<p>rico2// RPI is not the only school with respectable alumni base. CMU and Cornell also has an alumni that is on par with RPI.</p>
<p>From the Cornell Engineering site:</p>
<p>"What are the minimum SAT scores required to be admitted to the College of Engineering as a freshman?</p>
<p>The College of Engineering does not have a minimum SAT, since the standardized test scores are simply one aspect of an applicants preparation. However, we do know that of the admitted students in the class, at least 75% scored between 720-800 on their SAT math and approximately half of the class scored better than 700 on the SAT verbal."</p>
<p>Again, I have strong family ties to RPI, but I could list more prominent engineers in any one generation at Cornell than the fine list posted by the RPI adherent, including many, many more who parlayed their Cornell education into not only excellence in the field itself, but Fortune 500 CEO’s, etc. RPI is terrific (and used to have a heck of a hockey team) but there really is a much closer link in quality between MIT and Cornell than RPI and Cornell.</p>
<p>My Dad chose RPI over Cornell for engineering. However, this was in the '60’s and get the impression that RPI has lagged Cornell in more recent decades. Still, I think RPI is closer to the MIT, CalTech, Cornell level than Rose-Hulman, WPI, RIT level. For engineering, RPI is about the same level as CMU, which is most known and respected for its computer science program.</p>
<p>Graduates of WPI have excellent employment opportunities on the east coast because of the school’s strong academic reputation and placement success.</p>
<p>The SAT range in Cornell Engineering is 1360-1515.
Math is 725-790.</p>
<ol>
<li>Rpi</li>
<li>Rhit</li>
<li>Wpi</li>
<li>Rit</li>
</ol>
<p>As to alumni, taking a 20 year span (1959-1978) and considering after a quick search only those with engineering degrees, there are Cornellians who were CEO’s of Coors, S. C. Johnson, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Verizon, Applied Materials, Palm, Intel’s CTO, several cabinet secretaries, eight astronauts, and the President of Taiwan…and of course that does not include the hundreds in that single generation who hold positions of considerable import from other of Cornell’s schools, or the scores pre-1959 and post-1978. Not that this is extraordinary, and all the Ivies could make similar or greater claims, but it does kind of dwarf the RPI list. Again, RPI is an excellent school, and the best of the op’s four I think, but let’s not carried away…</p>
<p>RPI vs Cornell is a no brainer.</p>
<p>Cornell all the way … and not just because of the Ivy tag…</p>
<p>While I would agree that Cornell engineering has a stronger student profile than RPI, showing eight CEOs for Cornell vs four for RPI from graduates in the 1959-1978 timeframe is hardly a way to go about measuring it.</p>
<p>Cornell’s endowment is now 5.1 billion!</p>
<p>RPI is ranked 20th in univ UG engineering with a peer assessment score of 3.7 RHIT is ranked first in the non-univ UG engineering with a peer assessment of 4.5 While I personally dislike the methodology behind USNEWS Engineering rankings, this at least indicates its rather dumb to make a definite claim that RPI is better than RHIT with a .8 disparity to explain. </p>
<p>Also, RHIT has a graduate program, just not a doctorate one, so good research is still present and obtainable for UGs (not that it wouldnt be if it were UG only, but ya)</p>
<p>Rico - do you have a link to a recent RPI career fair? Is there only the spring one? I have looked on the RPI Career development center website and I have found spring career fair links, but the link to the most recent company list is broken…the most recent I can find is 2005. </p>
<p>Basing this on the 2005 list of companies coming to the career fair, there are 82 companies coming to the RPI career fair. RPI has an enrollment of 5,148(princetonreview.com), so a ratio of about one company per 63 students. At Rose-Hulman’s most recent career fair (yesterday), we had 208 companies on campus, and our enrollment (again from PR.com) is 1,851…this is a ratio of one company for every 9 students.</p>
<p>Of course this isn’t an end-all be-all for career prospects of graduates. Company quality, regional differences, etc, can all be factors in how many companies come to career fairs. Plus, I don’t have recent data for RPI.</p>
<p>But it still serves to show that RPI isn’t in “a league of its own” in the OPs list, leaving the other 3 in the dust. Rose-Hulman draws over 2 times as many companies, with less than 1/2 as many students. RHIT also has 2 other career fairs during the year.</p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>From the Cornell Engineering site:</p>
<p>"What are the minimum SAT scores required to be admitted to the College of Engineering as a freshman?</p>
<p>The College of Engineering does not have a minimum SAT, since the standardized test scores are simply one aspect of an applicant’s preparation. However, we do know that of the admitted students in the class, at least 75% scored between 720-800 on their SAT math and approximately half of the class scored better than 700 on the SAT verbal."</p>
<p>Again, I have strong family ties to RPI, but I could list more prominent engineers in any one generation at Cornell than the fine list posted by the RPI adherent, including many, many more who parlayed their Cornell education into not only excellence in the field itself, but Fortune 500 CEO’s, etc. RPI is terrific (and used to have a heck of a hockey team) but there really is a much closer link in quality between MIT and Cornell than RPI and Cornell.
10-02-2007 11:56 PM </p>
<p>Redcrimblue, the list I posted was only a small portion of what I could have. Anyway, I think we are splitting hairs at this point. I have great respect for Cornell and think it is an awesome school. I think your statement about MIT/Cornell/RPI may have been true 10 years ago but not neccesarily today. </p>
<p>I think if you look at finanicial resources, student quality, faculty quality, quality of facilities, history of alumni accomplishment, RPI most closely mirrors
places like CMU, Georgia Tech, Michigan, etc. These places have been grouped in overall quality with Cornell and there is no reason that RPI shouldn’t be as well. </p>
<p>When Dr. Shirley Jackson (lifetime member of the MIT Corporation) took over the RPI presidency in 1998 the stated goal was simply this: “To position Rensselaer not only as an excellent university but as one of the world’s great technological universities”. </p>
<p>Everything that RPI has done since then has been through that context. When I look and see that applications have doubled in just the last two years, SAT scores have jumped from 1320 to 1337 just last year alone, the world-class facilities that I mentioned earlier have been built, New $115M athletic village that just broke ground and massive capital campiaign I believe that the goal is being reached. </p>
<p>Bottom line: Cornell, Carnegie are great but I think that those schools and RPI are interchangable for engineering.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say RPI is “on par” with Cornell, Cornell being much larger, better endowed, better liberal arts etc. But I’m sure the education received can be comparable at both schools. </p>
<p>However I do agree with rico2 that RPI has come a long way in the past decade or so. There was recently a really interesting article on “The Rensselaer Plan” in the Chronicle for Higher Education : <a href=“Martin A. Schmidt '81, Ph.D. | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute”>Martin A. Schmidt '81, Ph.D. | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; </p>
<p>Also, as a side note I’d rank RHIT above WPI from the accolades I’ve heard its the best in the midwest.</p>