<p>Hi, im a junior who will be applying to MIT, Georgie Tech, UC Berk, and WPI. I was wondering why WPI is ranked so low. I believe from what my dad has told me this school was ranked in the top 40 (usnews) in the 90's and maybe even higher (30 range) in the early 80's. I visited this school and loved it and it has some amazing programs but why is it ranked so low?</p>
<p>^ Probably stiffer competition? It is still ranked 71 now which is very good. Any school within the top 100 is good.</p>
<p>Nah, I think that people increasingly prefer large universities with a wide selection over specialized engineering schools. The biggest reason for this is that kids today see college as a growth experience and a luxury, not a preparation for a career, and they are willing to go into debt for a well rounded experience. Just look how much the prestige of schools like Cooper Union, Webb, and Harvey Mudd have declined. Also, no one wants to go to a school with an unbalanced gender ratio, and engineering tends to be dominated by men. The engineering schools that have been able to maintain their rank have been able to diversify and not like a pure engineering university, Rennselear and Case are good examples of this being done successfully. </p>
<p>WPI has been beefing up its liberal arts and social sciences offerings, and at one point considered merging with Clark University. We are also. But WPI is still in a tougher position then Case or RPI. I think that the ideal situation would be a merger with Holy Cross and Clark. Clark would have strong science offerings, Holy Cross would have humanities, and WPI would be engineering. The only problem is that they are in different parts of the city, so such a college would not really be cohesive.</p>
<p>You can already take classes at any colleges in the Colleges of Worcester Consortium ([Homepage</a> | Colleges of Worcester Consortium (COWC)](<a href=“College Admissions News”>http://www.cowc.org/)) if you attend one of the colleges.</p>
<p>or…WPI can remain a fine engineering school and not try to be all things to all people.</p>
<p>Both my brothers got degrees in engineering - both at very fine schools but with very different programs (Cornell U and Webb Inst.) I don’t think either of them had heard about or of WPI - even 20 plus years ago. </p>
<p>I am not sure (once again I find myself saying this) that the rankings have much bearing on the education you get.</p>
<p>The LAC my husband attended does not even make the ranks - considered a third tier school, yet it sends one of the highest % to top name grad schools. The education he received there he will stack up against any - and he went on to receive a PhD from Yale in biology.</p>
<p>Personally, I would consider rank the least of the criteria on which to choose a school. Look at the programs and if they have what you are interested in or can see yourself potentially becoming interested in, then score it higher than one that is ranked high but does not offer what you need.</p>
<p>I started a thread on the same topic a while back. </p>
<p>here it is :<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/worcester-polytechnic-institute/596850-wpis-us-news-ranking.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/worcester-polytechnic-institute/596850-wpis-us-news-ranking.html</a></p>
<p>WPI’s main disadvantage is that it is somewhere in between the doctorate offering research institutions and the non-doctorate, small private universities. Since it doesn’t fit into either category it gets ‘owned’ by the rankings.</p>
<p>The US News rankings are overly reliant on measuring each college’s reputation. WPI is not very well known outside of the Northeast, even to professors.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am not saying that everyone wants to have a school that offers “everything”, I’m just saying that students are increasingly willing to go into debt to attend schools that offer huge, broad course offerings. </p>
<p>I personally think that WPI would be well served by a merger with Holy Cross and Clark, if they could pull it off. Combined, they could offer a top notch technical education, a top notch science education, and great humanities classes. Also they’d have a balanced gender ratio and about 8000 students. Roughly, the distribution of majors would be: </p>
<p>Engineering: 22%
Social Sciences: 20%</p>
<p>Psychology: 10%
Biology: 9%
English: 7%
History: 6%</p>
<p>Foreign Languages and Literature: 4%
Visual and Performing Arts: 4%</p>
<p>Communications/Journalism: 3%
Business/Marketing: 3%
Computer and Information Sciences: 3%
Business/Marketing: 3%
Physical Sciences: 3%</p>
<p>Mathematics: 2%
Philosophy and Religious Studies: 1%</p>
<p>It seems like that would be a really strong mix of majors. </p>
<p>The only problem is that WPI and Clark are about 1.5 miles apart. Clark and Holy Cross are about 1 mile apart. WPI and Holy Cross are about 2.5 miles apart. So realistically if they became one university, they’d need to have buses constantly running through the city, and either things would be very strange or the college would need to buy a lot of the land in between them.</p>
<p>The Colleges of Worcester Consortium already provides a free shuttle bus service. This intercampus transportation service connects six Worcester campuses (WPI, Becker, Assumption, Clark, Worcester State and Holy Cross) with each other and the Worcester Public Library, Union Station, Worcester Art Museum and the downtown area. The service is designed to provide access to other campuses for cross-registration, library use, and athletic and social events. [Shuttle</a> | Colleges of Worcester Consortium (COWC)](<a href=“College Admissions News”>College Admissions News)</p>
<p>seems to me WPI gets plenty of applicants and offers pretty much what most students who apply there want and or need. 1980grad points out how students can take advantage of the other colleges in the area - just as if they were all part of the same college - to fill in gaps they feel they may have.</p>
<p>Students seem willing to go into debt for a good education period. Some are more willing to go into debt for prestige. But I don’t feel WPI needs greater prestige. It seems to be functioning quite well despite rankings. Graduates seem to successfully find futures doing things they want to do. It does not need to provide for the type of student who requires a very broad curriculum to discover what they want to do with their lives. </p>
<p>I see (and S was attracted to WPI for this reason) a school that caters to a fairly focused student who, for the most part, knows that he/she wants to study a technical or scientific subject and have such a career - they may not know which one yet - but most have a general idea that they don’t want to be lit majors .</p>
<p>WPI fills a niche like RPI and other technically oriented full-service colleges that aren’t huge and institutional (a la Georgia Tech). I, for one, would hate to see WPI become just another LAC or, worse, a large institution. There are plenty of those out there. I suspect most WPI students are looking for a different experience than what those schools provide.</p>
<p>We visited a ton of colleges - WPI is actually fairly unique in several ways. I think students should be proud of their school, and not worry about how prestigious it is, so long as it is fulfilling their needs. If it is not, (fulfilling needs) then transfer is an option. But if prestige/or lack of it is a factor, I would re-evaluate priorities (not saying this is you al- just in general). </p>
<p>It is fun to say you went to Yale, or Harvard (or MIT or Stanford)- and one should rightfully be proud if they have, but one might actually be able to take advantage of one’s opportunities more easily at a place like WPI, possibly even get a better education. the only thing lost is the bragging rights.</p>
<p>Agree #theory. This year WPI has had no problem filling its incoming freshman class – no need to go to the waitlist. Clearly they’re doing something right.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know that there is a consortium, but there is a huge difference between having a consortium and having one large university. Harvard and MIT are in a consortium, but when students decide which school they want to go to, they don’t act like they’re picking one large school. Also the consortium does not let the schools leverage their resources the way that one large university would. Consider that WPI has to maintain its own small philosophy department, even though they could offer more breath and depth if a merger occurred. </p>
<p>Also cross registration across the consortium is far too difficult across colleges. Ideally, we’d let people take as many consortium classes as they want with lower registration priority then students from their own home university. In fact, I just got an idea for an independent study next year, designing a web form that automatically registers for classes at Holy Cross or Clark.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In my experience the “individual” feel of the school comes from the specific departments. For example, I am an ECE major and I know maybe 25% of the professors in my department on a first name basis. In my opinion expanding WPI would only improve the situation.</p>
<p>I dont think that expanding WPI would improve situation, because WPI would not remain a small college, with professors that care about you, where you can come to office hours whenever you want… That is why all of us are here, and why we applied here. I dont give a //// about those lists, if I am happy on my university and if I feel that this university is right for me. So as theory_mom said, WPI should not pretend do be what people want it to be.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>All this means is that they are meeting their target yield. But they can make their target yield whatever they want.</p>
<p>Well, the issue is that 57% of college population are female students already. The female ratio is likely increase even more in the future. Unless the school can attract female students, it will not get best and brightest students.</p>
<p>Many engineering schools already tried to adapt to this trend. MIT has beefed up other programs and it has increase its female ratio to almost 45%. Ga Tech also tried though less successfully than MIT, to increase its female students population. First, build a brand new College of management building, then create more female oriented field like biomedical engineering and Computerized digitial media (combined computer science with media). </p>
<p>It is basically same problem face many women-only colleges. Should the school stays the same course or expand base? </p>
<p>I think a combination of WPI/Clark would fit nicely. It would make the school more gender balance and attract a lot more applicants.</p>
<p>I would suspect they did (make the yield what they wanted) but given how many schools did not make their yield this year, it does point to them at least targeting their audience correctly.
There will always be students who want more offerings and a bigger school, and there will always be students who want a smaller closer knit community with the option of studying off campus or abroad at some point.
WPI is what it is and my S and other kids I know who have decided on WPI have done so based on the school it is now - not the one it <em>could</em> be. I know that if it suddenly became a big university , S would transfer out to a school more like what WPI is now.
And so while the school would gain some students it would lose others - not that this is anything but hypothetical anyway. But it is an interesting discussion.</p>
<p>Actually, WPI more than met their yield – they currently have deposits from quite a few more students than their target yield.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well that is certainly good news then. They were probably expecting the worst this year because of the economy and WPI’s price tag. But then again Obama did endorse engineering and and the field is fairly safe right now, so maybe that helped WPI out. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think the close knit community is within your major or department. A Clark merger would not hurt that or study abroad. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There are certainly good reasons to keep WPI small, I’m just presenting the case for a merger here, since it is a possible solution to WPI’s decline in the rankings. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hopefully they lose kids to other schools waitlists and don’t have to resort to forced triples (again). But if you are in a forced triple, I wouldn’t be too worried about it because it is really not a big deal. I was in one, and it wasn’t that bad.</p>
<p>yeah I was kinda hoping the forced triples would not be so great this year. It can be disrupting, but I know my S would make the best of it. He is more of a people person anyway</p>
<p>I am still not convinced a merger would raise WPI in the rankings, but that’s OK it’s just a discussion and not about to happen any time soon</p>
<p>A WPI/Clark/HC merger couldn’t happen. The schools are so different in terms of mission and philosophy. The Catholic vibe at HC is very strong. Clark has a different, free-spirit vibe that would be at odds with HC. For example, students of different genders can share a dorm room at Clark. Can’t see that happening at Holy Cross.</p>
<p>WPI HC are similar in their commitment to both science and liberal arts, but could they co-exist beyond that?</p>
<p>Just some food for thought. Discuss among yourselves and report!</p>