Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Date: Jul 06 2008
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
I have been out for 5 years (class of 2003) with a Electrical Engineering degree and have to say that there are positives and negatives to an RPI education - and I still can't tell you what outweighs what. RPI was strong on fundamentals: calc, difiq, physics, emag and theoretical stuff like signals and system good as a background for grad school. I was too hungry for some $$$ and graduating with a 3.5 did not feel like i could free ride grad school. What RPI was bad on was preparing me for real world EE work. None of my classes were thought by industry professionals just fat tenured professors who cared way too much about Laplace transforms, Z transforms, etc. The few useful courses I took were mostly from the CS department because I had a feeling that I would need to code (most EE do) to make bread. The most useful courses were the ones that were industry applicable: embedded control, C/C++, Labview, operating systems. I later used these + coop experience to land my first job. But these were just a few among many grad school prep type classes. My advice is to figure out who you want to work for early on and take classes for the job you want. EE (design) is very competitive and many applicants come prepared with a better bag of industry tools which is what some employers care about. Go on coop, talk to real engineers and master the tools: Orcad, Spice, Labview/Matlab and be good at .Net C/C++, design and prototype real circuits and layout a PCB and make sure you like this stuff I mean love it. RPI education alone makes you ready for grad school not for a job in EE unless you take steps to compliment the outdated design techniques and tools they teach (at least in 2003). As for social environment I can say that Troy sucks but it has its charm.

Everything is cheap: rent, food, movies, beers, and you can ski in the winter. Don't get stuck in your room get out and chill with people with a good attitude or else RPI can break your spirits. Also take first dibs on freshmen girls as they go very very fast. If you find a good one don't let go because odds of finding another one are against you. Well that said you decide …