" If you want strong programs and options with excellent post-graduation outcomes ($$$ - check out the NYT Interactive article), are there to learn and don’t care to be swallowed up in a big city and a huge student body and giant D1 sports programs, perhaps care more about these things than prestige or name recognition or the weather or entertainment, check out RPI!"
What a ringing endorsement to attend RPI! Sounds like a blast to attend!
56% of the students at RPI are in engineering, and over 72% in STEM (63% and 80+% for Georgia Tech). Personally as an engineer, I’d prefer a more diverse college experience.
My son will get a deep and rigorous engineering education at RPI – there is also plenty to do on and around campus, on internships and co-ops – but one must face facts, engineering students don’t have a lot of time to be goofing off during the semester. He will still have a fine college experience there. I’ve never understood kids and parents picking “destination” colleges for the weather, amenities, local attractions – as if they’re signing up for a 4-year cruise. As for “diverse” – my son prefers focus, part of the reason for his choice. I appreciate that he will not just be a student ID number among other tens of thousands at a larger school – I think that will be important to connections to professors and within the departments, both when it comes to learning the most he can while there, and when it comes time get “out there” on internships/co-ops, and the job market.
I think the ease of making faculty connections point is exaggerated.
RPI student:faculty ratio = 13:1
Michigan student:faculty ratio = 15:1
That is not much of a difference at all. Also, while it is perfectly fine for your son to want “focus” and a school with few “distractions” (aka mainstream social opportunities), that is not necessarily what the OP wants.