My daughter is considering applying. Can anyone comment on the social life on campus and in Troy?
I’m a current upperclassman and can elaborate a bit on RPI’s social life. It depends what kind of social life your daughter wants. RPI has over 200 clubs covering pretty much every hobby and interest. That does not include intramural sports or varsity athletics either, where there are a lot more. Student life is very vibrant in that sense and you can easily meet friends in clubs. The freshman dorms are the best way to make friends usually and the dining halls when school starts.
The student union used to be student run, meaning the student government was able to manage the staff and budget without supervision. That was a great source of pride on campus, but has been stripped from the student body entirely in the past year. Hockey Line (another campus tradition), which is pretty much a giant tailgate for hockey season was also ended by the administration. I’m bringing this up since student life is slowly losing the “student” element. RPI administration is taking over all elements of the student experience without any student or alumni input.
There are 25 Greek organizations (down from last year), which provide a great social outlet to make friends, etc. I joined a fraternity and it was one of the highlights of my college experience at RPI. It was also unexpected since I’m a complete nerd, but most RPI fraternities/sororities are like that anyway. Sororities at RPI are very well mannered and not like sororities from state schools. They are relatively unaffected by the recent RPI crack down on Greek Life since there are only five sororities, they all strictly ban alcohol, and they haven’t had any judicial cases in like twenty years.
On the other hand, there are pratically zero parties anymore, even if you are over the age of 21. My freshman year there was a lot of night life, but Greek organizations are no longer allowed to have registered parties.When I went back to campus there were hordes of freshman roaming the streets of Troy looking for things to do on a Friday night. I completely expected this given that around a third of campus is involved in Greek Life and fraternities were the primary social institutions on campus.
There are some apartment parties and the sports teams also throw parties illegally, but those are sketchy unless you know someone. So summed up, if your daughter is looking for a night life they can kiss that goodbye if they go to RPI.
This doesn’t really impact seniors since they are 21 and can go downtown. Troy has some of the most bars and pubs per square mile in the United States and a lot of great local breweries. But, again, the nightlight is dead now. This might change over time, but as of right now that’s down the toilet.
The town of Troy is really nice though. It’s not as exciting as a large urban area like NYC, but there are a crazy amount of nice places to eat ranging from ethnic food to hipster places. There is also a book store, record store, tea shop, farmer’s market, etc. There are also two malls nearby with a lot more shops and a movie theater with buses that run to them. Albany is also closeby and the Saratoga Springs race track so there’s plenty to do there as well (all buses are free for students in Troy/Albany and it takes only 30 minutes by bus to go to Albany).
Summed up: RPI’s social life is okay, unless you want a night life. That’s dead until you’re 21, unless the school decides to lessen its restrictions on Greek Life (not gonna happen). Troy is a cute town and fairly safe with a lot of nice places to eat and explore. There are malls nearby and Albany is pretty cool.