<p>U of Rochester would probably be the best if your son enjoys seeing a shaved leg once in a while. The others all have a lot more males than females, I’m pretty sure.</p>
<p>Between RIT, UR, RPI, and WPI, I think RPI has the best facilities. They’ve been on a tremendous building spree the last 10 years.</p>
<p>I know the OP said weather doesn’t matter, but with RIT and UR both being in Rochester, the winters will be long and brutal. Troy is pretty cold, too.</p>
<p>I thought RIT had by far the ugliest campus, not every kid cares though, my S didn’t really even notice. You’re on the 5-year plan here because of the co-op requirement.</p>
<p>Lack of a core curriculum at UR has a lot of appeal to some kids because you don’t waste your time taking a bunch of humanities you don’t care about, and it makes it easy to double-major or even triple-major.</p>
<p>The quarter system at WPI can be very intense, they shrink a semester-long course into a quarter, but you take less courses at a time. The problem, I’m told, is if you get sick and miss even a week, or fall a little behind, it is difficult if not impossible to catch up. WPI also requires several major projects as part of the degree requirements, and these can often be fulfilled at various places around the US or internationally. This is pretty unusual for an engineering school.</p>
<p>My S was accepted to all 4 of these, but ultimately chose our state flagship. Even though he didn’t think he wanted something that large, the engineering school is really like a school within a school, and he doesn’t really feel he is at a huge state U.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Case Western.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I graduated from RPI and might possibly be biased.</p>
<p>I think RPI and Rochester the two to choose from here. </p>
<p>They are very different. My sense is Rochester is more theoretical and RPI is more applied. I think Rochester is better preparation for graduate school and RPI will offer more preparation for a job, but both will prepare well for both paths. Rochester can provide a more well rounded education that will include significant humanities and social science course with students in those courses who care about the subject. RPI, not so much. </p>
<p>Maybe have your son do an overnight at both to due his own “due diligence”. </p>
<p>Case has a very good engineering school, but I’m less impressed with their computer science. WPI is even more applied than RPI. I don’t think RIT draws the caliber of students that the others do.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to these schools for CS 2 years ago. IMO 1. U of R
2. RPI
3. WPI=RIT=Case
I actually liked all of these schools! Congrats!</p>
<p>My son was accepted at Case, RPI, U of R, and WPI last year. He seriously considered Case and RPI because they felt like schools on the move up – energized campus, building, new programs, impressive presidents, hiring, etc. </p>
<p>Case in particular, and UR as well, offer more of a university feeling with better liberal arts. </p>
<p>RPI was the best program for his interest (game design from varied approaches, including cognitive science with three new tenure track profs hired just that year) but in the end he worried that his diverse liberal arts needs would not be met. That would not be true for every student. </p>
<p>WPI seemed regional. Though highly regarded in some fields, it didn’t seem to have the overall intellectual breadth. However, not only as that impressionistic, but not all students would care about that if the speciality was met well.</p>
<p>Consider the influence of Greek life at these schools, too, depending on how your student feels about them. It felt strongest at Rochester, though that may not be true numerically.</p>
<p>In the end, he didn’t go to any of them but they all impressed. So great news for your child!</p>
<p>If there is any possibility that your son will change his mind about CS, then Rochester would be a good choice. It’s amazing the changes kids go through - the president of UR tells the story that he entered college as a determined, never gonna change chem major. He graduated a philosophy major.</p>