<p>I have a good friend who wants to be an engineer. She is very adept in math and science. She has wanted to be an engineer for a while. She lives in Massachusetts, and she is not well-off financially but also not impoverished. She was accepted to these schools:</p>
<p>1) Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Great financial aid
2) Renneselear Polytechnic Institute: Good Financial Aid
3) Carnegie Mellon University: Average to Low Financial Aid
4) Johns Hopkins University: Low Financial Aid</p>
<p>Where would you have gone if you were in her position? After some posts I'll tell you where she decided to go.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, finances played a big role in her decision but not the only role. I should also mention she wanted to stay close to her home in Massachusetts. She mostly wanted a great engineering program.</p>
<p>Alright the reason I posted this was that she is going to RPI, and even though I have no problem with RPI, I don’t feel she made the right choice. She eliminated Hopkins immediately because of distance and lack of fin aid. Next she ranked the last three:
WPI - Best Fin Aid - Best Distance - Worst Academics (comparatively)
RPI - Middle Fin Aid - Middle Distance - Middle Academics
CMU - Worst Fin Aid - Worst Distance - Best Academics
So she basically went with the average. I, however, think if you go from Southeastern Massachusetts to Troy, NY, the distance to CMU isn’t much different. People aren’t going to be making the 3 hour ride too often. Even though Pittsburgh is 9 hours away, 3 hours is still quite a distance. I think the engineering program at CMU would be well worth the distance and lack of superior fin aid, but she saw otherwise. Also, she had some really good friends (2) going to UPitt. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I think Carnegie Mellon would’ve been a great choice but hey it’s her decision and if it’s the wrong decision, it’s a good learning experience and she will transfer if she’s unhappy at RPI</p>
<p>Whoa, well i go to WPI (chose over RPI) and to say that it is the worst academically is not true. Its easily on par with RPI. Troy (Where RPI is located) is easily the most dangerous city out of all the schools mentioned.</p>
<p>I think WPI is better academically than RPI because of the project based curriculum. However, it is true that RPI has a better reputation than WPI.</p>
<p>Do a Mapquest direction, and you’ll see that there’s a huge time difference. I don’t know where in Southeastern MA you live; however, I plugged in Swansea, just as a data point: almost 10 hours to Pittsburgh and a little over three hours to Troy.</p>
<p>To superstar, that’s what my friend’s opinion was, not mine. I’m simply repeating.
To Momwaitingfornew, I totally realize that as I did do a Mapquest search before I posted that, but the thing is a the difference as far as visitation isn’t very different. My mom would not visit me nearly as much if I were 3 hours away, 9 hours away, or whatever, than if I were simply 30 minutes away. I’m saying that RPI is not by any means close, whereas WPI is.</p>
<p>“My mom would not visit me nearly as much if I were 3 hours away, 9 hours away, or whatever, than if I were simply 30 minutes away. I’m saying that RPI is not by any means close, whereas WPI is.”</p>
<p>Gotcha. I thought you were saying that the distance wasn’t that much different. Taking a plane back and forth can get expensive, however.</p>