Is WPI well known all around?

ojnabieoot
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:20:32 +0000

WPI is actually fairly well-known, particularly in New England, and it’s among the top 10 colleges for high salaries of their graduates (according to Forbes):

[In Pictures: Top Colleges For Getting Rich - Forbes.com](In Pictures: Top Colleges For Getting Rich)

Granted, this should be taken with an enormous grain of salt, since engineers make quite a bit of money even if they graduate from a non-flagship state school (which only tells you that prestige isn’t really very important; state universities usually have very good professors and facilities). However, it should give you the impression that WPI is known to the national business world.

Now, I’m from Oklahoma, and none of my family, friends, or high school teachers had ever heard of WPI. However, the professor I took differential equations from (night classes in high school) was familiar with the school, and recommended it over Rice and Harvard (where I had also been accepted; granted, the recommendation was largely based on the fact that WPI gave me a full scholarship, but it was a compelling endorsement; in his view, WPI was good enough to outweigh the $20,000/year commitment at Rice or the $40,000/year commitment at Harvard).

As far as “2nd best engineering school in New England,” sure. BU and most of the big state universities are also pretty good; good enough that you shouldn’t decide to go to WPI just based on the difference in prestige.

Now, regarding research: WPI is not a big research powerhouse, but there’s still plenty to be done on campus, and the motivated student shouldn’t have much trouble finding something. Last summer I did an REU at another university, but this summer I did research with WPI’s math department. Outside of academic research, one can easily do industrial or corporate research as a WPI student, either through an internship or a senior project. Every student is required to do either engineering design or research to graduate with a degree in science or engineering. Basically, don’t listen to bostonman2009; he doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about.