I’d like to address a few things as a current RPI student studying Computer Engineering seeking a second degree in Computer Science.
Jocks/frats - I find this very funny actually lol… RPI is a nerd school. I’m in a fraternity and I’d say that we all classify ourselves as ‘nerds’ for sure. If your daughter is concerned about that, please make sure she knows she shouldn’t be. Rensselaer is a very diverse school and you will have a very small minority that behave in the sense you’re thinking of, but besides that even the sports players and members of Greek Life are very much not crazy party people. I’d say we’re all functional students. If we were ‘wild’ we’d all fail out and our fraternity would be kicked off campus. To learn more about student life go to Wikipedia and look at the student life and first year experience sections or check out the RPI union website. There’s a bustling social scene, regardless of popular belief among people outside the university, even if you don’t get involved in the party scene.
Department - I got a co-op first semester of freshman year with a huge firm and only a 3.0 gpa… they’re paying me 20k for 6 months and offering a signing bonus when I graduate. RPI’s CS department has great career placement and the department has so many opportunities for incoming students. I’d say without a doubt that RPI is probably the best school on this list (although I’m incredibly biased). There are many dozens of courses offered each semester in CS. In terms of weeding out, there isn’t a course per say but Data Structures is a course many students fail and have to retake. RPI expects you to be able to take this first or second second freshman year while most other schools don’t make their students until sophomore or junior year. I felt well equipped though after taking CS101 for the challenge. Also: the average starting salary for CS majors is 94k… the ROI is definitely the best you’ll get.
Liberal arts- we have an entire college for liberal arts lol. I’m currently minoring in Media Theory. Not very sure where the idea came from that we didn’t have liberal arts majors. They only make up like 8% of the school though.
Retention- don’t be too afraid your daughter can’t do it. They prepare you well if you start in the beginning in Intro courses. Our freshman retention rate is 94%-96% each year for a reason. They wouldn’t have admitted her if they didn’t feel she would be able to handle the work as a rule of thumb. She can also easily switch majors if anything. ITWS or engineering is usually where kids transfer between if they don’t like CS, and they graduate and do just fine. There are also other options (business, medicine, law, etc.) to name a few.