<p>Ok so I can't answer admissions questions haha... sorry!</p>
<p>gotcha!!! :P</p>
<p>^^ It wouldn't matter...Get the reccomendations from your teachers or people who know you well...maintain a cool head...and just letting you know the max scholarship that WPI dishes out to internationals is about 26k, so plan accordingly....That being said..WPI is a very good engineering school and they have a lot of credibility...A lot of project opportunities and stuff ( i have already been to Greece before the end of my freshman year and did my sufficiency...although it was through my choral club and not the school)...</p>
<p>As a parent (not a WPI parent) I am impressed with WPI's intensive preparation in the sciences, but also its surprisingly good Humanities offerings. WPI appears to have a really good balance of strong academics and an active life for students outside of the classroom. I also think that the Worcester Consortium is a great advantage for students, allowing them to register and get credit for courses at other colleges in the town. A student can seal himself/herself in a dorm room [i.e. Dungeons and Dragons, ugh!], or the student can explore and expand their individual horizons at WPI.</p>
<p>Does WPI has biophysics major? If not, how is the biochemistry and physics department at WPI?</p>
<p>You can't seal yourself in your room with Dungeons and Dragons. That requires social interaction ;)</p>
<p>I haven't heard of a biophysics major, but the bio people just got a huge facility right off the highway. And the physics program is excellent.</p>
<p>I went to WPI. My daughter looked at WPI,RIT, RPI, Stevens, and chose Stevens. Son is going to Purdue. </p>
<p>It depends on what you value.</p>
<p>Want the most eclectic (project based) experience, that will develop maturity skills you won't get anywhere else? WPI</p>
<p>Want the best national reputation? RPI</p>
<p>Want the advantages of co-op education that is truly integrated into curriculum? RIT</p>
<p>Best campus? WPI, then RPI, then RIT</p>
<p>Best city environment? they all pretty much suck. Rochester is OK, but RIT is nowhere near the city. Troy sucks. Worcester has tried, but never really made it. WPI wins because the commuter rail goes to Boston. </p>
<p>Best employment oppottunities? a tie. all have solid reputations, but somewhat better known in their respective regions</p>
<p>^ That post is SO accurate.</p>
<p>WPI's location kind of stinks, since there is a lot of crime in Worcester, I've read. But then RPI's location is extremely boring, so I guess it balances out. I've heard RPI has better facilities too. But that's just the word around my school, so it could be biased of course.</p>
<p>As a WPI student, I'm somewhat biased, but I'll try to give an objective assessment:</p>
<p>As far as undergraduate study goes, WPI and RPI are virtually identical in terms of quality and available opportunities. As a physics and math major with interests in continuum mechanics (fluids) and partial differential equations, WPI's smaller programs and term-based curriculum works out well for me, as I can do independent studies and "pick and choose" math courses to supplement my study more freely than I could have at RPI. On the flip side, RPI's engineering sciences are a bit stronger overall than WPI, and RPI is much more of a research institution. If you want a bit more flexibility in research opportunities, and if you want to go to graduate school at the same institution as your undergrad, RPI is the better choice. As far as course rigor/quality, WPI and RPI are probably equivalent.</p>
<p>RIT is quite a different school from the two of them; it's more of a technical-oriented Northeastern. From what I gather, students are pushed towards research less than WPI and RPI, but pushed more strongly towards co-ops, design projects, etc. If you are interested in being a "working" engineer, RIT offers a lot of advantages over WPI and RPI, but it's somewhat weaker for graduate school preparation.</p>
<p>Basically, all three schools are top-notch (even if WPI and RIT are somewhat unfairly ranked; there's no way UCSD offers a better academic experience). It really falls on personal preference - which campus do you prefer? Do you want a small school? How will you fit in socially?</p>
<p>And now for something a bit more strongly biased: I turned down many prestigious universities for WPI (Rice, Vanderbilt, Harvard) due to financial reasons, and I couldn't be happier here. I'm sure the same would be true at RPI, and possibly RIT if I didn't plan on going for my PhD.</p>
<p>Yeah, well I go to RPI, and I never considered WPI too seriously, because everyone I heard indicated it was a smaller scaled down version of RPI. The academic experience is probably similar between the 2, although RPI certainly has more research opportunities as has been noted, and probably a slightly wider selection of courses. RIT's academic experience is different, they have a 3 semester program, and seem to be very bent on Co-op and gaining job experience so you can transition to a job right after graduation: which didn't appeal to me either.</p>
<p>Another thing that can be said about RPI they are doing major things to improve the institute, like building major new research centers in new niche fields such as Biotechnology and Electronic arts (EMPAC center). The endowment has been growing (currently 850mil) and they have a goal of reaching 1 billion in the next few years, which is higher the WPI (369 mil) or RIT (580 mil). </p>
<p>Also, I haven't had any problems with being in Troy, because there are so many things to do on campus here, I've only left campus a few times, and those few times it wasn't really that bad. I know RIT and RPI both have a lot of student clubs, and I suspect WPI does too.</p>
<p>Can any current/past WPI students comment on the quality of the undergrad. Computer Science program? Specifically, what is your experience with the quality of the faculty and their teaching?</p>
<p>If you can put up with the retarded intro class (I HATE scheme), then I hear it is pretty good. Two of my CS friends are seniors now. One will probably be getting a job with IBM. The other was considering grad school at MIT but got a very lucrative job offer. Both of them made something like 22 bucks an hour from their summer jobs.</p>
<p>Myself, I switched out and became a physics/math major.</p>
<p>My brother went to RPI for architecture and he found that all of the learning was really on his own. He ended up being a TA his sophomore year for a calculus class and the real teacher wouldnt even show up. I personally have been thinking about RPI and that really turned me off. If I'm paying that much for a school, I really want to be around teachers who care enough to come to the class they are teaching. Just a thought..</p>
<p>My experience so far at WPI is that the engineering teachers are very strong. I've met two engineering professors thus far, and they're probably the two best teachers I've ever had in my life. </p>
<p>The CS teachers are mixed (consider that we teach intro classes in Lisp, not C++ or Java, even the way we're taught to use Java is obscure). Consider that in Object Oriented Programming, you're not taught to define arrays the normal way, like int[] intList = new int[3]. Rather you're taught to create an interface ILoInt, and then use recursive objects. </p>
<p>And my experience so far with the math professors is mixed, but treading towards the low side. They always showed up to class, but some of them had trouble speaking English or teaching effectively. </p>
<p>One of the nice things about WPI, that I honestly did not consider before I came here, was the diversity. There are a lot of international students (I think like 12%) and professors, and it definitely keeps things interesting.</p>
<p>Even with the most fin. aid available for a domestic student (household income of ~65K), will I still be paying around 20K+ a year? I was really starting to like this school but the power of the purse reigns supreme. :I</p>
<p>can someone comment on the social life in the 3 schools</p>
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can someone comment on the social life in the 3 schools
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<p>I think the biggest difference is that WPI/RPI are almost entirely engineers, while RIT is mostly non-engineer (most people I know who go to RIT are "artists" who also have a practical side). </p>
<p>Size is also a major factor. RIT is more likely to have a clique that fits you simply because it is much larger.</p>
<p>Son applied to RPI and WPI but not RIT because RIT does not offer a major in pure math. I am hoping the comment about the math profs at WPI relates to just the core math classes, as I would hope the faculty who teach the upper division math classes are accessible AND understandable. (actually they all should be)</p>
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Son applied to RPI and WPI but not RIT because RIT does not offer a major in pure math.
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<p>Really, I thought they had mathematical sciences or something along those lines. </p>
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I am hoping the comment about the math profs at WPI relates to just the core math classes, as I would hope the faculty who teach the upper division math classes are accessible AND understandable. (actually they all should be)
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<p>Yeah, there really are some good teachers in the bunch, it's just that a lot of them (at least that I've had) understand the research and everything well but aren't really very good at teaching or public speaking. </p>
<p>That said most of them are understandable and accessible. But perhaps some are not as skilled at teaching as they are at mathematics.</p>