<p>I have been admitted to the electrical engineering program of RPI and Penn: TA & tuition waive at RPI, TA without tuition waive at Penn. </p>
<p>The tuition is about $30,000 at Penn (but I think I can obtain a RA position since the second year.) Besides, EE@RPI seems to be better than EE@Penn according to USNEWS. </p>
<p>Despite of these cons, I a little prefer Penn not only because of its reputation but its location, Pilly. Do you guys have any suggestion for me? Please be as honest as possible and don't hesitate to give me some negative comments. Thanks.</p>
<p>I chose RPI over Penn because RPI's engineering school is just much stronger, my dad got his Masters in MechE from Penn and although that was a while ago he wasn't that impressed. There are a lot of other factors too, Philly is a much better place to go to college than Troy, if you want to take a lot of business courses Penn obviously has Wharton, and if you want a lot of good liberal arts classes Penn would obviously have a much better selection. If you have any specific questions about RPI feel free to ask me.</p>
<p>I don't know what repuation you speak of, but when you're talking about engineering, RPI is a highly respected engineering school. Picking a "well-name" Ivy school like Penn or Harvard to do engineering is not the brightest idea in the world. So reputation wise, RPI is better, and since its a tech school, studying is part of our culture, so you'll have better study habits here. The environment is really supportive too, meaning that the students are helpful and nice. And RPI is smaller too and very undergrad oriented (like 4800 undergrads and 1300 grads), so the environment is better in that way also.</p>
<p>Philly vs Troy: Perhaps every normal person would pick Philly. You're talking about a big city with moderate climate versus an old, rundown and unsafe town in the middle of nowhere besides a lot of woods and the really really small, old, and rundown NY state capital of Albany, where it also is very very cold and snows a lot. Supposedly, lots of haunted places in the area too. Number 7 on the US most haunted list is Oakwood Cemetary right here in Troy. Something just appeals to me about our location. I don't know, it's kinda cool to me, maybe it reminds me of "The Shining" lol.</p>
<p>In short, RPI engineering is more prestigous than an Ivy League engineering (except Princeton and Cornell of course, Cornell being very similar and just a tad bit better). The environment is great. Just the location sucks. I think that outweighs Penn. But, it's your choice my friend.</p>
<p>Penn, as with the rest of the huge universities, tend to be best for people who arent quite decisive about what they want to major in -- alot more is available. I would consider Penn to be more elite, even in engineering, but as an RPI student I feel so much more comfortable in the program here. Most of the school is going through the same thing you are, which really does help.
As for location, I am a huge Phillies fan and I miss being able to go to Philly all the time (thats what the summer is for I guess), Troy is definitely nothing to speak of</p>
<p>Look at the engineering rankings. RPI engineering is better than Penn engineering. It's like saying, should I go to Williams College over RPI to do engineering?? Sure, Williams is ranked higher overall, but engineering...no. (That is, if Williams even has engineering-I was just making a point).</p>