<p>Hi! I am an international student from Ghana.. i have been accepted to WPI and IIT with about the same scholarship given by both schools. I need advice on where to go to (considering i am interested in mechanical/electrical engineering and i want to work in the field of robotics). Where would I get the best internship opportunities and where can i best prepare myself to get into stanford/yale/harvard for grad school? which of the two provide a more rigorous engineering degree?</p>
<p>If your goal is truly Ivy league grad school, then you should go to the most prestigious program you can afford. Admissions are extremely competitive and you would need every advantage.
If your goal is to become a robotics engineer, with or without a Master’s degree, I would choose WPI over IIT. WPI is more highly ranked by US News (not that I believe that rankings tell the whole story!) : WPI is 62, and IIT is 111 in the category “National Universities”.
WPI was the first school to offer an undergraduate degree in Robotics Engineering, and has Master’s and PhD robotics degrees as well. Read more about it at:
[Robotics</a> Engineering - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/academics/robotics.html]Robotics”>http://www.wpi.edu/academics/robotics.html) </p>
<p>Based on the research you have already done, what is your preference so far and why?
What other criteria matter to you? What sources of information are you relying on?</p>
<p>@BeanTownGirl: I am still struggling to decide… based on what u have just told me WPI stands out better than IIT. I am confident that WPI can give me a good education in robotics and mechatronics. however, I am now looking to research on and compare the rigors of academics in both schools. In addition, I am looking for an exciting life (which for me includes, sports, parties etc) which may be difficult to obtain in both schools, so i’d love to find out which school would be more exciting to go to. i also have a purdue engineering offer with honors program which costs 20k more than WPI/IIT due to the absence of scholarships. however i am not too sure i’ll enjoy learning in the huge 100+ engineering classes at purdue.</p>
<p>The sources that I am relying on right now are: **************.com, collegeconfidential.com, and students/alumni of WPI who can give me a good description of life at WPI (i haven’t managed to find one so far)</p>
<p>my message got censored- it was - c.o.l.l.e.g.e.p.r.o.w.l.e.r . c o m</p>
<p>It’s hard to compare these schools since they are so different, and since you are not here in person to compare them!
One source of good information is the American Society for Engineering Education. They gather tons of data on engineering programs and publish it online. You can use this data to objectively compare schools based on real numbers, rather than opinions. For example you can see how much each one spends on research, the gender/race of the faculty and student body, etc. etc. [ASEE.org</a> - ASEE - Publications - College Profiles - Search the Profiles<a href=“select%20the%20school,%20then%20use%20the%20categories%20on%20the%20left%20to%20retrieve%20the%20data%20you%20want,%20there’s%20a%20lot%20of%20it!”>/url</a></p>
<p>Purdue is much higher ranked in the engineering world than either of your other two choices. It is also a much bigger university, but the advantage of a bigger school is that there is more of everything - more sports, more parties, more activities and clubs. So it is a tradeoff. It also has a broader variety of majors within its various colleges (liberal arts, agriculture, education etc. etc.), so there is a bigger variety of student types.
My son really loves WPI, but it sounds like it might be too small a school for someone looking for “exciting”.
Also, if you have access to college guide books, read the descriptions in books like the Fiske Guide, Princeton Review etc. These books are least researched.
And another good web site (I wonder if this will get censored?) is *****.com. It has lots of student opinions too and seems well managed. The US government also collects a standard set of data (called the “Common Data Set”) and has website that is good for searching for schools and comparing them:
[url=<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/]ASEE.org”>http://profiles.asee.org/)</p>
<p>u.n.i.g.o
Here is a wikipedia article about it: <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*****[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*****</a></p>
<p>@BeanTownGirl. Thanks a lot for the links. they look to be pretty useful. Looks like I might go to WPI since my parents may struggle to pay for Purdue. WPI looks like the best option for me, cuz they are good at robotics, their location is ideal (close to boston, a hub for robotics firms such as iRobot) and they offered me a presidential scholarship of 25k per year.</p>
<p>WPI is not a party school, but I doubt that IIT is either. I would guess both schools draw largely from the New England and Chicago areas, respectively. So many students can go home for weekends and holidays, leaving it a little quiet on campus. Both towns are cold and snowy. </p>
<p>WPI does seem to have many options to offer for extra curriculars. There is a new center being built with a huge area dedicated just to Robotics competition. They are a big player in the FIRST Robotics national organization. Boston is not too hard to get to if you are adventuresome. </p>
<p>Don’t know IIT’s strengths. WPI’s project-based curriculum is very unique and will serve any undergraduate well.</p>
<p>WPI is more liberal -arts oriented – It is a tech school, but it has greater offerings than just STEM if you wish to continue to study history, english, or the like. IIT is a good school in every way, and if you want the ONLY tech experience without liberal arts, go to IIT. If you want the tech experience splashed with a mix of liberal arts, go for WPI. And visit again before you make your final decision.</p>
<p>I seriously considered WPI when I was offered a full ride EA – It really does have excellent science AND not so bad liberal arts programs. My cousin goes to IIT on a scholarship and she loves it – What’s to lose with either of these schools? Nothing – They’re absolutely great! Good luck! And congrats on these two wonderful choices you’ve got!</p>
<p>WPI is maybe ranked higher in the national university rankings, but that does mean anything. Emory University is a top 20 school when it comes to national ranking, would you go there for engineering studies?
Another example would be University of Maryland. A top engineering university that I don’t think is even top 100 nationally. </p>
<p>If you want a graduate degree in engineering, check out the graduate engineering rankings (I don’t know about robotics). USNEWS 2013 ranks IIT 64th, WPI in 2012 were 93rd. (I don’t know about 2013, but it should be very close).</p>
<p>But overall, I’m not telling you to pick IIT over WPI because of that. Just wanted to show that biased people, like the one in this thread, can easily bring misleading information. So be careful with forums and opinions of random people Online.</p>
<p>Greek life is big at wpi and there are always parties on the weekends. People from other schools in the area come to wpi for its parties</p>