Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Date: Jul 18 2005
Major: Aerospace Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I have mixed feelings about RPI. With regards to admissions, I've seen that a lot of students fit into 1 of 2 categories. The first being those kids that barely got in and think that RPI is the toughest, most amazing and elite engineering school in the world, which it definitely is not. The second group being those kids who wanted to go to more elite schools, but got forced to go here because RPI gave them a lot of money. I was bent on going to MIT or Cornell, but was more or less forced to go here because RPI gave me more money.

I'll start with the positive points. Throughout my time here, I've began to see that RPI isn't all that bad. I know with respect to internships, with good grades you can work pretty much wherever you want, from NASA to Microsoft. In my experience, RPI kids have more preference than other schools like MIT. I'm pretty sure the same goes for full time jobs. Because this school is so much hard work, I've realized that it brings everyone a lot closer. I've made so many close friends just because of all the group projects and late nights spent together, and I don't think you would make these kinds of friendships at any old school. The people who are social are pretty much down to earth and don't think you'll find a lot of superficial A&F snobs like you would at easier state schools.

On the down side, RPI is not the most social school to go to. There are only a couple of bars to go to in Troy, and the administration is trying to get rid of the greek scene. Even the professors openly complain about the apathy of the school's administration. Professors are hit or miss, I've had at least 3 amazing professors and 2 that I absolutely couldn't stand. Anyone at RPI could name the ones to avoid. Though there are a lot of nice people, there is definitely a good amount of people who will seriously sit in front of the their computer all day with no desire for human interaction, so this gets annoying. All in all, stay for a weekend and see if it's for you.