<p>Every year the RPI medal at our school gets wasted on someone who won’t use it. In a way, I wish they’d give it to kids who are slightly less likely to get into the tippy-top schools. My opinion is that if you have two safeties you like, the rest of your list can be as reachy as you want. I felt the both RPI and WPI have students who are very smart, but perhaps a little less overall accomplished. A lot of kids whose first choices were MIT, but didn’t get in. (But also some who choose them because they are smaller and more personal.) I think 90% of CMU’s Computer Science School also had MIT as their first choice. They actually asked at the first meeting at orientation! </p>
<p>My son thought WPI was a little small, but I thought it would be good to have two choices if he didn’t get into any of his other schools. (Which was a possibility given his list.) Three years ago they offered my son $15,000 a year, while RPI offered $10,000. My brother who has a computer company in Boston hires a lot from WPI. </p>
<p>As to the question do you need matches? I don’t really think so. I think it’s fine to apply to two safeties and all reaches otherwise. I think WPI is low on that list because it’s not really a graduate student institution - there are advantages to that as well as disadvantages.</p>