Hi! So you might be cutting it a little close with that drive, lol – but the info session at the beginning was very chill with lots of time for Q&A, and plenty of people came in after it had started. So don’t stress!
They will give you a parking permit for free to print out, and you’ll park in the garage – which is under an athletic field (kind of interesting and you’ll learn about it on your tour, lol). From the parking garage it’s not a long walk to the admissions office – go toward the circle and walk up the long stairs. When you get to the top, you’ll head to your left, to the building behind the goat statue, lol. You’ll see the signs.
The campus is very walkable – and it’s a super interesting mix of old buildings and new. Lots of green space, a bridge, giant old tree, just felt very welcoming. I really liked it, and I think it would be a friendly place for D26 to thrive. We’re still looking at the program she’s interested in to see if it aligns closely enough with what she wants, but overall, I think it could be a fit.
The dorms were kind of terrible (no air conditioning, which, ugh) – granted, we’re from the south where we use a/c from March through November and sometimes longer, so my daughter has no concept how quickly and how long it will be cold there, LOL.
After our tour we walked to the little main street where there are a handful of restaurants and had lunch. Worcester itself is…fine. A little gritty, maybe, although the area around WPI is nice.
Their school year is structured differently from most other schools – it’s quarters, but there are two quarters in the fall, and two quarters in the spring. So each class only lasts 7 weeks, and you only take 3 classes at a time. And then there are a lot of required projects where students study abroad for an entire quarter, etc. At first my D26 thought this wouldn’t appeal to her, but after hearing more about it, she wasn’t opposed.
I wrote a little bit more in this thread, and about Clark, too –
D26 being silly (the building behind her is admissions):
