<p>Looking for any information on comparing RPI and WPI - applying to both and hoping to get as much information as possible.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>definitely visit both</p>
<p>My S is now a freshman at RPI.</p>
<p>He visited both RPI and WPI, applied to both and was accepted at both.</p>
<p>He liked both schools very much and decided on RPI because they had a program in the area he was really interested in (Information Technology) and they arranged for him to have an overnight stay after being accepted, where they had a whole 24 hour schedule laid out for him - staying in the dorm, classes, meeting professors, etc.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, we couldn’t arrange for an overnight at WPI.</p>
<p>Agree with Theorymom that you should definitely visit both and then it comes down to a personal decision.</p>
<p>Did your S or D apply EA to WPI?</p>
<p>applied ED to RPI and regular to WPI. Accepted ED at RPI. The financial aid award at RPI is very low so may not be able to accept. Will follow advice of others and write an appeal. RPI is a great school and very much first choice. But in case it cannot happen, need information on WPI. By the way, any advice on the dorms that have doubles? Barton appears the favorite but it only has triples. Welcome any advice.</p>
<p>Barton sounds like it is the name of an RPI dorm rather than a WPI dorm. You might have more luck posting that question on the RPI board rather than here. :)</p>
<p>Even if RPI or WPI are your first choice (they were moderately high on my list – didn’t apply to RPI though since it was too far away), applying early decision isn’t generally a great idea (I don’t think WPI has ED). Early action is fine but one wants to do ED to a clear first choice school, it might be wiser to apply early decision to a school which meets all need (Tufts, Cornell, UPenn, Northwestern, USC, etc.). RPI on average meets 70% of all need and probably give a larger proportion of thier merit and need based to RD’s who can compare thier offers with other schools.</p>
<p>I did not realize RPI had ED - in that case, unless the finance package is just not doable, you are kind of stuck. Without offers from other schools it is a bit hard to appeal for more funds. Aren’t you supposed to pull your other applications. I never understood quite how that worked, and did not even want ot <em>go there</em> with S. WPI does have EA, and he applied for that.
Barton is not a WPI dorm ASIK. And I think a freshman getting a double is nigh on impossible in many of the WPI dorms. My S really lucked out in his triple. Both his roommates are great. We should all have been so lucky.
It is sophomore year that worries me, no guaranteed on campus housing.
At any rate good luck with your decisions cleomom</p>
<p>Cleomom - did your S apply EA to WPI? There is no obligation or downside and, for whatever reason, the acceptance rate is out of sight (84% per College Board) for EA.</p>
<p>Yeah, Barton is the air conditioned, newer freshman dorm at RPI, not WPI, that many consider to be the most desirable dorm there.</p>
<p>BTW, IndianPwnerdude, per the new Common Data Set, RPI met 88% of this year’s entering freshman’s financial need, not 70% (WPI met 66% of financial need).</p>
<p>Cleomom, I may have incorrectly assumed that you know about the Common Data Sets for the schools and have already been looking at them:</p>
<p><a href=“http://provost.rpi.edu/sites/default/files/CDS2009_2010%20Data.pdf[/url]”>http://provost.rpi.edu/sites/default/files/CDS2009_2010%20Data.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)”>Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI);
<p>A lot of interesting information in there.</p>
<p>Sorry used an an old dataset. But dadinator, your numbers seem somewhat off. The CDS here: <a href=“http://www.rpi.edu/about/cds/CDS2008_2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.rpi.edu/about/cds/CDS2008_2009.pdf</a> mentions that for all undergrads, RPI only meets 75% of need based aid on average. WPI’s latest CDS indicate that they meet 69% of need for all UGs (<a href=“Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)”>Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)). Keep in mind that both numbers include a fairly high amount of loans ($3000 - 5000) as well. Without a scholarship, both are quite expensive. </p>
<p>I am not usinig the latest published one for WPI since RPI’s latest is 2008-2009 (to keep the comparison fair). However, the 2009-2010 CDS says something similar.</p>
<p>I am not sure where you got the EA admit rate either. I am sure it is high but not higher than many other tech schools (excluding caltech, mit, hmc).</p>
<p>IndianPwnerdude, I used the new 2009-2010 Common Data Sets for both RPI and WPI. The links for both are right above. I used the figures for this year’s entering freshman (page 19 for RPI and page 23 for WPI) - 88% of financial need met at RPI and 66% at WPI.</p>
<p>Yeah, both of these schools are very expensive and everyone can use all the help that they can get.</p>
<p>As far as EA goes, I used the figures from the College Board (note 1,509 aceptances in EA out of 1801 applications):</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Worcester Polytechnic Institute - WPI - Admission](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>It really is 84%, which is consistent with prior years. Don’t really know why the rate is so high, but I do know that when my S saw that, he made sure he had his application complete by the EA1 deadline.</p>
<p>I recall that the yield on the EA acceptances at 29% (441 enrolling out of 1,501 EA acceptances) is much higher than the yield on RD acceptances. Maybe that is why the EA acceptance rate is so high - students demonstrate their interest by applying EA and, if accepted, end up having a high yield, so WPI accepts at a higher rate in EA to increase their overall yield. Just a guess.</p>
<p>thanks dadinator. i agree with your data although I still believe you are looking at 1st year student aid but nonetheless RPI is better at meeting need based aid and it is also worth noting that RPI somewhat more selective (40-60 SAT points higher on ave) and has a larger endowment (more $$$$$). I read that they increased the FA to 88% from 7x% by investing more in FA due to the recession (which is a good strategy)… however the data sets I cited were from 2008-09 and were accurate. I can believe that the admit is 84% since the EA pool is both stronger and has higher yield. The regular admit at WPI is around 50-55%.</p>
<p>I think the reason WPI, RPI, CWRU, etc have a high admit rate (than say, northeastern w/ a 34% rate) is because of self-selective applicants and relatively low yield (unless you are at the mit/caltech spectrum).</p>
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<p>Really? With the exception of, I think, one of my friends who lived in Riley, everyone I know from WPI had a double freshman year. Then again, most of them were freshmen in 2007-2008, so things may have changed since then.</p>
<p>Indianpwnerdude - getting back to the OPs question, I think both RPI and WPI are excellent schools and if someone is interested in this area than, ideally, they should visit both.</p>
<p>If they like both schools, apply, see what happens, compare the financial aid offers, and visit both again, if possible.</p>
<p>From there, it’s just a personal decision on which one to attend.</p>
<p>We were on the fence as well, and barring a full ride to RPI, our daughter will be going to WPI next year (she just got accepted the other day…a good day).</p>
<p>Her reasons – She likes Worcester better than Troy</p>
<p>WPI has a rehabilitation engineering lab – and that is her interest</p>
<p>Consortium classes at all other Worcester colleges are available to her</p>
<p>Dorms are nicer for the most part at WPI – the older dorms at RPI were shockingly bad when I visited – I never even got the girl’s floor before I left the tour and told her there was NO WAY she was living like that. Ick. Just ick. There are some newer buildings at RPI, but the old ones are vile.</p>
<p>The term systems is good for a kid like her who starts out very strong in a class and sometimes peters out near the end</p>
<p>Dad attended WPI is a bit of family pride stuff here</p>
<p>She feels “at home”. The importance of visiting to gauge this feeling cannot be underestimated. It is all I needed to hear from her.</p>
<p>The project based curriculum is attractive to recruiters</p>
<p>Good luck!!</p>
<p>S1 applied to RPI and S2 just got accepted at WPI. Two totally different academic interests; two totally different schools. S1 really liked RPI a lot, but he was also accepted at Rose-Hulman, where he ultimately decided to attend.</p>
<p>While you might cover the same material in the end, WPI’s curriculum is structured quite a bit different than RPI. (WPI has short terms, 3 classes at a time, “no fail” policy, and strong project-based learning, etc.) </p>
<p>RPI, is more like a larger university, with a broader range of opportunities.</p>
<p>These are both really fine institutions, it’s a matter of “fit”.</p>
<p>S1 got the same merit package from RPI as Rose-Hulman. S2 has not received anything yet from WPI, so I cannot comment on comparative aid. (S1’s stats were a bit stronger than S2)</p>
<p>I am a firm believer in taking the time (and expense) to visit the campuses to see where you fit in the best. You are going to be spending 4 years there and it WILL chance your life!</p>
<p>In our case, RPI’s merit package was MUCH better than WPI’s. We were able to get WPI’s increased because of it, though they still fell quite short of it. WPI was the better fit for #theoryson, though, so that is where he ended up - for exactly the academic reasons you state-short terms, intensive but few classes, no fail. Plus Worcester was the lesser of 2 evils as far as location. In reality, son does not mind Worcester and probably would not have minded Troy, given he rarely heads off-campus (too busy on)
But for us, getting him in and out of Troy would have been more difficult than getting him in and out of Worcester (being so close to Boston) since we are from the west coast. A lot played into the decision, but bottom line and deciding factor was the visit, where S felt like he fit in, and was excitied about the possibility of attending. Every other school we visited was <em>meh</em></p>
<p>May I ask whether WPI provided any financial aid? When we took the RPI tour, we were only shown one dorm and could only rapidly peek into one room. Not sure which one it was. Did not get to see an actual dorm at WPI - only a sample. Do WPI and RPI have similar placement/employment rates? I appreciate any help you can provide.</p>
<p>I’m happy to report that S2 got a nice merit scholarship from WPI (Univeristy Scholarship). I can’t speak to need-based aid, since we do not qualify.</p>
<p>We did see a dorm at WPI. but it was during the summer, so it was not the typical setting. (Most of the freshman dorms we’ve seen at different schools are very similar. The only variables have been if frosh are housed by themselves, or mixed with upperclassmen. At WPI, they are mixed.)</p>
<p>I don’t know about employment placement rates at WPI and RPI. I do know that they have been better at Rose-Hulman. But in this economy, NOTHING is certain, so I imagine it varies a lot depending on the major, the experiences, and the kid. I suggest you explore Career Services on the web-sites.</p>
<p>S1 visited both WPI and RPI in the summer. He did not like RPI due to its size. He felt much better at WPI. He loved the smaller size of the school and the project-based curriculum. He did not apply to RPI. </p>
<p>He liked Olin even better than WPI, but it is harder to be accepted there. We will see if the scholarship cuts at Olin will make it easier.</p>