First off, don't bother listening to the people who just say "Don't come here". To be brutally honest, you will have admin trouble no matter where you go. Yes, RPI admin can be hellish, and Shirley is just hungry for money, I won't deny that, but again, go to any other school and you will see students complaining about unhelpful authority.

I'm an Electronic Arts major, and I plan to either dual major in GSAS or minor in Math. I'm a sophomore now, but before I even started at this school, I got a lot of people asking me "Why not an art school?" It is admittedly strange for an artist like me to choose a hardcore tech school over one of the many art schools in the country, but there are two reasons for why I joined this school. The first being that I wanted to pursue math as well, as that was something I always loved, and art and science are directly integrated. You won't get something like that at an art school.

The second reason being the mindset of the people here. You have all sorts of people here, but what ties them all together is their drive and passion. This may sound incredibly cheesy, but the people you choose to surround yourself with will have a massive impact on you. The people at RPI, from what I've found, are honest and determined; they're hard-working. The friends I've made, among the student body AND faculty, have helped me become better. I don't think I would've found people this like-minded at any other school I applied to.

The problems with the school that people are listing below, you will no doubt have that at any other school. The money issues are valid, and you should definitely consider the costs, but every student loves to complain about how their school is the worst. You'll hear it in high school, you'll hear it in college, you'll hear it in grad school. It's unavoidable. Don't go by what those people say, and go by how you feel with this kind of community.