I heard from several people that WPI and MIT have some joint classes and projects together, is that true? I’ve also heard that WPI and MIT robotics teams work together on certain projects. Finally, is it easier to transfer to MIT from WPI than other STEM related schools such as RPI? And do WPI students have opportunities to work with MIT professors or students?
I know Wellesley College has a joint program with MIT but haven’t heard one with WPI
MIT and WPI are about 50 miles apart. To my knowledge, they do not have a formal, on-going joint project agreement. Because of proximity and a lot of common faculty interest, joint research efforts evolve. For example, MIT is also a sea grant university which means they often receive Federal funds for related research and have worked together with WPI on some research (see https://www.wpi.edu/search/google/MIT%20projects#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=MIT%20projects&gsc.sort=).
WPI also maintains a project center in Boston to facilitate project communications with Boston/Cambridge Universities. WPI’s program is built around a project curriculum for ALL students in three different categories of study and as such requires a constant supply of project materiel.
Another example is The Mitre Corporation. This is is an American not-for-profit organization based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia which manages Federally funded research and is heavily used by both MIT and WPI students.
WPI has over 45 project centers around the world. Many projects involve work with students from universities in England, Switzerland, China et al. They also have a project center in Silicon Valley. Press on “visit global map” at this address: https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program
I don’t believe WPI shares classes with MIT as Wellesley college does. The distance and two very different term systems make it impractical.
Actually WPI did very well in an international robotics competition a few years ago and placed ahead of MIT. We should confess that we were assisted by CMU and MIT educated faculty teaching at WPI and colluded with some CMU graduate students. After the dust settled, we lost one valued faculty member to Northeastern and a second to Georgia Tech.
If we could just get our hands a $1B more, we could stop this problem.
WPI '67
@retiredfarmer Thank you for your unique insight as an alumnus of WPI! Do you think it is easier to get into MIT for graduate school if you attended WPI? And how is WPI in terms of student research efforts? I know that WPI emphasizes a project-based curriculum, but are students free to conduct research?
A researched answer requires time. This methodology is always better than a few anecdotes. As I am in retirement, I did dig up some illuminating data by going through graduate school data for WPI students graduating from 2015 through 2017.
Keep in mind that pure science majors tend to go directly to graduate schools while good engineering graduates have to pass up serious employment opportunities to go directly to graduate school. Consequently we see a much higher percentage of science graduates going directly to graduate school than engineering majors… All the data reviewed here was collected shortly after graduation. The collected data represents about 90% of the graduates so it should be a valid sample.
Class of 2015: Two to MIT: one from CS and one from Robotics
Class of 2016: Two to MIT: one of only 9 Physics grads and one double major with ME/Science & Technology
Class of 2017: No MIT matriculates, but Brown, Columbia, CMU, Cornell, Duke, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, McGill, Purdue, Texas A&M, UCLA, U Pen, and Yale university were all well represented among the 69 elected graduate Schools
While culling through these three years, majors in Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Biology and Biotechnology, and Biomedical Engineering really jumped out with a high number of graduates going on to a very impressive collection of first rate graduate schools, but none to MIT from these groups.
@blazinamazin2023
I am always befuddled by this research discussion. First one should ask what is meant by research? As this discussion seems to center around the Carnegie definition of research university classifications, I looked at their definition of research as presented in Wikipedia. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research
In the application of science as applied by engineers (and many other professions), this sounds to me like “design.” The old black ink laboratory reports required when I was an engineering student many years ago did not meet this definition because we were testing/demonstrating known principles. The repetition of a known process does not meet the definition of research. One has to plow new ground and record the process as the new application of past knowledge is applied. Research is not repetition of something already accomplished. It is new territory.
WPI is all about research where the student is directly and formally involved in this creative process two to three times in a four year process. Not a single student can earn a degree without research.
Research measured by the dollars contracted with an outside organizations is one measure of activity, but it is not the measure of an undergraduate’s personal exercise or experience.
WPI is one of 51 private, not-for-profit universities in the country
WPI is one of 51 private, not for profit research Universities in the country. It is not the largest.
Please see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan
@retiredfarmer Thank you for the well thought out and researched answer! I was asking about research because that seems to be one area that students from similar schools such as RPI emphasize when talking about their schools vs WPI. Your answer on research definitely helped clear this up, and has shown me WPI’s emphasis on creativity and the project-based-learning plan!
The Carnegie classification classifies WPI as having an R2 “higher doctorate research activity” (than many school’s) but not the highest R1 classification. Given their size they may lack funding from corporations or facilities for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Classification_of_Institutions_of_Higher_Education
That being said I am sure you can perform or support research at the undergrad level at WPI. In my opinion the research level is more important at the graduate level. You should be able to get a solid education from WPI that can get you into many R1 schools for graduate work.
P.S. RPI is an R2 classified school as well just like WPI. My guess is the devil is in the details and for graduate work you should look at the specific research and facilities at each specific university you are interested in.
@blazinamazin2023 To get into Phd programs today at MIT, and other top schools, if thats what you are after, requires more than just a bachelors degree from WPI, State U, or an LAC . Note that many applicants to MIT graduate programs hold masters degrees from their home countries before trying for a PhD. About half of MIT’s graduate school seats go to international students ! Its very tough to get in.
What graduate degrees you hold, what research you published, and
type of research you do in the summers, and how your research mentor, normally a professor, matters a lot. Most students that get into MIT either apply for NSF funds and attend REU programs in the summers at other institutions.
Read about REU summer programs here, specifically for undergrads. US Citizenship and a good academic record and recommendations are required.
These research programs are competitive, and focus on physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computer sciences-
https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/
For engineering majors, significant summer jobs where you gain experience in the field and also can gain
a recommandation for a graduate school, is what may be useful. There are many paths for engineers, to gain experiences.
Of course you can stay at WPI in the summers and that could be the most beneficial if you stick with one project, and
do significant work leading to a publication or patent. You would also gain a very good relationship with a research mentor, and a recommendation.
To get into MIT graduate school, and other top schools, also requires a high GRE score and a high GRE subject score in the sciences.
So you have to study for these exams, and get the top scores, to have a shot at MIT.
Studying is recommended say for the Physics GRE subject exam and others. Undergraduate schools that coach
students on these exams often have good success at getting students into top graduate programs.
@BagODonuts RPI is an R1 research institute, according to this WIKI list, which could be dated, but all I could find.
Smaller technical schools like WPI and Colorado School of Mines and others are classified R2 by the Carnegie system. This explains that WPI and
Colorado school of Mines have either less research scientists and/or less labs than the R1 research universities.
Perhaps it has to do with the size of PhD programs? I am not sure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States
@blazinamazin2023 MIT accepts almost NO transfer students, as almost no students drop out after freshman year, to address your original question about transferring to MIT.
MIT graduate school does have what I call “pipeline relationships” in some fields. so in physics, MIT likes grads from Princeton for example. I don’t know how MIT feels about WPI but it will be department by department for graduate school. There is no general admissions committee for any graduate school across the USA, including MIT. So each graduate department makes their own relationships and rules.
A lot of getting into MIT is, did your advisor at WPI, State U, or the LAC go to MIT or work with someone at MIT?
But even that is no guarantee, as it depends on what your research mentor says about you. Also there are just
not enough seats at MIT for every qualified graduate school applicant today.
MIT has not offered a masters degree in computer science in about ten years, either, only PhD programs in EE and CS. That may change when MIT opens the new School of Computing, but I don’t know for sure if masters degrees are part of the new plan at MIT. If they are, it will be much easier to get in, as chances are, you pay for a masters degree, its not fully funded as PhD degrees tend to be at MIT.
MIT departments like Materials Science and Engineering, may be easier for PhD admission, than computer science or physics today.
The reason for that is, there is less demand for a PhD graduate in materials science than for a PhD in computer science, or physics, where the graduate has more teaching, government laboratory and industrial lab job options.
@Coloradomama When I posted RPI was R2 now you are correct with the 2018 update just listed they are R1!