Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Top Questions

The male to female ratio

The professors

It is hard to determine how well you are doing in class. You can be failing every exam and still pass because everyone else in your class is failing every exam too.

The worst thing about RPI is that it is in Troy, NY. I love the school and everything that is going on here but I dread the cold weather that usually starts in November and can go all the way through March. Being that I grew up on a tropical island the cold weather and I are not the best of friends. If RPI were in a much warmer region I would have absolutely no problem with the school. It really is good here.

Very very expensive, not too many girls, a huge workload.

The social life is lacking because people would much rather spend their time playing video games than outside or doing things with friends, this is worse in the winter months.

The worse thing about the school is the pressure of the workload. The students here are basically swamped with work from the first week on. The only way to not let it beat you is from the first day always do a bit of work each day. Pulling all nighters here is like academic suicide. It is certain that you will become stressed at some point here especially during mid-term and finals week but you have to learn how to cope.

The surrounding area is relatively dangerous. It's a low-income city, and there are crime alerts from on and off-campus at least a few times a year.

it is very expensive and since it is a private school you won't necessarily get financial aid to accomidate your need.

The pressure is probably the worst part of my school. Many of the people who were accepted are very accomplished compared to myself, both in terms of GPA and general life experience. There's a lot of pressure to do better than you have in the past, but many times you will fail and have no idea why.

The shuttle service.

A great focus is given to graduate students.

The guy to girl ratio. Theres 75 guys per 25 girls

Lack of energy amoung student body to make the college experience not one you have to try to work through but one that is fun to live through.

That you can have an entire class get a 30 on an exam, consistantly. Mostly the testing at such a high level by comparison to the level taught by the professors. It's been said that they teach at 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, expect 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} and test at 150{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}. This is relatively true for some professors....but not all of them. Just enough of them to make your GPA sad.

The facutly-student-administration dynamic.

Troy

Work load.. Having a dual major means always having something due the next day

The worst thing about RPI is the administrations urge to transform us into an Ivy leage school. Without going into details, so much unnecessary improvement is being forced on us, when resources can be placed elsewhere. The trasformation has made the campus this bubble that the students cant escape. We have an awesome downtown area that is completely isolated from the campus because of lack of transportation or campus endorsment. There are shops, parks, and concert venues down there and because no one gows down there the fraternaties get tons of exposure, forming this one sided social lifestyle.

The worst thing about this college is the lack of school pride. The depression and frustration in classes causes a negative attitude to seep through the college community. This negative air fills the lungs of our students, making them less social and less happy at school.

Some of the professors are abysmal.

The worst thing about this school is that I go here. By that I mean that the grass is always greener on the other side. Whenever I think "What if I had gone to THAT school instead?" I always manage to convince myself that all of the minor problems I see with this school don't exist there, and that everything is perfect at other schools. And it obviously isn't, but I'm able to find flaw in anything and everything about this school by dint of the fact that I go here.

The school is shifting focus from undergraduate education to research and their undergraduate education quality is suffering because of it. Most of the professors are extremely intelligent, but many of them do NOT teach well. Be prepared to do a lot of learning on your own. Do NOT expect to be taught much, if anything at all.

the workload

So many nerds and not enough girls.

A lot of people can be anti-social and stick to video-games more than friends. The relationship with the surrounding city, Troy, is not that of friendly terms.