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, Fri, 20 Jun 2003 07:39:16
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I'm going into my junior year at RPI as a CS major. A friend of mine asked me to answer your post here.
The good:
- RPI (well, really the students, but RPI forces them to) puts a lot of money towards making sure the students have things to do. The Student Union has a >$7,000,000 per year budget to fund >130 clubs to keep the students entertained. I do theatre on campus, and my club (the RPI Players) has a $30,000 a year budget, as well as a building of our own.
- There are lots of frats. About 30% of students live the greek life, so if thats your thing there are 30-someodd frats to look at and join.
- The male/female ratio is improving. For the last couple years, the incoming freshman class has had the best ratio in the history of the school, and I expect the trend to continue. Its still not good (sitting around 3 guys for every girl), but its a lot better than it used to be. I've been dating / involved with someone of the fairer gender my entire time there, and I don't consider myself particularly attractive.
The bad:
- Troy is an awful town. It has all the disadvantages of a city (ugliness, crime, etc) with none of the advantages (people, activities). RPI is 175+ years old, and when the school was built the city was wealthy and a center of innovation. This is no longer the case, and as such you have to travel if you want to do something interesting off campus. In my opinion, this is made up for by the union clubs and other on-campus activities.
- Cost. I don't like RPI myself, because I think that the education I'm getting, while good, is not nearly worth the $39,000 (inc. room & board) they want me to pay for it. This is more of a reflection on my program (computer science) than it is on the school as a whole, but thats still a huge pile of money. If I wasn't getting merit aid and living off campus, I would've transferred away at the end of my freshman year.
The trick to enjoying life at RPI is that you have to work at it. I have a lot of friends who complained that there was nothing to do, and yet never tried to go out and do something. The many student organized clubs are a great way to get to know people and to have something to do.
As an incoming freshman (which I assume you are), you'll be asked / forced to participate in the Freshman Year Experience, which is just a dumb name for some 2-3 day activities that occur before school starts. Several of them are run by the union clubs and are entirely worthwhile. I am entirely biased though, since I'm helping to run the RPI Players one this year.
There's a theory in the stock market that the first month indicates how the rest of the year will be. I suggest that you make an effort to spend the first couple weeks of school (they're the easiest, after all) getting to know the people you'll be living with in your dorms, and trying out some of the clubs / activities / frats that are on campus.
--
Phil
posted by 66.9.157...
, Fri, 20 Jun 2003 07:39:16, Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:37:06
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