<p>I thought the visiting day held at RPI was fine or as good as any other visit we had with several other schools. Since my D already decided on another school, we did not expect much so my impression might be a little jaded by that. Anyway:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I thought the buses that took people from various parking spots were well organized and efficient.</p></li>
<li><p>I think I already know this but one thing that struck me again was that this is truly and almost exclusively an Engineering school. We were in that big gym with over 3000s people and when all the other majors cleared out, the gym is still pretty much filled with people. If you want some sort of balance and not engineering and technology 24/7, this is not the school for you.</p></li>
<li><p>I thought the speeches were fine, they obviously tried to highlight all the technology stuffs they are doing at the school. The lady president was a PHD in particle physics from MIT, you can’t get more nerdy than that. I know there has been some criticisms of her with the cutbacks and the recent fall in ranking so I am not sure from just one speech how she really is. One thing I notice that I am not sure everyone saw was that there is some subliminal emphasis on female applicants. Most of the slides, the student presenter, and some of the activities are geared towards female. I think there is an effort to try to get more female to enroll.</p></li>
<li><p>Then comes the engineering presentation. I like the small emphasis on trying to get Freshman to investigate other engineering discipline early and the system encourage a change in major early if ones do not find their initial major selection suitable. I don’t think most 18 year old really know what they are getting into when they pick the particular engineering major. There were highlights on special design classes, design workshop manufacturing facility that if I am not mistaken, everyone must go through which sounds great, not many engineers get to build stuff on a real manufacturing line during their undergraduate study. There were other usual internships, term abroad, research, and the 5-year master program, which I thought were standard.</p></li>
<li><p>On the buildings and facility, I thought they are fine. They are standard big concrete buildings that you see on a lot of campuses. There were no cathedral or gothic or architecturally fancy building like many other LACs or Ivies but that was fine for me. There were plenty of room and space for about 4-5k students and are in adequate condition with enough green and grass on the grounds in between.</p></li>
<li><p>The students are out in full force to talk and interact with. We didn’t do a lot interaction, but they seem nice, accommodating, pleasant and informative. The student activity booths were composed of most of the standard fare, and of course there was a Starcraft tournament club with laptops with the game running.</p></li>
<li><p>As many have suggested, the surrounding town is definitely run-down and looks very sketchy. Even on campus, occasionally you see a strange looking person who you know does not belong to the school. So basically, it does not look like there is much to do outside of the immediate area of the campus.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As an engineer, I was somewhat impressed and thought this is much better than when I was going to school long time ago. I don’t mind the big engineering domination of the campus but my D could not get herself to embrace it. So I guess RPI is out.</p>