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 technological university in the English-speaking world.

Rensselaer ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States by 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 13th in 2002. 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.

Rensselaer has five schools: Architecture, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences, Management, 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."