<p>eyemgh,</p>
<p>I think all of those things you mentioned are indeed things that WPI has over RPI. It seems that he has a good idea of the relative advantages of WPI.</p>
<p>Whether I would have chosen RPI or WPI had money not been an issue is a really hard question! I had the impression that I would be happier at WPI, but that I would have better opportunities with an RPI education. Those were both very important to me. In the event, I was happier at RPI than I expected to be and got the great opportunities I expected. Had I gone to WPI, would I have been even happier there and gotten better than expected opportunities? Possibly, but it’s just so hard to say. In any case, back when I was making this decision, I don’t remember thinking about the “if money weren’t an issue” scenario so I really don’t know what I would have done back then if I had won the Megabucks.</p>
<p>I didn’t ski as much around RPI as I had expected, because the skiing around my hometown, just below the White Mountains of New Hampshire, is just plain superior, so I did most of my skiing when I went home for breaks and weekends. Around RPI I only went skiing a couple of times per month in the winter and I left the club after my first semester.</p>
<p>The workload came in bursts. Occasionally it felt oppressive, then it would lighten up for a bit. With that kind of pattern, I avoided being generally overworked or overstressed. I remember in freshman year I got into the pattern of working almost all day on Sunday and Thursday and then the remaining days were relatively light. This last semester though was pretty oppressive. I had to take 20 credits to graduate, including the capstone CS class, meanwhile I was flying around and doing an onsite job interview every week. That was pretty awful, really. In general, RPI’s workload is quite high, but most students seem well able to find a good balance. I’ve heard that the average workweek at RPI is around 50-60 hours, but a college student work-hour has a lot of goofing off mixed in. If a student really concentrates on their work I think they could get great marks by working many fewer hours.</p>