Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a large university in Troy, New York, near Albany, founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer. It is the oldest civilian technological university in the English-speaking world.

The Institute

Rensselaer ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States according to US News & World Report. For 2005, the School of Engineering for undergraduates is ranked 16th in the nation. In 2004, the School of Engineering for graduate students was ranked 33rd in the nation. In 2003, the Lally School of Management & Technology undergraduate program was ranked 22nd. Its Entrepreneurship program was ranked in the top tier nationally in 2005. The Multimedia/Visual Communications graduate program has been ranked 8th in 2003 and 2004. The Applied Mathematics graduate program has been 21st in the nation in 2003 and 2004.

Related Topics:
United States - US News & World Report - Lally School of Management & Technology

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Rensselaer has five schools: Architecture, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences, The Lally School of Management and Technology, and Science. RPI is a technology-oriented university; all of the residence hall rooms have hard-wired high speed internet access, and all incoming freshman have been required to purchase a laptop computer since 1999. In 2004, The Princeton Review ranked RPI #1 for having the "most connected campus."

Related Topics:
1999 - The Princeton Review

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The current President of RPI is Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. Dr. Jackson?s career prior to becoming Rensselaer?s president has encompassed senior positions in government, as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; in industry and research, as a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories; and in academe, as a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.

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The university is in the midst of great change. With the coming of the current president came the Rensselaer Plan. The Rensselaer Plan serves as the map for this change. Its goal is to achieve greater prominence as a technological research university. A large part of this is strenghening its research portfolio. New research infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies have been built to support new programs. Accordingly, there is the need for a larger graduate student population. The need to attract greater funds for research is also paramount with a goal of $100 million annually. To enable the changes outlines in the Plan, the university has mounted a $1 billion capital campaign, of which the public phase began in the fall of 2004. The university recognizes the relative small size of its endowment compared to its competition, as well as its relatively strong dependence on funds from tuition to support its operations.

Related Topics:
Research - Graduate student - Endowment

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