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RPI or Purdue? Chemical engineering phd


Claire20109

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I got accepted into RPI and Purdue but Purdue accepted me really late(5 days ago). I actually feel really neglected by Purdue and now they accept me this late, maybe they don't really care if I go or not? But they squeezed in a last minute campus visit for me. Both schools have big names. I'm attracted to RPI's location. I did undergrad at UW Madison and I feel like Purdue and UW are way too similar but I want changes.

However, Purdue is a bigger department thus I would have more choices but RPI's pretty wealthy. Almost all the facilities I talked with told me without hesitation that they will take students but faculties I interacted with at Purdue are all very nervous about their funding situation

Please help!!!!

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It sounds like you want to go RPI. Is there a large difference between the reputations of the programs or are they similar?

There is no big difference. It's just that Purdue has a stronger Engineering school over all. 

Purdue's campus is so beautiful tho while troy NY is...kind of a dump but last night when i was about to decide I just subconsciously couldn't accept Purdue  

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I can't say anything about Purdue but I did an BS/MS in Mech at RPI so I'll throw you my 2 cents on that. As you said, Troy is a shit hole but it's a selective shit hole. The campus area is beautiful, East Troy is a comfortable suburb type area, and the downtown is currently undergoing a heavy revitalization. Plus you have the whole capital district to explore as well. So basically you never have to go near the shitty areas unless you want to for the most part. 

 

Culturally, since it's a small, almost entirely STEM based institution the student body tends to be close and extremely nerdy. You're not going to get the experience of interacting with liberal arts majors but the void is filled somewhat by a huge variety of clubs. So if being surrounded by stereotypical engineering nerds is your thing then you'll probably fit in just fine.

 

The biggest negative that I can actually comment on is the administration. The president and her cohorts aren't exactly the most popular people on campus at the moment. Luckily the students are mostly isolated from that. All you'll have to do is deal with some backroom complaining and questions of why X was built instead of fixing the chairs in building Y. 

 

Obviously I'm a bit biased but I hope this helps.

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