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RPI 2024–25: Come for the Hockey, Stay for the Football

In honor of Gustavs Ozolins and Ellie Kaiser, today is 26 September 2024. There are 10 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.
 
ServinisScores said:
I seem to remember we would come in 45-50 about 20 years ago. Definitely drifted down the rankings.
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When I was looking at applying to colleges (way back in the old days), RPI had some programs that were considered in the top 10 - especially in the school of engineering and architecture. School of science was a bit lower and business and management was not even rated. Overall some listings had the school in the top 25. I remember my high school guidance counselor advising me that at RPI, even gym class was hard! He suggested I try to take as many college credit or advanced placement classes in high school as I could, but then not take the credit and just start as every freshman did with the basic classes. I have to thank him for that advice since at RPI the courses of study moved so fast that concepts were flying by like missiles and the adjustment from being a top of the graduating class in high school student to just another first year student struggling to keep up was not easy. RPI in those days was a rigorous school with a great reputation and graduates were highly recruited by some of the top companies. Coming out of RPI with a Dean's list average (anything over 3.0 in those days) was literally a guaranteed acceptance to a quality medical school.
I am not sure how to interpret this #70 ranking today. I wonder how an RPI education and degree is evaluated these days by the scientific and business community.
 
DrDemento said:
When I was looking at applying to colleges (way back in the old days), RPI had some programs that were considered in the top 10 - especially in the school of engineering and architecture. School of science was a bit lower and business and management was not even rated. Overall some listings had the school in the top 25. I remember my high school guidance counselor advising me that at RPI, even gym class was hard! He suggested I try to take as many college credit or advanced placement classes in high school as I could, but then not take the credit and just start as every freshman did with the basic classes. I have to thank him for that advice since at RPI the courses of study moved so fast that concepts were flying by like missiles and the adjustment from being a top of the graduating class in high school student to just another first year student struggling to keep up was not easy. RPI in those days was a rigorous school with a great reputation and graduates were highly recruited by some of the top companies. Coming out of RPI with a Dean's list average (anything over 3.0 in those days) was literally a guaranteed acceptance to a quality medical school.
I am not sure how to interpret this #70 ranking today. I wonder how an RPI education and degree is evaluated these days by the scientific and business community.
Click to expand...

Most certainly. I got an incomplete because I did not pass the swimming test. I somehow managed to pass the test as a soph.
 
In honor of Jordan Tonelli and Magdalena Erbenova, today is 27 September 2024. There are 9 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.
 
A few thoughts on the U.S. News & World Report ranking - which despite being a pretty flawed metric is still one that many people obviously look to.

RPI was in the 40-50 range for much of 2005-2020, but slipped to 60 last year and now 70. Some of that could be attributed to changes in RPI's performance, some to the way the calculations do a disservice to RPI, and some to the wider way the rankings have changed.

For example, RPI's acceptance rate was in the 40% area for much of the last decade but has jumped to closer to 60% since COVID. Even if there's not a drop-off in the quality of student attending (including through metrics like average SAT scores, which have been around 1390-1410 for more than a decade), the rankings will treat that acceptance rate change negatively.

U.S. News has also changed the ranking to benefit state schools, which had historically under-performed based on how things were calculated. Schools like Florida, Maryland, a number University of California schools, SUNY-Stonybrook, etc., have moved up. U.S. News also has moved a few schools like Villanova and Santa Clara from the regional to national category and they've gone ahead of RPI.

Finally, the rankings depend upon input from other people in academia, including those with no context for an engineering and science education.

It'll take a few years for changes under Marty to be felt in the rankings, so there's probably some legacy Shirley effect here. But end of the day, peers like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, etc., are ahead of RPI, in some cases by a notable margin.
 
MikeMidd said:
A few thoughts on the U.S. News & World Report ranking - which despite being a pretty flawed metric is still one that many people obviously look to.

RPI was in the 40-50 range for much of 2005-2020, but slipped to 60 last year and now 70. Some of that could be attributed to changes in RPI's performance, some to the way the calculations do a disservice to RPI, and some to the wider way the rankings have changed.

For example, RPI's acceptance rate was in the 40% area for much of the last decade but has jumped to closer to 60% since COVID. Even if there's not a drop-off in the quality of student attending (including through metrics like average SAT scores, which have been around 1390-1410 for more than a decade), the rankings will treat that acceptance rate change negatively.

U.S. News has also changed the ranking to benefit state schools, which had historically under-performed based on how things were calculated. Schools like Florida, Maryland, a number University of California schools, SUNY-Stonybrook, etc., have moved up. U.S. News also has moved a few schools like Villanova and Santa Clara from the regional to national category and they've gone ahead of RPI.

Finally, the rankings depend upon input from other people in academia, including those with no context for an engineering and science education.

It'll take a few years for changes under Marty to be felt in the rankings, so there's probably some legacy Shirley effect here. But end of the day, peers like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, etc., are ahead of RPI, in some cases by a notable margin.
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Appreciate your input - just adds to the evidence of the degradation many of us have seen and felt over the past 2 decades.
 
DrDemento said:
**edit**
I am not sure how to interpret this #70 ranking today. I wonder how an RPI education and degree is evaluated these days by the scientific and business community.
Click to expand...

We hire 6-12 freshout engineers each year, and it pains me to say, kids from Cornell, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, and even Clarkson appear to be better prepared.
 
Ralph Baer said:
I just noticed that DrD and I among many others have passed their 25th anniversary on this forum.
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I wonder if that means we are truly loyal posters on the board, or that we simply have not been able to find anything else worthwhile to occupy our lives with??
 
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