Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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Information Summary

Ranks 70th overall and 8th in New York

Demographics – Main Campus and Surrounding Areas

Reported area around or near Troy, NY 12180-3590

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (very high research activity)

Undergraduate	Professions plus arts & sciences, high graduate coexistence
Graduate	Comprehensive doctoral (no medical/veterinary)
Undergraduate Population	Full-time four-year, more selective, lower transfer-in
Enrollment	High undergraduate
Size & Setting	Medium four-year, highly residential

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Airforce	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification

Student Tuition Costs and Fees

What are the typical tuition costs and fees for attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?

Ranks 57th for total cost of attendance

Student Tuition Cost History and Trends

Three year history and trends on the cost of attending

	In District	In State	Out of State
Published Tuition & Fees	$31,857  $35,878	$31,857  $35,878	$31,857  $35,878

	Cost (regardless of residency)
Books & Supplies	$1,000  $1,000
On-Campus – Room & Board	$9,431  $10,420
On-Campus – Other Expenses	$722  $802
Off-Campus w/out Family – Room & Board	N/A  N/A
Off-Campus w/out Family – Other Expenses	N/A  N/A
Off-Campus with Family – Room & Board	N/A  N/A

Admission Details

Admission Criteria

What criteria does Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute use for admissions?

= Required, = Recommended, = Neither required nor recommended

Open Admissions
Secondary School GPA / Rank / Record	/ /
College Prep. Completion
Recommendations
Formal competency demo
Admission test scores
TOEFL
Other tests	N/A

Admission Credits Accepted

What types of credits does Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute accept?

Dual Credit
Life Experience
Advanced Placement (AP)

Athletics - Association Memberships

Student Services

Remedial Services
Academic / Career Counseling
PT Cost-defraying Employment
Career Placement
On-Campus Day Care
Library Facility

Student Living

First-time Room / Board Required
Dorm Capacity	2,850
Meals per Week	N/A
Room Fee	$5,852
Board Fee	$4,568

Student Financial Aid Details

How many students use Financial Aid, and how much do they use?

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Ranks 1114th for the average student loan amount.

	Average	Users	% of Attendees
Federal Grant Aid	$6,500	192	15%
State & Local Grant Aid	$1,602	481	39%
Institutional Grant Aid	$17,262	1,150	93%
Student Loan Aid	$5,894	640	52%
Any financial aid type		1,197	97%

Student Enrollment Demographics

How many students are enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?

Student Graduation Demographics

How many students graduated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?

Most Popular Fields of Study

The top 5 fields of study completed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Student Completion / Graduation Demographics

How many students are successful graduates?

Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering	1	1		7		48		57
Applied Mathematics	6			1		5		12
Architecture (BArch, BA/BS, MArch, MA/MS, PhD)	4		5	6		36	1	52
Architecture and Related Services, Other	2		1			8		11
Biochemistry/Biophysics and Molecular Biology	1	1	1	1		19	1	24
Bioinformatics			1	1		9		11
Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other
Biology/Biological Sciences, General		2		6		31		39
Biomedical/Medical Engineering	6	5	3	13		48	3	78
Business Administration and Management, General	20	12	14	13	2	135	21	217
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other
Chemical Engineering	19	1	3	7		36		66
Chemistry, General	10			4		18	1	33
Civil Engineering, General	4	1	4	5	1	46		61
Cognitive Science						1		1
Communication Studies/Speech Communication and Rhetoric		1	2	2		11	3	19
Communication and Media Studies, Other						2		2
Computer and Information Sciences, General	17	7	1	16		107	6	154
Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia		2	1	3		36	1	43
Economics, General					1	2		3
Economics, Other	1					3		4
Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering	50	17	10	46		155	4	282
Engineering Mechanics
Engineering Physics	1			1		6	2	10
Engineering Science	1			1		9	3	14
Engineering, General	7					3		10
Engineering, Other
Environmental Science						2		2
Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering	3					11		14
Geology/Earth Science, General	2					3		5
Historic Preservation and Conservation						7		7
Hydrology and Water Resources Science						2		2
Industrial Engineering	7	1	9	3		25		45
Information Technology	17	3	3	5		38	4	70
Manufacturing Engineering						1		1
Materials Engineering	12					13	1	26
Mathematics, General	3		1	1		30	1	36
Mechanical Engineering	19	4	9	24	1	133	1	191
Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other	1		1			9		11
Music, Other	2	1	2	1		4	1	11
Natural Sciences			1			3		4
Nuclear Engineering			3	1		45		49
Operations Research	2	1						3
Philosophy						1		1
Physical Sciences, Other
Physics, General	9		1	1		26	2	39
Pre-Dentistry Studies
Pre-Law Studies		1						1
Pre-Medicine/Pre-Medical Studies				10		5		15
Psychology, General		1	2	2		5		10
Science, Technology and Society	1	1	3	2		11		18
Social Sciences, General
Social Sciences, Other
Transportation and Highway Engineering	1							1
Total	229	63	81	183	5	1,148	56	1,765

Faculty Compensation / Salaries

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Ranks 95th for the average full-time faculty salary.

Tenure system
Average FT Salary	$92,469 ($95,148 male / $82,306 female)
Number of FT Faculty	393 (311 male / 82 female)
Number of PT Faculty	85
FT Faculty Ratio	5 : 1
Total Benefits	$9,710,819

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School Images

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Summary

The following paragraph provided courtesy of wikipedia.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a nonsectarian, coeducational private research university in Troy, New York, a city close to the state capital Albany. RPI’s mission has slowly evolved over the years while retaining its focus on the scientific and technological roots upon which the school was founded. The school attracted students from New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In its early years, the Rensselaer School had greater semblance of a graduate school than of a college. During this period, the Rensselaer School, renamed the Rensselaer Institute in 1832, was a small but vital center for technological research. In 1850 he reorganized the school into a three year polytechnic institute with six technical schools. RPI enjoyed a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts. Born in 1856 in Elkton, Maryland Ricketts came to RPI in 1871 as a student. He also expanded the university’s resources and developed RPI into a true polytechnic institute by increasing the number of degrees offered from two to a dozen; In addition to new academic buildings, the growing student body also needed a large dedicated building for the Student Union which was finished in 1967. It was at this point that the J-building, which had previously been used for storage, became the home for the RPI incubator program, the first such program sponsored solely by a university. Shortly after this, RPI decided to invest $3 million dollars in pavement, water and power on around 1,200 acres of land it owned 5 miles south of campus. Now known as the Rensselaer Technology Park, companies can rent out the land, and if they want, collaborate with RPI students and researchers. This is one of the reasons legislation was passed to grant RPI $30 million dollars to build the George M. In 1999, RPI gained attention when it was one of the first larger universities to implement a mandatory laptop program. However, the program has persisted, and remains an integral part of life at RPI, with about 25% of the courses requiring that a student bring their laptop to class. Having nearly two centuries of history and a high tech future in store, the Princeton Review remarks, ““Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is simultaneously the oldest technological school in the country and the most modern school of technology in the U.S. It’s like George Jetson meets Archimedes.” Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has five schools: Architecture, Engineering, Humanities & The School of Engineering is the largest by enrollment, followed by the School of Science, the School of Management, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Architecture. There also exists an interdisciplinary program in Information Technology that began in the late 1990s, programs in prehealth and prelaw, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) for students desiring commissions as officers in the armed forces, a program in Cooperative Education (Co-Op), and domestic and international exchange programs. In 2004, Forbes ranked RPI #1 for having the “most connected campus.” The Newsweek/Kaplan 2007 Educational College Guide proclaimed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the 25 “New Ivies”, an elite group of 25 schools that provide an education equivalent to schools in the Ivy League. Its goal is to achieve greater prominence for RPI as a technological research university. Various aspects of the plan include bringing in a larger graduate student population and new research faculty, and increasing participation in undergraduate research, international exchange programs, and “living and learning communities.” So far, there have been a number of significant changes under the plan: new research infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies was built to support new programs, and application and enrollment numbers have increased. Well known faculty include: RPI is also the professional home of David Musser, one of the primary persons behind the C++ Standard Template Library. RPI ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States according to US News & Four of the graduate engineering programs are ranked in the top 20 (electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering), eight of 11 are ranked in the top 25, and all are ranked in the top 30 in the nation. RPI also has a strong and growing electronic arts program. RPI has established six areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology, energy security, information technology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, and modeling and simulation. Off campus, there is the RPI Technology Park, which is home to over 50 technologically oriented companies. Some notable research centers operated by RPI are the Terahertz Research Center,Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis, Darrin Fresh Water Institute, and the NASA center for Studies of the Origin of Life. RPI conducts nuclear research at the 60MeV Gaerttner Linear Accelerator (LINAC) Laboratory. Other important research facilities include the geotechnical centrifuge, used for civil engineering simulations, and RPI’s array of six subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels. In May 2006, RPI announced a partnership with IBM and New York State to create the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, a supercomputing center to be used for nanotechnology research. RPI’s 275-acre landscaped campus sits upon a hill overlooking historic Troy, New York and the Hudson River. One building from this period that remains part of the RPI campus is the Winslow Chemical Laboratory, a building on the National Register of Historic Places. Buildings constructed during this period include the Carnegie Building (1906), Walker Laboratory (1907), Russell Sage Laboratory (1909), Pittsburgh Building (1912), Quadrangle Dormitories (1916–1927), Troy Building (1925), Amos Eaton Hall(1928), Greene Building (1931) and Ricketts Building (1935). The modern campus features more modernly styled structures such as the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center (J-ROWL)(1961), Materials Research Center (MRC)(1965), Rensselaer Union (1967), Cogswell Laboratory (1971), Darrin Communications Center(DCC)(1973), Jonsson Engineering Center(JEC)(1977), Low Center for Industrial Innovation(CII) (1987), a public school building which was converted into Academy Hall (1990), and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (2004). RPI also runs a campus in Hartford, Connecticut, a distance learning center in Groton, Connecticut, and a navy-based nuclear training facility in Malta, New York. These centers are used by graduates and working professionals and are managed by the Hartford branch of RPI, Rensselaer at Hartford. In the 2006–2007 academic year, RPI’s enrollment included 5,142 resident undergraduate, 1,131 resident graduate, 707 graduate students on the Hartford campus, and 189 distance students. Depending on how you define the rules, the RPI hockey team may have the longest winning streak on record for a division I team; Continuing into the 1985-86 season, RPI continued undefeated over 38 games, including 2 wins over Toronto. In hockey the school’s biggest rival has always been the upstate engineering school Clarkson University. The oldest college football rivalry in the state is between RPI and Union College. The students of RPI have created and participate in a variety of student-run clubs and organizations funded by the Student Union. In 2006, for instance, the Princeton Review ranked RPI second for “more to do on campus”. This distinctive red shingled building had been a USO hall for the US Army before being purchased by RPI. Notable among them are: Another notable aspect of student life at RPI is the first-year experience or FYE program. Freshman begin their stay at RPI with a week called “Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond” or NRB week. Several notable 19th century civil engineers graduated from RPI. Many RPI graduates have gone on to change the world with their inventions. Famous among these people are: In addition to NVIDIA, RPI graduates have also gone on to found or co-found major companies such as John Wiley and Sons, Texas Instruments, Fairchild Semiconductor, MapInfo, Adelphia Communications, Level 3 Communications and Bugle Boy. Several RPI graduates have played a part in the US space program; Technology • Computational Center for Nanotechnology Student Life People • Fraternities and Sororities • Grand Marshals • RPI Pep Band • RPI Songs • WRPI • RPI TV Buildings Amos Eaton Hall • Carnegie Building • Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies • Chapel + Cultural Center at Rensselaer • EMPAC • Folsom Library • Greene Building • Hirsch Observatory • Houston Field House • Jonsson Engineering Center • Low Center for Industrial Innovation

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