well, let's see. i love it here. its easiest to describe why i love it if you understand what i needed/wanted when i was looking for a college. i knew that i needed a smaller school, not to the extent that everyone knows everyone, but it couldn't be like its own city. the nice thing about rpi is that its just right. you know people, you know of people, and then theres the people you've never heard of. and you can be apart of all these different groups and know a couple people out of each and if you know anyone, your accepted into the group. everyone here is so nice, and helpful.
rpi is kind of based in a college town, its more of just a smaller city. if you go into troy (down the hill) you could get mugged/raped, and if you go farther into the county (up the hill) you'll hit farms after like 35 minutes, but its comfortable when your here. most everything happens on campus or close to campus and its not like troy, or the rest of the county. we're kind of our own little area. plus rpi is just saving up to buy up troy and just completely remodel it. we even just bought the Best Western in troy.
the biggest problem most students, well recently, have had with the admins here and the college itself, is a free-speech problem, but they're working that out currently by having admins, faculty, and students meet together to try and work it all out. everyone here is for the school. the hockey games are awesome. there's always something to do, and everyone owns at least one outfit that has RPI or Rensselaer on each article of clothing. theres also a lot of community stuff that goes on, like frats holding events that benefit charities, or help the community in some way.
the frats are probably the most odd aspect of living at rpi. if you want to go out, say party perhaps, there are no clubs. there is one main bar in troy that the students go to, but if your into that kind of stuff NY's biggest party school is 15 minutes car ride away, so its not much of a problem. but back to the frats. they hold all the parties. there is one other party circuit really and they're pretty much the same houses over and over. the frats have fun parties, and are mostly pretty accepting... if your a girl. sorry guys, but your gonna have to pay to party wherever you go, unless its a get-together. but the parties are fun, and themed most of the time, which makes it fun even when your not drinking, when you just want to go somewhere to dance.
one experience i'll always remember is kinda bad, but happens on every college campus. 420. there is a grassy "quad" or like square in front of one of the academic buildings, and on april 20th at about 330 the quad gets packed with stoners, spectators, hippies, and everyone. and we all wait until 420 and just smoke. its a blast, and a lot of campus orgs will come out and sell food for some benefit, like a charity or service. its always a good time, even if you don't smoke.
most complaints are that there are no girls. but most of the guys are just too lazy to try so its not really the lack of girls, its the lack of motivation.