Currently, I’m stuck deciding which of this two colleges I should go to. I want to major in biomedical engineering and maybe do some math on the side. I am looking for a school with a variety of people and not just one certain kind just so I can experience different types of people (and hopefully become friends with them). I’m looking for a campus that has enough fun to suit my interests but is also challenging enough for me. I also want to immerse myself into clubs or other little hobbies.
In retrospect, going to either one will cost about the same either $21K or $26K. I do want to study abroad and have great opportunities. I haven’t visited RPI yet but I will soon. I’m hoping the campus is nice but maybe Buff is better.
If the cost is about the same I would suggest RPI. IMHO, Buffalo is way too big for an undergrad. Given that it is in an extremely cold and snowy climate it lends itself to students being indoors all year long and moving through campus in their tunnels. I personally don’t find it conduce to the college experience. With that being said, it’s a great school and I’m sure many like it.
I also believe that after graduation the name recognition of RPI will open many doors for you. Upon first glance Troy may seem not so great but it really has a lot to offer with a charm all it’s own. RPI hockey games are a lot of fun too!
I know many students who have left Buffalo without graduating (various reasons from not a fit to outright hating it) but I don’t know anyone who has left RPI. Only very successful graduates.
RPI would be great for BME. Troy is nice but also pretty small and can get a little boring after a while (speaking as someone who has lived in the area for my whole life). You would be right across the river from Albany though, so there is enough to do. RPI hockey games are pretty fun. The only thing I would say to consider is that if you want to meet all different types of people, I’m not sure if RPI would offer the diversity you are looking for. Overall though, RPI sounds like the better option for you. But go with your gut! Hope this helps, good luck!
I’ve been leaning towards RPI, but hearing about the financial issues with the alumni donations decreasing and the mandatory Arch program which is more trouble than good, I’m not sure if RPI is a good choice anymore.
Spend some time over on the RPI forum. I think you are smart to be concerned about ARCH and the implications for co-ops/internships.
If the kinks had already been worked out, I would also vote for RPI (they have an amazing brand new research facility for bio tech). Not so sure I would make the same recommendations now.
@Gelloo my daughter, from Southern California, attended SUNY-Buffalo. She majored in Electrical engineering with a Computer Science emphasis. At first, I wasn’t sure if she had made the right decision. She got into the UC’s here at home. She learned to “deal” with the weather.
It was all new to her, so of course she made some weird choices in what she took to decorate her room and to wear (surfboard, heavy Mexican blankets, huaraches); later, she told us that if she was going to be 3000 miles from home, she needed reminders of home.
She ended up liking UB and the engineering program. When she applied for internships, the employers were unfamiliar with the UB program, but they saw that she brought in different ideas, from UB, that weren’t what the UC students were bringing. (She later developed and organized a program, based on a flowchart, that was based on something she learned from a course at UB. Her managers took it company-wide and implemented it.)
She had no problems getting a job in SoCal.
RPI ARCH asks you to take junior classes over the summer after your sophomore year. SUNY Buffalo students will often not find an internship after sophomore year, its very very hard to find one that year for even MIT students, believe it or not, so RPI’s Summer ARCH makes sense. And it places you in a longer internship in the junior year, either fall or spring of junior year.
Remember RPI ARCH gets you into a very top internship for a semester, so better than a summer job.
I would vote for RPI and ARCH. Read here about how ARCH prepares you for the workplace, think of it
as a shoe in internship. Summer internships are very hard to land today for many engineers. I know many students
at Georgia Tech who are going empty handed on summer work. RPI helps students with ARCH find a semester internship, and that will be a great thing to have on your resume.
RPI has solid finances and is well managed. I would not worry at all about donations, or any noise about the President and older white male engineering alumni. There is some racism and the President of RPI is an MIT graduated PhD physicist with focus on getting RPI to the next level in both science and engineering. She had a 20 year career at Bell Labs in physics, so understands finances, she was a manager at AT&T, and the RPI alumni are just pretty inflexible to fight with her.
Internships and COOPs are promised to everyone at RPI as part of the Arch program but we all know that is a fantasy. In all, it seems to be disorganized and leaves students with money out of their pockets and out of a possible internship.