<p>My son is accepted to RPI. He's a medal winner, and has a fairly healthy scholarship offer.
He's also accepted to Lehigh, Lafayette, and Villanova.
He's pretty sure he wants MechEngr - but being so young, doesn't want to completely limit his education to the technical - without having exposure to a Liberal Arts education.
He writes beautifully, and really enjoys English, History, Music as well as Physics, Math, etc.
He's academically balanced - both in interest, and in ability.
He's currently enrolled in 3 AP's, and the remainder are all honors classes.
His gpa is a straight 4.0 - as he has never gotten a B.
I'm only saying this to demonstrate his strengths are across the board - not just in the sciences.
Given all of that, and given what he thinks he knows about RPI - he's ruling it out.
I don't think he should - but I'd love some input.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Thanks.</p>
<p>Take a look at this...
<a href="http://www.rpi.edu/research/media/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.rpi.edu/research/media/index.html</a></p>
<p>Very interesting - thanks.</p>
<p>Getting a well-rounded education seems to be a common concern for people when considering RPI... as it is quite a techie school and carries that stereotype. At the interface of technology and the arts, RPI does have a very strong electronic arts program (see <a href="http://www.arts.rpi.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts.rpi.edu/</a> ), in fact one of the top ranked programs at RPI, and has gotten a lot of attention with the EMPAC center. There is also a very strong science, technology and society (STS) program. </p>
<p>As far as the rest of the liberal arts, english, music, history, social sciences etc.. the departments are relatively small, but not necessarily bad. (see <a href="http://www.hss.rpi.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.hss.rpi.edu/</a> ) As my adviser says "They offer all the basic courses, enough to get majors in the fields, but its not like we have a department on Slavic Languages or anything like that." Also keep in mind that all students are required to take 24 credits (6 courses) in the humanities and social sciences, including a writing intensive course, so you can't be completely isolated from the humanities. Currently, I have been taking philosophy courses, and am considering a minor in the field. I am not sure how the department compares when it comes to size, but they do offer quite a few courses and the professors are top notch. Currently I am taking "Philosophy of Science" and enjoying it a lot.</p>
<p>I guess in conclusion if hes considering RPI I don't think he should worry about the liberal arts not being available or the courses not being very good in general.. but if he is unsure and thinks he might want to switch to a liberal arts major (besides Electronic Arts or STS), then he probably should consider a university which is not science and engineering focused.</p>
<p>Another thing to be aware of is that RPI is part of a consortium of colleges and universities in the Capital Region (Troy/Albany) area, and students at RPI can take courses at these other schools - many of which are large schools offering a wide variety of classes (such as SUNY Albany) or are liberal arts schools. Check out the bottom of page 2 - page 3 at the following link: <a href="http://www.rpi.edu/academics/catalog/pdf06-07/Academic_Info_0607.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.rpi.edu/academics/catalog/pdf06-07/Academic_Info_0607.pdf</a></p>