General advice for UMass vs RPI for CS: It’s all about cost and fit here - the programs are of similar quality and reputation, so pick the one you can afford, and if the difference in price is negligible, focus on other fit factors.
For engineering, I may lean slightly to RPI, but not so much that I wouldn’t look at fit given things like location, gender ratio, and diversity of subjects.
Thank you @PengsPhils we are planning on visiting RPI, as well as NorthEastern, WPI, UCONN and URI. Such a difficult choice. I’m having a hard time figuring out where she will be the happiest as she hasn’t given me a sign that “this is it” . I’m gathering all the data to advise her.
@PengsPhils I hear you are the expert so I will ask you. First are you a student or parent? If my son has a choice of RPI,Stevens,Lehigh or Stony Brook, can you identify factors that will help support attending RPI as a civil engineer major? He has visited RPI twice and feels it is a good fit, it is just after studying our financial package for the next 4 years, seeing tentative tuition rise over $20k is a significant increase compared to other comparable schools that have a cap at 3% for direct costs or on average it appears schools will normally increase on average $10k over the 4 years.
Good luck! I’m of course a bit biased as a Northeastern student, but if she likes co-op I say that may be a good sign 
Then again, the cost is always a consideration too of course. Feel free to PM me / mention me in any thread if you need an opinion from someone on the internet!
I wouldn’t say full on expert, but I spend a bit too much time with admissions / and researching CS programs specifically and know a good deal about the northeast tech schools for various reasons lol.
I can’t speak to tuition increases at RPI specifically and I’d need to see exact costs for all schools to advocate for one option over the others personally, but here’s some general pro’s of RPI:
How much is the total cost difference in the end between the other options?
@joedoe actually goes to RPI (I only researched and have friends who visited / attended via jobs and high school) and will likely be able to help more.
@underscoreone congrats on your acceptance at many fine schools. Our son is deciding between Umass vs RPI for compsci.
If you see your career eventually evolving into less technical roles (e.g… leading/managing an IT department or other corporate management), UOR deserves serious consideration. It is considerably better in non-technical areas but still good in CS. It also has a program where you can attend a fifth year tuition-free. Students can double or even triple major. Those opportunities were not that important to my son. If he was not 100% sold on a technical career, he would have applied.
Does your son have an interest in a particular compsci subfield (say, AI or machine learning)? Based on what I’ve researched so far, I think UMass offers some incredible resources for those fields. If you just go to the UMass webpage for ML for example, it offers you 10+ different research groups right off the bat: https://www.cics.umass.edu/faculty/machine-learning. I recall seeing a list somewhere that it’s ranked in the top 10 in the country for its ML program. Its comp sci faculty are pretty distinguished: https://www.quora.com/Which-college-should-I-pick-between-Dartmouth-and-Amherst-if-I-want-to-study-machine-learning/answer/Emery-Berger
@CompSci2018 I’m incredibly biased given that I go to RPI, but I’d say that the biggest factor when choosing between RPI and a state school like UMass should be whether you can afford it. If you can afford both universities, I’d lean more towards RPI, but otherwise there are pros and cons. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to take out a lot of loans to go to college (in my definition, I mean taking out more than federal loans).
UMass has a lot more parties than RPI, granted RPI still has plenty. RPI has smaller classes than UMass, but UMass has a lot more students - it really depends what you’re looking for. It’s probably also harder to get a research position at UMass, RPI makes it so pretty much anyone that applies with a half decent GPA (2.5+) can do research. Granted, if you’re a great student you can probably stand out at UMass. Both universities have distinguished faculty and do a lot of research, but the RPI brand name carries more weight in industry. You can still do well at either university though and get a great job out of college - RPI just makes it a lot easier to get into a good company given the alumni network/reputation.
Also, given that you mentioned dual majoring and such, RPI offers the co-terminal program so they extend undergraduate aid and scholarships for grad school which you can finish in one year through the co-terminal program and it’s also super easy to dual or triple major if it fits into your schedule.
It’s a tough choice and how much money you have to pay should definitely play a large role in the decision. That’s at least my take on it - best of luck in your decision!
My son was waitlisted from RPI with 790M/720 . Took SAT once, has 95/100 overall in highschool…comp sci major. Goes to a NJ vocational school he had to test into…etc. AP…all the stuff you need. He been accepted to Northeastern and WPI, RIT, BU…similar weighted schools. What gives?
@PengsPhils Just got back from accepted student day at Northeastern we all had a very positive experience. I have to admit the Co-op program really impressed us even though we thought it was a waste of time before. Waiting to visit WPI and RPI before we make our final decision. I have to say the zero merit and no honors college at Umass Amherst really soured it for her. While she has gotten both everywhere else she has applied. I was really pushing for her to go to a state school but if it’s only a 10 k diff for the others I’d rather she is extremely happy than force her to make a decision based solely on cost. idk it’s too many choices in my opinion 
Glad you enjoyed! Co-op is absolutely the real deal here, and with Boston being such a medical hub, it should offer some invaluable experiences in Biomedical Engineering
Even though I think Northeastern is best in terms of co-op/practical stuff like that, to be fair to the others, WPI and RPI both have their own takes on it and are all in the same category of practically tied educations. And while the lack of merit/honors makes it easy to sour on UMass, honors really make a huge difference at any of these schools in the end (as far as I’m aware), so don’t discount a good option of course.
I do agree though that a 10K difference is where things like fit and other factors. Personally, part of what helped Northeastern win out for me (over WPI/RPI, didn’t look at UMass as OOS) were things like location, gender ratio, academic diversity, etc. All depends on what your daughter is looking for. Visiting I think will likely clear it up. Good luck!
Wow, just went back here to reread some stuff and my apologies for the terrible incomplete sentences in post #29. Must have been half awake lol.
honors doesn’t really make a huge difference …
other factors come into play.
Our son is deciding between Stony Brook, Umass and is currently wait listed at RPI for Applied Mathematics… he LOVES RPI and is really hoping to get off of the wait list, but for Applied Mathematics, is it even a great school? He has 790 math 720 English and 3.7 unweighted GPA 780 Math 2 Subject test. Don’t see why he was wait listed at RPI… what do you all think the chances are of getting off of the wait list for math, and would you pick it over SB or Umass for math?
We have the same here, our son loves RPI, currently wait listed… about the same scores He has 790 math 720 English and 3.7 unweighted GPA 780 Math 2 Subject test… didn’t get into the Honors College at Umass either. I was told it doesn’t make much of a difference for a Math major as the classes are all pretty small in that department, but so wish he could be in the dorm with the Honors College. Makes little sense to me. He is going for Applied Mathmatics
Hi! I was waitlisted from RPI and I’ve been emailing them and trying to show my interest because I would really like to go there. If anyone hears that they or someone else has been, removed from the waitlist anytime before May 1st please let me know! I hope they tell us soon
WAIT LISTS FOR SOME EASTERN STEM SCHOOLS:
CMU 2834 applicants on list, 4 admitted, class size 1,676;
Georgia Tech 2,267 on list, 470 admitted, class size 2,858;
Lehigh 2799 on list, 53 admitted, class size 1,234 (was that by design?);
RPI 2,420 on list, 4 admitted, class size 1,691;
VPI 2,404 on list, 0 admitted, class size 6,832;
WPI 1,519 applicants on list, 0 admitted, class size 1,124
Could not find Common data set numbers on website for RIT, Stevens, or Clarkson
With the possible exception of Georgia Tech, this is why EA is a better option if you are really interested in the school
Any news on the waitlist? anyone get an email or call?
I asked them if they ill use it and they said most likely no 
But they also said they will let all waitlisted students know in a couple of days
@classof18woo when did you talk to them?