Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Date: Aug 22 2008
Major: Math (This Major's Salary over time)
I've been dual majoring in computer science and mathematics for only a year (though, to be fair, I spent two summers at RPI), so perhaps I haven't had enough time for criticisms to build. That said, I have a positive outlook on RPI.

To be honest, after seeing the high admission rate, I was somewhat afraid that there would be a sizable set of students who will slow down the pace of the classes (as the professor can't leave more than 20% or so of the class behind). I quickly recognized that I was wrong. There might be some sampling bias, as I've only worked with friends, friends of friends, and people who have asked for help, but, with probably a single exception, I was really impressed with my peers. The exception aside (who is a very hard worker and a nice guy, but taking the wrong class given his strengths), every student managed to grasp the course material far more quickly than the vast majority of the students in my high school, and the professors never lagged behind. Further, these students often times also work on projects independently from their classes, from Unix coding to professional web design/programming. It was extremely fun and helpful to work with these people. As the quality of other students was pretty much my only non-pecuniary concern upon selecting RPI, I now have a very positive image of the institute.

The classes themselves, on average, don't require too much outside work, and rarely any busywork (a very welcome change from high school where it was assumed that I need 50+ problems requiring something semi-trivial such as integration by parts before I understood it). Averages, however, don't mean much, as assignments do occasionally clump up in an unfortunate manner. Though I consider myself a fast worker in the formal sciences (which composed 7 of my 9 classes, so far), I did have an average of one all-nighter per fortnight (and two consecutive all-nighters at one point, but one of them was due to heavy procrastination). It's a shame that there isn't some established method of distributing the work more uniformally (maybe something like giving each class in any given major a certain day of the week for which homework/tests can be assigned, and distribute these days in such a way that will cause as small a set of collisions as possible), but it really isn't that big of a problem once you get used to it. I really liked the majority of my professors (and haven't come across single one that I would classify as arrogant, condescending, or self absorbed), but will advise any student to consult some resource about the quality of their potential professors, as I have heard some horror stories.

As RPI is a school with a large population of nerds, and is in a cold climate, the social life isn't exactly top notch. That said, there are definitely things to do. Many students opt to join a fraternity/sorority, which is probably the best way to meet other people to hang out with. If greek-life isn't your thing, there are more than enough clubs, including things such as ski/snowboard club, ballroom dancing (which is surprisingly popular), chess club, various political clubs, computer game development club, and even SCUBA club. With the exception of hockey, the sports teams aren't great, but the average student can pretty easily join these official sports teams, join a club that competes with other clubs within the institute, or some intramural club. One downside with social life is that, outside of campus, there really isn't much to do. The nearest cinema, for example, is a sizable distance away, so it can become a pain to go to a movie with friends if no one has a car (and the buses aren't known for arriving on time).

As of yet, I haven't had problems with any faculty member's grasp of English, but that might be because I am a foreigner myself (and have thus been exposed to broken English for so long that I don't even notice it any more).