It wasn’t perfect, as no school is - but I am 100% on board with the WPI program. Their professors are so passionate and the WPI students were engaging and truthful. They also do A LOT outside their major and my daughter loved that. They are extremely transparent about their curriculum, how to minor, or double major. I love that your advisor is from your major.
Our negatives are the dorms. The freshman are in triples that are obviously made for doubles and the cost for them is too high and there is absolutely no room. Only one dining hall the freshman can use. It was all old dark and the furniture was doctor office furniture. Most dorms we have visited had fun common areas with pianos, ping pong, comfy couches, I was surprised there was no theater or more common spaces. But there were so many off places to live after freshman year and then she would be off the meal plan.
But it is in the top 2 now for sure. Sailed past a few. We really liked Worcester too.
Anyway, if any interested families have questions, I can try and answer them.
I am so glad you liked your visit! My son is finishing his freshman year and loves it. He loves his classes and his newly made friends.
Not all dorms are triples. My son is in a double in a 6 person suite (2 doubles and two singles) at the Founders building. His room is very spacious. After freshman year, they can move to apartment style living, which is what he will be doing in the fall. He is in a double room in one of the apartments (google WPI Ellsworth).
I hope freshman dorm living does not scare you/your daughter from attending WPI. This is a fantastic hands on school. My son is already planning for IQP selection in the fall. He is hoping to go internationaly and has a list of top locations/projects he would like to apply to. If she wants to travel abroad while pursuing a STEM related career, this is the school to attend!
My daughter graduated from WPI a few years back. She liked it and so did I.
She was in a triple that was built as a double her freshman year. She actually liked the room. Not a lot of space but it worked out. She is a fussy eater, so dorm food wasn’t her favorite.
She and one of her freshman roommates and the girl across the hall got an apartment a little ways of campus for the rest of her time at WPI. Was cheaper than the dorm and she cooked her own food (and for her roommates quite a bit; one of which my daughter claimed couldn’t boil water). Her doing her own cooking also saved me a bunch of money.
She said she always felt safe around campus as there was always people around when she was walking back and forth to school. If it got too late, she used the safe ride home system.
She did her IQP project in London and then toured Europe with a friend for about 2 weeks after that as it was then summer.
Ditto - we are 85% sure that my daughter will commit soon. She attended the Athena overnight (before the openhouse) and was very impressed with the students.
Super glad you enjoyed accepted students’ day! Lots of students as well as faculty and staff put in extra time to make sure that’s a fun event. The dorms are pretty cramped (sounds like from your description you saw Riley, where I lived Freshman year), but you will find fun activities all over campus–they just don’t take up space in the dorms. One of the lecture halls is rigged with surround sound for playing movies; there are ping-pong tables in our rec center.
Anyone with lingering questions about WPI please feel free to DM me! I’m a senior in BME.