<p>I got rejected for graduate school for highly ranked programs, but I got accepted for direct PhD entrance at RPI in biomedical engineering. Since I knew very little about RPI, the greatest reason I applied at RPI was because the application fee was waived and it was fairly simple getting my material together after applying elsewhere. Is it really that significant to go to RPI? Does having a PhD in biomedical engineering at RPI make graduates competitive with the highly ranked schools (e. g., Ivy League)?</p>
<p>RPI is ranked 38 for its graduate program in engineering. (Take that for what you will because I find rankings to be stupid). Cornell is ranked 13th, Columbia is ranked 15th, Princeton is 17th, UPenn is 22, Harvard is 23, Yale is 34, Brown is 48th, and Darthmouth is 55. So RPI is pretty good compared to the Ivies.</p>