According to Newsweek, RPI is among 25 “new Ivies.” Well, I can tell you that if tuition costs alone were taken into consideration, RPI has been an Ivy League school for quite some time.
But I do admit it is pretty nice to see that RPI getting some attention in the national press. Maybe people won’t just give me blank stares when I tell them I went to RPI. Here’s a typical exchange:
Them: Where did you go to school?
Me: RPI.
Them: RPI? Where’s that?
Me: New York.
Them: Oh. Rochester…
Me: No, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Them: …
Me: It’s an engineering school.
Them: Oh. Okay.
Now maybe it’s just a southern thing. And I don’t have this same exchange with everyone that asks. But it is a bit disconcerting when you go to a top engineering school, and very few people around have heard of it.
bastone.org 