Engineering school comparison: WPI vs Mines vs RPI

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Hi folks,

Does anyone have firsthand experience with the above schools (Mines, WPI, RPI)? Trying to get a handle on how to help my son discern which of them might be the best fit for him. He has been admitted to all three (and they aren’t the only three schools that he is considering, but they are the three contenders in this particular sub-bucket and I suspect he’s likely to pick one of them in the end.)

For our own purposes, cost isn’t going to be a factor (although, for what it’s worth, we got the most merit aid from RPI, followed by WPI, with Mines a distant 3rd.)

Our current perceptions of pros/cons for these schools (feel free to dispute any of these assessments) listed below.

All three schools:

Pros: strong engineering education across a # of disciplines (comparable to many of the flagship state university programs) housed within a smaller student body with maybe more emphasis on undergraduate education. I’ve heard all three are more cooperative than competitive in nature.

Cons: comparatively limited academic options outside of the standard STEM (especially engineering) fields. Skewed gender ratio (WPI was getting better but seems to have backslid in recent years). None of the three seems to have quite the brand recognition among general population that state flagships and more rejective private schools with engineering seem to offer (but I’m assuming that at least Mines and RPI are well known nationwide among engineering hiring processes and graduate schools).

Individual perceptions (may or may not be super accurate):

Mines Pros: weather and location (if one is interested in outdoorsy pursuits). Golden is supposed to be a great little town (we still need to visit).
Mines Cons: I’ve heard housing in proximity to campus can be tough to find. Possibly more limited in terms of non-engineering academic options?

RPI Pros: Marginally stronger brand recognition, maybe?
RPI Cons: weather, I’m guessing (we were just there during a particularly rough week). Reputation for being exceptionally rigorous which cuts both ways. Might not be the easiest place to ramp up academically AND have time for social life. I’ve also heard mixed things about their Arch program – a required summer on-campus, followed by a semester abroad or co-op.

WPI Pros: I’ve heard their approach to engineering education is more project-based and hands-on (can anyone confirm if WPI is unique relative to the other two schools?) and they seem to do a great job of international experiences. Seems marginally less intense, maybe, than the other two schools?
WPI Cons: some folks struggle w/ the pace of the 7-week terms (this, again, could cut both ways for some students who do better focusing on fewer things at a time). This school seems to have marginally worse name recognition outside of the Northeast (we’re in CA and I think S25 might want to end up back on West Coast). This matters most for initial job and/or grad school applications.

Right now, based on nothing but these impressions, our son’s very unsettled ranking would be WPI>Mines>RPI.

What are we missing? I’m particularly curious about career support, the degree to which faculty are truly engaging with undergrads and providing mentorship, and work-play balance (my kid isn’t super gregarious but I think he’s hoping to be able to explore hobbies, make new friends, maybe even find a girlfriend in college.)

Thanks!

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I have only a little info, but that is that I see RPI grads at the lab bench next to Caltech and MIT grads in grad school and jobs, more than the other two. I’m in Massachusetts, and there is a kind of cult following in favor of WPI at some companies (usually is biased against MIT and Harvard in favor of “salt of the earth” WPI and Northeastern, from what I’ve seen).

I have a good friend who is a professor at Mines and she certainly does a lot of outdoor sports and spends a ton of time with her student advisees.

If it were my child, the ranking would be more like RPI>Mines>WPI

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We research all three schools when my D was applying. RPI was the only one that made her final cut. My understanding is that they have worked out the kinks of the ARCH program. Their engineering outcomes are terrific.

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Well you know my thoughts on WPI. :wink: But in terms of name recognition - my WPI kid got interviews with a large Chicago based company, as well as NC, TN and TX companies for this summer, and last year his internship was for a nationwide organization headquartered in Nebraska (but to be fair, that one had a personal connection). He preferred the structure of a 7 week term project junior year rather than doing coops and the summer ARCH, but that was totally a personal preference. He also greatly preferred the “vibe” at WPI over RPI - but again, totally a personal preference.

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Our next door neighbor’s kid went to WPI. We never see him any more because he lives in California. That’s where he got his first job out of college.

Friends of our met as students at WPI. He was a business major and now has his own company. She was an engineer and now works for a company in Paris but is based here in the US.

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WPI has pretty detailed career outcomes online:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/wpi.institutional.research/viz/FirstDestinationSurveyDashboard/NEW-PublicFDSOutcomesReport

It doesn’t have location, but does have employers, by major, by year.

(my kid is likely RIT or WPI).

FWIW the RPI Arch thing sounded a LOT like Dartmouth D-plan (they require summer before Jr year and a random leave term), which has been around forever and people generally love. No required intnership, but most people do that I believe.

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One of the things that I love about the RPI Arch program is that all students take a course in sophomore year called Career Planning and Explorations (Admin 1030). In this course they learn job & internship search strategies, resume & cover letter writing skills, employment correspondence skills, remote & in person interviewing skills. This seems to be a course which every college student everywhere should take, regardless of major.

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Understanding that it’s not really a factor, to the extent you think about it at all, I would be thinking about net price, not merit amount. RPI cost of attendance is 88k, WPI 85k, Mines out of state 68k.

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We know lots of kids at both RPI and WPI. I feel like the WPI kids are happy right off the bat and the RPI kids struggle a bit more in the beginning. I’ve never met an unhappy WPI kid and they’ve all had great jobs right out of school. I think RPI and WPI feel very different and if the is attracted to one more than the other, I’d go with that gut feeling.

As for Mines… Colorado. It’s a completely different lifestyle than Worcester or Troy. My kid ended up in CO and I now can’t picture him anywhere else.

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Golden is a great little town connected to Denver and all the big city benefits with a 20 minute light rail ride, and to the airport with a second light rail ride.

I’ve heard the complaints about housing but my nephew is a sophomore there now and had no problem finding housing. It’s a big house that has 6 bedrooms, and through a friend he got a room because the friend’s sister already lived there. Some students do ‘commute’ from other nearby towns but it is 10 minutes, either by car, bike, or light rail. Not really different than other schools where some students find apts near the school while others live 4-10 miles away because it is cheaper. My friend’s daughter lived all 4 years right near the school in Golden.

My daughter went to an engineering school like Mines (but in Florida) and she did her housing the same way - she moved into a house that teammates lived in, and when some graduated, others moved in. Landlord loved it as they NEVER had to list the house! Usually most of the furniture stayed too and just got passed down to the next group. Many of her friends lived about 5 miles away from the campus, and in fact the Greek Village (and some overflow housing, mainly for aviation students) was about 5 miles from the campus; most drove, but there was a school shuttle bus that went to the complex.

One big difference between Mines and the others is that Mines is a state school, so most of the students are from Colorado. There is also a big hunk from Texas, and many of those will return to Texas after getting their petroleum engineering degrees. I agree that Mines is more known in the west as most students aren’t interested in living on the east coast - they are Mountain West kids and want to continue to live in the west. I met a woman who did a year on an oil platform near Singapore but when she was done she returned to Colorado (but spends a lot of time in Montana, Idaho, California, and Texas, because she’s a petroleum engineer and that’s where the oil is).

All the schools you’ve listed are heavily STEM and you aren’t going to find a lot of offering in the English or Art departments. Some, but usually not enough to make a major out of it.

Another nephew picked CU over Mines because he wanted more from the college experience - football games, other classes, non-STEM major friends (and yet he married another engineer and never lived in his Frat house).

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I have a child at Mines and we are big fans! The professors know the kids and respond to their emails. The town and campus are walkable and the town loves the Mines kids - discounts everywhere for showing your blaster card. It’s easy to get to and from the airport and plane tickets are reasonable. My child will live in school owned housing all 4 (or 5 for masters) years and it has been easy to get, reasonably priced and very nice. They are building more housing now. It is definitely a stem school, but my child is with his people. His dad is an engineer and any time we are at professional events with him and my son says he goes to mines, everyone knows about it. They have great career fairs that are major specific and companies seem to really want to hire the grads. They have a one credit class for preparing for career fair where they make resumes, cover letters and practice interviewing and elevator pitches. We are out of state and he got a small scholarship, but it is much less expensive than the private big name engineering school our other child attends. Mines is tough, especially the first few years, but it’s a great education with lots of personalized attention you might not expect at a public school. Let me know if you have any questions!

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We have a daughter at Mines in her Junior Year. She had no interest in the Northeast so did not apply to WPI or RPi thus we have no perspective on those schools. Here’s what we can say for Mines and her experience.

Housing: Our daughter has been in some form of Campus housing the last 3 years and will be in her Senior year. Mines did full renovations of the Apartments at Mines Park (They are nice) and building an additional 600 Beds (Apartment style) in 5 new Buildings at Mines Park on schedule to be completed this Summer. Additionally, They are buiiding a large Sophmore Housing Building that will be ready in Fall of 2026. Bottom line, a 2025 Freshman has a 100% chance of living on Campus their Freshman and Sophomore years and at 50% chance of finding on campus housing in their Junior and Senior years. Considering these new additions, there should be no problem for your son finding housing either on campus or within walking distance. They also have small shuttle Buses (They call them the Ore Cart) that cover areas around campus and Golden.

Academics: My Daughter will flat out say Mines is not easy, but she has a lot of study groups and has done well. She likes all her professors and they are accommodating with Office hours.

Extracurriculars: Our daughter plays on two Club sports teams and is an officer in one of the top academic clubs on Campus. She has gone on 14’er hikes, Snow Skis, has gone overnight camping in RMNP, attended concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheater, gone to a Broncos game, etc. etc. etc. Btw, 50% of the Student body is from out of State, so she has had no problem making friends.

Internships: She had two internship offers after her Sophomore year and chose a great one at a large Equipment Manufacturing company. This year she had 5 internship offers and chose to be work for a Rocket Company at Cape Canaveral.

Cons: If you asked what our daughter does not like at Mines she would tell you the Main Food Hall is pretty bad though they are trying to improve it. Otherwise, it’s a great place for being a small school.

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I think that it’s worth noting that these are all heavily male campuses with Colorado Mines @ 69%, RPI @ 68%, and WPI @ 65%.

Less than half a mile from RPI is Russell Sage College. Founded as a women’s college and the traditional “sister school” to RPI, it is today 70% female in a total enrollment of about 1100. To the extent that this factors into the pool of college kids in Troy, it brings the percent of male students at the 2 schools combined down to 59%.

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WPI students probably also benefit from proximity to Holy Cross and Clark. And I met someone recently whose son went to CU Boulder and met his girlfriend at Mines of all places.

It seems clear that we need to get our son out to visit Mines in the next month. A friend mentioned to me today that in her experience Mines kids were really happy to be there.

I think maybe this was something I was sensing at RPI without quite being able to place it – the feeling that it was a place that of lot of kids were settling for (or anticipating settling for). The lack of enthusiasm was somehow palpable. And yet people seemed to be aware that if they went there, they’d get an A+ education, albeit in a slightly grimmer setting (compared to, say, Caltech, Michigan, Cornell, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, MIT, Georgia Tech) with slightly less impressive facilities. I imagine that what happens after that depends on how adaptive and forward-looking a student is.

My son doesn’t seem to feel the need to go back to check out WPI, but at the moment it’s his favorite of the three. Hence the need to visit Golden.

(in the background, not included in this discussion: he’s waiting on decisions from a bunch of long-shot state schools including the UC engineering powerhouses, CalPoly, Purdue, and UW-Seattle. It could be a rolling series of March disappointments. He also quite liked Case Western Reserve when we visited, which seems slightly less tech-y with undeniably crappy weather but has a more favorable gender balance and more congenial city setting than RPI. Case has yet to admit him. This might also be a long shot.)

I’m betting he ends up at WPI unless he is smitten by Mines.

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Our high school in NJ sends a few kids each year to WPI. All seem to love it. I hoped my daughter would consider it, but she’s not 100% sure on STEM, wants the possibility of changing her mind. Their curriculum is unique in many ways and I think their project-based approach is so valuable. I used to live in Boston and still have friends there. My friend who is a recruiter in Boston told me they love WPI grads. From their Instagram, it seems like one of the more “fun” techie schools.

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If you make the trip, there are 3 hotels in Golden. Table Mountain Inn, Golden Hotel and The Eddy Taproom and Hotel. We have stayed at all three and they nice though The Eddy is the newest of the 3. They are all very walkable to Campus, so unless you intend to see other things outside of Golden, you don’t need a Rental Car. Lastly, you probably know this but Golden gets 300 Sunny Days a year which was important for our daughter being from Florida.

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It pains me to be that person – but ever since I started hearing this factoid all over the place, I wondered if it was actually true. Apparently it is not (which isn’t to knock the relative sunniness of Denver and thereabouts – still a lot better than Cleveland, Pittburgh, Rochester, or Seattle, to name a few places where my son is considering going to school).

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WPI does offer a handful of business majors. A friend of mine was a business major there and now runs his own company.

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Darn, my daughter will be disappointed to hear about the weather. But, somehow it has not deterred her from having a great experience. I hope your son enjoys the same experience wherever he chooses to go.

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Oh, don’t burst her bubble. Anyway, it’s all relative! (I just got back from a tour of colleges where the daily temperature could best be described as “Seriously?! What is this, Siberia?”)