Is WPI well known all around?

ojnabieoot
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:09:49 +0000

Hm, I think it might be true that more RPI PhD students become professors than at WPI (who tend to go into industry), but I don’t think that’s true at any significant level for undergraduates. It might be that WPI produces more graduates that go into management than strictly engineering, or that companies that hire from WPI happen to pay more (in particular, a large number of WPI graduates work for defense contractors, e.g., Raytheon). Location also might have something to do with it.

Then again, looking at the data, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between WPI and RPI in terms of average salary. If you go here, you’ll see what I mean:
[Best Engineering Colleges By Salary Potential](Best Engineering Schools | Payscale)

This just confuses me further (where the hell does Forbes get the ranking?), but the point is that WPI (and RPI) grads make good money. I think looking for sample bias is being a bit too nitpicky, though it’s probably true that the survey is misleading.