<p>RPI was on Newsweek’s 25 New Ivy’s list last year and it had a much lower admit rate this year - my recollection is that I was told it was around 45% this year. WPI hasn’t yet been discovered though. It’s smaller, but has sort of a similar feel to it. RPI and WPI both put more emphasis on practice and less on theory than MIT and CMU and probably Stanford. RPI has “The Incubator” nearby which is used to encourage new high tech start-ups. RPI also has a nice program and clubs for game development if that’s an interest. A number of programs we looked at have cross-disciplinary options in AI and robotics. There are a number of other places your kid might look - other places that got mentioned to us when we began the search: UCSD, Rose-Hulman, Case Western Reserve, U of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology. On the more reachy end (probaby too reachy if CMU is too reachy: MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Rice, Harvey Mudd, Olin.) I’m sure I am leaving lots out.</p>