<p>I would appreciate comment about whether there are any safety issues at RPI. In reading various forums, it appears that there is a belief that crime is a significant concern - although it appears that this is on the outskirts of campus or outlying perimeter. Also, does anyone have any comments on the upperclass housing that is off campus - safety and quality-wise? Thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t think any campus can claim complete safety, all students need to learn to be street wise. There was a recent stabbing at Cornell, a student held up by gun point at CMU. There’s crime in Troy and campus crimes are posted obviously in the hallways to publicize any events. Doesn’t seem to be any hidden crime waves. Some parts of Troy are better left avoided, others are quite nice, other are plain normal or just not rich. My son is in Blittman this year, the former hotel. It seems fine in the area and a very spacious dorm with great food. Off campus depends on the landlord, location and what you are willing to pay. We ended up buying an off campus house since we’ll have two kids two years apart. It was good retirement diversification and they’ll each get to use it two years.</p>
<p>Agree with Sandpit.</p>
<p>My S is a freshman and when he was home over Spring Break I asked him about safety around school. His feeling was that if you used your common sense (don’t go where you know you shouldn’t alone late at night, etc.), then you were ok and safety wasn’t an issue.</p>
<p>for the first time in the two years my son has been there, they had a campus wide lock down this morning. Students all received text messages to stay indoors and lock doors and a loud PA system made the announcement. Why? The webiste says</p>
<p>This is an RPIAlert. An armed robbery occurred on Hoosic St. The perpetrator reported near ECAV/LINAC. All should shelter-in-place, that is go indoors, lock windows & doors. An all clear will be sent via RPIAlert when the situation is deemed safe</p>
<p>Those buildings are way at the fringe of campus yet they are shutting down the whole campus. I’d say they are really looking out for the kids. An armed robbery can happen anywhere there’s cash.</p>
<p>My brother is currently a senior at RPI, and he lives in an off campus apartment with room-mates. I know that Troy can be a rather “shady” area, but he has never had a problem walking back places (i.e. the student union) late at night back to his apartment (about a 5-7 minute walk). Troy may seem like a terrible place, but it’s not THAT bad if you’re just smart about it. </p>
<p>As far as housing, it’s not hard to find off campus housing, as long as you start looking early. Their are plenty of landlords that are willing to rent out to students for the year with pretty affordable rent. Truth be told, living off campus will save you a ton of money, because room and board at RPI is ridiculously over priced for what it is.</p>
<p>hmm, I am visiting RPI this summer and I will definitely check out the town.
I’ve been to Berkeley and its right next to Oakland, anyone who’s been to both, can you compare the two regions safety wise?</p>
<p>Oakland is far far worse than Troy. My husband and daughter saw crime within minutes of being in a grocery store parking lot. (drug deals) Berkeley campus is not directly next to Oakland, there’s the buffer of Emeryville. Trouble occurs when the Oakland crime spree expands to neighboring towns. A branch of a business we worked with was in Emeryville and faced random crime.</p>
<p>Troy just is not rich. Some beautiful houses are not well maintained (thanks to land lords mainly). It used to be worse. There’s a difference between not rich compared to drug ridden, gang ridden or mentally ill homeless people roaming.</p>
<p>Some parts of Troy, the “downtown” near the river are downright nice. Other parts you just don’t have a reason to visit.</p>
<p>The typical suburban shopping areas are across the river about 10 minutes away (except for Price Chopper and Walmarts).</p>
<p>so you think Troy is safer [but not as rich] as Berkeley?</p>
<p>I haven’t spent enough time in Berkeley to comment on its safety, you were comparing to Oakland. I just wouldn’t put Troy in the “dangerous” category.</p>
<p>We have a son as a freshman at RPI - the recent alert with an armed gunman near campus was handled very effectively - he knew within seconds of the ‘shutdown’ and ‘event’ because of their fine campus security system, that they insist upon you register for at Orientation on campus this summer. Don’t worry. I was impressed and thought back only to the days of other campus tradegies on other campuses and how RPI avoided all of these unfortunate events most successfully.</p>
<p>The main point is that your son/daughter would have to learn and apply common sense, no matter where they attend school. I lived off campus in Troy for 4 years, and in housing of rather low physical quality for 2 of those years. Never had a problem. At the time, most students were not lucrative targets for crime, but on the other hand, many displayed condescending attitudes towards the local residents, and that led to resentments. This is part of developing common sense, and of learning to interact with different people.</p>
<p>Later I obtained a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. You would think that Blacksburg is the perfect college town, and in truth it probably is. But look what happened there.</p>