SamtheEng

Hello all, I thought I would update this for people considering accepting for Fall 2015. RPI's "graduate student housing", city station (downtown Troy), is no longer limited to RPI graduate students because they couldn't fill all the rooms. It will now be open to undergraduates and grads at both RPI and Sage. It has a few advantages, like the gym and common areas are pretty cool, plus everyone has their own bedrooms and in-apartment laundry. But it's also overpriced for the area, and it's going to be loud. You also have to walk up a pretty decent sized hill to get to RPI's campus (or take the shuttle). Overall I wouldn't recommend it, unless you're having trouble finding somewhere else and/or want to do the party scene with undergraduates. In downtown Troy (between the river and RPI), there are some cute, older apartments. Many have very limited parking, and the safety of the neighborhoods changes very quickly. In general, closer to sage is the safest. It can also be very loud on weekends. The pro's are that you're walking distance to a grocery store, restaurants and bars, a CVS pharmacy, the weekly farmer's market and other things. I would recommend this area if you don't drive and are okay with loud weekends. To get to campus you'll either take the shuttle or have to walk up the hill. In my opinion, the best housing options are to the northeast, east, and southeast of campus. You can get a reasonably priced older apartment or house. Parking isn't always available, but most places will at least have off-street parking. Start looking towards the end of February or beginning of March, many of the nicer places will fill up fast. When you look at rent prices keep in mind that your heating bill is going to be expensive during the winter months in the older houses. In general, I've found that the RPI graduate culture is a bit disinterested with the general campus. Not many graduate students participate in campus events or clubs, and it can be difficult getting students to attend graduate student association events. The big two events are the Halloween party and the graduate Wine and Cheese Night. Both of these attract a good number of graduate students. The hockey games are also pretty fun, but RPI isn't big on sports. The capital region has some great stuff to do, and some really cool annual events. It also has a huge immigrant population so there are many multicultural restaurants and stores. Having a car isn't required, you can take the bus for free with your student ID, but it's much faster/more convenient if you or a roommate drives. There are a lot of international students, and they have separate students groups that help them make the transfer overseas. This is great because it really helps those students make the transition, but also leads to a bit of segregation on campus. Many foreign students prefer to hang out with students from their home country, though this is probably true for many campuses. The gender ratio at RPI is interesting. It's not as bad among graduate students, but you can still feel it. I thought I wouldn't notice it because I came from an engineering department anyway, but it's very strange not having as many women around, and it's strange how some men respond to it. Some get depressed, some get "nice guy syndrome" and blame their problems on women. Most remain normal. I encourage women to attend and help fix the ratio, but don't come if you're overly sensitive to being stared at or hit on. Women tend to dress down more than they would at a state school. Most of these problems are more true for the undergraduates than grad.