment is a good preparation for life in industry, academia, public service etc. Real life can be a challenge! </p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone in finding the right place!</p>
<p>Congrats to all the accepted students-all are good schools-BUT speaking to the RPI alum-my children both attend RPI-During accepted day tours everyone is at the top of their game-at least I found-Since we’ve been up there so many times we canned many events and walked into engineering/emac/business director’s/teacher’s offices and were treated very well-without appointments;professors were wonderful during accepted students day and visits-BUT when it comes down to attending the school then it’s a whole different story-I am not pleased with the show RPI puts on for for accepted student day versus how they actually treat their students-from the Bursar’s office to professors. This is a business-PERIOD. The professors are busy with their publications and studies-TA’s sometimes don’t speak English-help is nowhere to be found-So make sure your child is ready to buckle down and take care of themselves-Administration couldn’t give two cents about the students nor their issues once they have you in-they know you are staying if you make it so their job is done-Remember that for the faint of heart-We’ve been dealing with it for three years-two more to go-And I have a family member who is also a RPI alum-he states the same thing-it’s like joining the army-</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is the only state supported institution on this list, but it is just as good as any of them. Easily as good. Do not shortchange it. Choose based on cost, or location, or weather, or whatever, but GT can go toe-to-toe with any of these excellent universities.</p>
<p>Case Western has the disadvantage of being in a decaying metropolis. This could be why they appear to work hard to get you there. There are some decent things to do in Cleveland, but it often feels like finding gems amongst rubble. Cleveland is slowly following in the footsteps of Detroit. I live in Ohio, and get up there regularly. So, be careful before choosing Case.</p>
<p>pmcbts: On our visit to RPI, we actually sat in on a design class for engineers with about 4-5 groups of 7 or 8 students each were discussing their project amongst themselves. We sat with one of the groups while the 2 professors were across the room working with the other groups. As a working engineer, I know a thing or two about team design projects, so was curious about what they were being taught. We spent the better part of an hour listening in on their conversations, occasionally asking them about their project, how they were getting it done, the problems they were having etc. I didn’t ask questions like “do you like it here?” or “are the professors accessible?” - easy questions for a student to provide the “right” answer to - but mainly I just let them talk. From my job, I have learned to pick up on problems, issues, unhappiness pretty well in this manner. But from this discussion, I could tell that they regularly got feedback and help from their professors, oversight from their TA, support from their lab tech etc. just as I would expect. </p>
<p>And I do know that besides professor office hours and TA office hours, there is tutoring, advising and other help available at the Learning Center and I believe the School of Engineering has its own support center in the JEC lounge. </p>
<p>Sorry, but I just didn’t see any evidence that supports your statement that “help is nowhere to be found”. </p>
<p>At work I deal with many recent grads of RPI and from time to time we chat about our experience there: classes, the hockey team, Troy etc, and for the most part they are positive about their experiences. Not everyone thinks it’s paradise, but no one talks with the disdain you are showing.</p>
<p>And of course RPI is a business. Any private school that is not run like a business will go out of business. Being a research university, research is a large part of RPI’s funding stream. So of course professors will be doing research/publishing in addition to their 2-3 courses they teach, and there will be grad students doing grading, recitations, and labs. This is how it works at every research university I know of. And ya, it sucks that you may not be able to communicate well with your TA – it happened to all us from time to time, but none of this is unique to RPI. Perhaps schools that have no or small graduate schools or research provide more access to professors? Maybe – I don’t know. </p>
<p>I read through the thread you started ( <a href=“Lack of support from administration - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/1620633-lack-of-support-from-administration.html</a> ) and it’s clear - you had a run in with the Bursar’s office, are steamed about it and feel anyone considering the place needs to know it. I have no problem with you sharing your experience and having an opinion about the place, but everytime someone counters with a positive experience, you just repeat yourself, essentially declaring “you are wrong, no one at RPI cares about the students - PERIOD” – like everyone one else is being fooled somehow. That’s just not the case.</p>
<p>Like “BearInHoney” my daughter and her friends have been overwhelming positive about their RPI experiences. I am not convinced that most students experience negative interactions with administration or other students.</p>