Agree with a lot of what people said. MIT is intense. Intense to the point of being too much for many people. There are suicides every year. It shouldn’t surprise anybody that many MIT students are at the top of their game. WPI is more enjoyable and a much better choice for many people. Applying to MIT as a transfer from WPI is very doable. Getting in really isn’t.
Around Boston, WPI is known to have heavy grade inflation, and their GPAs do not provide us employers a lot of insight into what the candidates actually know. Everybody feels good, but as employers, we are left to try to figure out who is really good from those with really high GPAs. WPI produces some wonderful engineers.
The real question isn’t about WPI, it’s about your son. What kind of student is he, and how much pain is he willing to endure to be at the top of his game. What’s more important, the grade or the education? That’s a critical question to ask in choosing an engineering program.
If on the other hand, he really wanted the MIT intensity, WPI isn’t really a substitute. Where else was he accepted?