<p>My child is planning to study computer science in college. Can someone tell me about the strength of the computer science dept. at RPI. Also, are interviews required or recommended? Thanks for your help in advance!</p>
<p>Yes, RPI has a strong CS department.</p>
<p>Also recommend that you look at Carnegie Mellon, WPI, RIT, and Drexel - to name a few.</p>
<p>Interviews are not required.</p>
<p>My S is an Information Technology major and likes the school very much. The parents on this forum are consistently pleased with RPI as a choice for their child.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your reply. He liked RPI when we visited last summer and he will be applying. Thanks also for your recommendations–we just got back from visiting CMU, WPI,RIT, UR, and CWSRU–he liked them all!!</p>
<p>My D started classes today. She is a comp sci major. Loves RPI. We visited/applied/considered/was accepted to most of the schools you have listed. From the moment I stepped foot on RPI I Knew it was the right place for us. I have not been disappointed one moment. They CARE about the students. It is an awesome place and I highly recommend it. good luck.</p>
<p>CS major here. Feel free to ask any questions either in here or via PM.</p>
<p>Cached, how is the “social scene” for a cs student not interested in greek life or sports? Also, do you feel the professors are very accessible? Thanks again everyone!</p>
<p>Admittedly, this is a vague answer, but the best I can tell you is that your social life is what you make of it. If you want, you have the option of focusing almost entirely on academics and spending very little time socializing. At the opposite end of the spectrum, one can do okay in just the required CS classes while retaining plenty of time for whatever activities one wishes to engage in. As you can surely imagine, most people fall somewhere between these two extremes.</p>
<p>Answering your question about <em>which</em> activities there are to engage in is again somewhat difficult to do accurately. There are many completely different clubs of all types, all of which gladly welcome newcomers. Oftentimes, students will try something completely foreign to their usual highschool routines their first year. For example, I tried equestrian team, one of my roommates (who happens to also be a CS major) entered the ballroom dancing club/team, etc. Of course, there are also the usual nerd-friendly clubs out there (such as chess club, math club, etc.), many of which my roommates and I are part of.</p>
<p>Beyond this, there is also the fraternity/sorority scene. I am probably the <em>worst</em> source at RPI for information on this topic, so I’ll leave that for others to fill in.</p>
<p>If you just want to hang out with others (whether for a fixed social activity or not), it’s generally pretty easy to find a group of students who share your interests (unless it’s something <em>very</em> exotic, I guess). Among 5000+ students, there are bound to be some people who share your interests.</p>
<p>I’m sure I completely glossed over or missed some topic, so if you have any additional questions feel free to ask here.</p>