This thread is for whatever mundane and/or pointless observations, stories, and/or perspectives people may wish to share on being or knowing current or former students of that great 'Tute on the Hudson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Here’s my story: I’m a second year junior, physics major. Until the end of last semester, I was Features Editor on the Poly (that’s the Rensselaer Polytechnic, the entirely student-run and financed [via advertising] newspaper on campus for you non RPIers).
And a tidbit for all you alums: Women’s hockey is D-I next year. GO RPI!
I graduated in '01 with a B.S. in Industrial & Management Engineering (IME, aka Imaginary Engineering) and then again in Dec '03 with a M.Eng. in same. Didn’t have many extracurriculars while I was there other than flirting with cute younger RPI geek guys. LOVED the 3-1 ratio. And I have a love/hate relationship with those beautiful white trees that are blooming around campus right now. The look beautiful but they smell terrible. (I still live in the general area.)
If anyone needs ideas for torturing their roommates, I can tell you some stories from my friends. No, I didn’t torture my roommate, although we didn’t get along all that well. But there are great stories of what some of my friends did to one of their common-sense-lacking roommies.
Otherwise, my only comment would be DO NOT GO TO GRAD SCHOOL AT RPI. I loved the undergrad years and absolutely hated grad school.
ahh, the ol’ 'tute. I graduated in '04 with a BS in biomedical engineering. Some crazy antics were had, all right. Being in a fraternity (Alpha Chi Rho the coolest (nerdiest) guys on campus!) will do that. There was the time we plastered over Jim’s door over Thanksgiving break…the time some of the guys videotaped Dr. Jackson’s car from their car and had the FBI called on them…or the time during our “Drink With the Crows” rush event they went up the street to her house to invite her…and within five minutes every public safety car had responded to the hooligans at her gate, or how about the time we got shot at hile trying to get an x-mas tree?
Ahhh, good times, good times.
bouv, did you know another BME, a girl named Nicole, who also graduated in '04? She was EIC of the Poly for a while. Dark hair.
I also heard about some of the cro antics, did you know Mike Dillon? He was GM this year. The story I heard was that he and a few cro buddies decided that the best way to reach Jackson was to walk up to her house. They were trying to figure out the intercom on the gate when the FBI responded.
I graduated from there a while back. So do they still have F-tests? The Ho Chi Minh Trail? Hockey Line? And how come they haven’t gotten rid of Fridgen yet? And what’s the general impression of Dr. Jackson?
Yeah, I knew Nicole, but not very well. I swithced majors second semester of my junior year, so I never had a long time to get to know other BME majors, but I did meet her.
Ahhh, the antics of Dillon, Grand Marshall. Yeah, the “figuring out the intercom” thing was the incident I mentioned. That was before he was GM, though, but yeah, apparantly the guys scared her by, you know…using the intercom the way it was meant to be used. Go figure.
Dr. Jackson. Students hate her, alumni and benefactors love her, or so it would seem. She does things that earn the school money and recognition, but seems to forget the primary reason the school is there: the students.
:eek: Wow. 3-1? When I went, it was about 6-1. The first time I went to the SUNY-Albany campus, I got a friend of mine who was a student there to guide me to the library. She kept laughing at me because I was walking around with my jaw literally hanging open because I was in shock at how many women were on campus.
And yeah, I suspect part of the reason I’m so awful at relating to women is because I missed out on vital socialization opportunities during my formative years. (or at least that’s what I keep telling myself)
What’s wrong with grad school at RPI? Granted, I don’t formally have a grad degree from RPI, but in my undergrad schedule I ended up taking all but one class I would have needed to get a Master’s in my department. What I thought was really annoying is that everyone kept thinking I was a doctoral student–the department secretaries kept saying that they’d drop off papers in my mailbox, and I had to keep reminding them that I didn’t have one.
Questions for the current and recent RPI students: If I referred to the “Candy Counter”, would you know what I was talking about? And is Mother’s still there?
e to the x, dy/dx
e to the x, dx
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine
3.14159
Square root, cube root, log of pi
Disintegrate them, RPI!
And possibly even more appropriately (sing this to the Notre Dame fight song tune):
Let’s give a cheer for old Rensselaer
I’ll bring the whiskey, you bring the beer
Send the sophomores out for gin
And don’t let the fuckin’ freshmen in!
Mother’s is still there, and still has weekly folk performances (not well attended). Never heard of the Candy Counter though. And I’ve never heard those math-based rhymes either, but then I’ve … er, never actually gone to one of the hockey games :o
And the ratio now is something like 4.5 to 1.
Grad school at RPI now would I suppose depend on which department. Physics grad school is getting better. Still not good, but getting there. That’s the only one I really know about. And I for one am nothing but impressed with Dr Jackson, although I can’t understand WHY on this green Earth they would want to build this monstrosity. It looks like a giant Twinkie in scaffolding.
One other question: Does anybody know the recipe for Moose from the Rolls Touring Company?
It was a concession stand on the…ummm…north side of the student union, on the second floor (one story above the Rat). Last I saw it, it was a post office counter.
When I think of RPI, I think of Roller Derby. I went to Bard. We used to drive up to RPI to see Roller Derby games in the RPI Field House. We saw games (OK, fights) between teams such as the Bombers and the Chiefs. I saw the one and only Joanie Weston, Queen of the Roller Derby, play there quite a few times.
Dang, that was fun!
I got my ME and PhD in Mech Engineering in the 80’s. I thought RPI was great for grad school THe only reason I left was my advisor said, “HEY SIN time to graduate and get a real job!!!” Saw Fr. Guido Sarduchi in the gym; I still call the place “RensselPolyInstiechTute”
My kids went to the daycare center that had just opened in 1983 I think (is it still there?). My son was the only us citizen in his class. The kids still talk about how cool it was that they got to celebrate every holiday in the world.
And I have a love/hate relationship with those beautiful white trees that are blooming around campus right now. The look beautiful but they smell terrible. (I still live in the general area.)
(or at least that’s what I keep telling myself)
THe only reason I left was my advisor said, “HEY SIN time to graduate and get a real job!!!” Saw Fr. Guido Sarduchi in the gym; I still call the place “RensselPolyInstiechTute”