<p>(Also posted on Parent Forum.)</p>
<p>We visited Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on a super hot day in July. While I maintain that summer is NOT the time to go college visiting, I also know that sometimes it is just unavoidable.</p>
<p>We had visited the City of Worcester with my eldest son, who looked at Holy Cross, so this time we didnt look around too much. The memories were still rather fresh in my mind the city has seen better days. (The same could be said for our hometown but I know it has good stuff once you're familiar with it - maybe Worcester is the same?) We stayed at a brand new Marriott Residence Inn and got free dinner and breakfast! It was a great deal and a very comfortable place for the three of us.</p>
<p>As a little introduction I should say my son is quite intent on being an engineer. He is a techie through and through. He does not care if he is in a big city or a corn field. He also does not seem to care if there are few girls. (Although he has a casual girlfriend here at home I dont think that is entering into that consideration.) He is not interested in sports, school spirit (i.e. football), partying, or Greek. He is a musician and is seeking opportunities to play in a decent orchestra or other ensemble and participate in theater productions. He wants to go to a small college, however this may or may not happen.</p>
<p>We did the campus tour first and a nice young woman showed us, and one other kid and dad, around. They have a brand new admissions building which is lovely, but seems rather large for a school with only 2851 undergrads (1018 full and part time graduate students). There goes the scholarship money perhaps???</p>
<p>The campus is quite compact at 80 acres, 33 buildings. It is on a hill, but flat once youre up there. It is in a residential neighborhood. We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, which was fairly scuzzy.</p>
<p>Like all campus tours, we only saw a fraction of things and I realized this even more when I looked at their online virtual tour when we got back home. <a href="http://www.wpi.edu/About/Tour/%5B/url%5D">http://www.wpi.edu/About/Tour/</a></p>
<p>The campus is really quite pretty; lots of trees, historic old and somewhat-new buildings. Not as much new construction as Ive seen on other campuses. Facilities did not seem as high-tech as Ive seen at other (engineering) schools. (But, I really have no idea what Im looking at.) The tour did not emphasize the techie-ness of the place (unlike a couple of other tours or open houses weve been on).</p>
<p>The dorm we saw was standard fare except the rooms seemed unusually large. Freshman dorms were right on campus. Dining was in the dorm. Housing, however, is not guaranteed after the first year. (I always find that a little worrisome.) There are some apartments for upperclassmen; we saw some of them at a distance and they were not spectacular, but we did not see all the housing.</p>
<p>After the tour we did the information session. Again, that was pretty ordinary, with all the usual buzz and fake diversity. (Am I getting hardened?!) It was well attended, and people seemed to be from a variety of places.</p>
<p>WPI has a very integrated learning approach to their technical majors. It not only feels like a liberal arts college based on the appearance of its campus and its size, but there seemed to be more emphasis here on humanities tied to technical majors. (Which I think is a good thing.) Their program revolves around three Projects, rather than coops or internships (although you might be able to do those too but they are not the emphasis). The first project is a Humanities and Arts Project; five thematically related courses and a final project. The second Project is an Interactive Project; team based, works on a science and technology in society activity usually off campus. The third Project is a Major Project; team based in major field of study. Some of these projects can be done internationally.</p>
<p>I suppose the project instead of co-op theme works especially well if you are wealthy and dont need the money from working a lucrative co-op.</p>
<p>WPI has a different grading system A, B, C and NR (no record). This was described as encouraging risk taking and collaboration. The collaboration part is good, but the risk taking part just sounded expensive to me as you are still paying for the course.</p>
<p>WPI is on a term system that consists of four seven-week terms/ three classes per term. I guess there are mixed feeling in general about short terms. It seems that the thinking here on CC is that they are good for procrastinators, but rushed feeling from a learning stand point.</p>
<p>The thing that really caught my sons attention was WPIs focus on the arts. They seem to have a lively music and theater scene. Wouldnt you know even the tour guide was a musician? That is a first for this round of tours (not so uncommon when we did the LAC tours with eldest son). Some of the engineering schools weve looked at dont seem to have any performing arts going on at all, or they are in huge universities whose music departments do not accommodate an engineering students schedule very well. So, this was a BIG PLUS for my son.</p>
<p>WPI is expensive. Their tuition is $33,318, room and board $9,960. This puts it in the realm of the $40,000/year+ schools out of our league unless some miraculous scholarship appears. They do offer merit scholarships, but their admissions is quite competitive and Im sure their scholarships are too. Their student profile is 3.7 GPA, 1210-1400 SAT CR+MA (mid 50%), 26-31 ACT.</p>
<p>My son also had an interview that, he reported, went well. The admissions person came out and fielded any questions we had (I only had one about early action).</p>
<p>Overall, my son liked this school a lot. It sort of struck me as a place wealthy kids go to get an engineering or computer science degree in a more sheltered (dare I say, coddled?) environment than the typical engineering school at a big university or even RPI or RIT. But, so far, I believe at the undergraduate level smaller class sizes far outweigh fancy facilities and/or extensive research opportunities in engineering. (And for all I know WPI may offer those too...)</p>
<p>If we could afford it hed probably sign up today and not even look at any other schools! But, hell apply and well see how the money looks.</p>
<p>Here are some photos (I hope they work) but the virtual tour on their web site is better! </p>