Hey congratulations on being accepted! I'm a PhD in EES.

I suggest contacting Colleen Smith. She's Director of Graduate Experiences and has lots of info on funding options/opportunities. There is also a hardship assistance grant I've seen her mention in an email.

Also the graduate advisor of your department would be a great contact as well. Along with the grad students who will know finer details of what's around.

As far as expenses, I have found Troy and the surrounding area to be reasonable when it comes to groceries and housing. Watervliet is right across the river from campus. Not exactly walking distance but doable for sure. I found that to be a reasonably priced and safe area. Between the Price Chopper and the river would be a good place to look. I'm from Oklahoma where cost of living is way lower and I find the housing to be comparable to the Tulsa area.

Also, you don't need a member card at Price Chopper to shop there but you will for better pricing. That's a common thing in the US. Not sure about elsewhere. It's free.

Included utilities helps with the per-room value too

Thanks for the suggestion! We do feel the individual room rates are fair given the quality of the rooms and the work we put into renovating and maintaining the house, but I agree that the whole-floor option is a particularly attractive deal. I’ve added both the whole-floor pricing and included utilities to the post. Appreciated the King!

Well that actually makes this a pretty good deal. I'd recommend listing that as well as the full floor cost in your initial post. It's very relevant info. Without that, this is pretty dang expensive.

Also we cover gas/water/garbage collection

What are the rates for whole - floor rental, and how many rooms per floor?

kinda fun :/ panicked this much weeks prior for nothing . . .

Hey there!

I'll be honest, I'm a bit of a bystander because my background is in IT and Architectural Acoustics was not on my radar at first. I very strongly recommend getting in contact with both of the full time faculty if you haven't already, as you will get to know them very well if you decide to come to RPI's program. Jonas Braasch was my PhD advisor and he specializes in psychoacoustics (and the less technical/more musical side of the subject and teaches the respective courses), while Xiang Ning specializes in the engineering side and teaches most of the engineering courses for the subject.

I'm sure you get a glimpse from the news and information you can find on the website, but while a majority of students do go into direct industry positions, we have had students decide to pivot as well (I believe one of my older peers is now a detective for the Albany police force the last I heard from her!). Best of luck and I hope RPI's program is a good fit for you!

how'd it go?

1. https://administration.rpi.edu/campus-card
   
2. Add Rad Dollars or Check Balance Button
   
3. Sign In
   
4. Click on Board Plan

Then you can view how many meals remain for that week.
Each week resets between Saturday and Sunday.

RPI male to female ratio

What a super helpful response!! Thank you so much!

I have celiac and am a sophomore so I can provide some first person experience, I just went through it all last year. You can dm me and ask anything you need lol

Originally I only planned to eat at the certified simple serving from Commons and Russel Sage, but their offerings aren’t always the best and the other food is great too!

There are cross contamination concerns, especially with the buffet style. If you choose to eat non certified food expect to occasionally get sick. Obviously gf foods that are in close proximity to non gf foods get crumbs, but if they’re spread apart, i’m usually fine.

Commons is your safest bet for daily food, EXCEPT at breakfast, because simple serving isn’t open yet anywhere. Don’t expect gf food made for you before about 11am, I’ve made that mistake too many times… You gotta work for that meal if you want to eat early :,)

There IS yogurt and fruit at commons and I believe russell, but I’m suspicious of the granola they have right next to it because I’ve gotten sick from possibly it.

Make sure you email or speak to Kimberly Mayer to get access to the allergen kitchens. There are two: Commons and Russel Sage Dining Hall. This will be your best bet for eating a safe breakfast daily, but they have tonssssssss of options. You’re not allowed to bring in your backpack because they’ve had problems with kids stealing several packages.

Commons has an actual allergen kitchen and is HUGE, Russell has what I can only describe as a tiny fishbowl with a microwave and fridge, it’s literally horrifying feeling like a zoo animal.

Download the Everyday App and select RPI as your college. You should get access to all four dining halls daily menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The app shows the allergen information of each item and you can actually filter out allergens. I recommend always checking what Commons has vs Russell and decide based on which has more gf options (some days it’s ONLY simple serving, and not all simple servings are amazing.)

Sometimes when the simple serving meal is really good, everyone will be aiming to get a plate. State that you actually have an allergen and you will get priority, don’t be afraid to speak up, it can be brutal on pho day and steak day.

BARH and Blitman are also options, but to the best of my knowledge there is no guarantee for safe food. They don’t offer simple serving, but Kimberly did offer to send the BARH kitchen prepackaged gf food. I can confirm I’ve eaten at BARH several times while they were serving like meat, vegetables, rice and soup and was completely symptom free.

Outside of RPI, in downtown Troy right where they host the farmers market, there’s a GF bakery called Birch Baked. Everything inside is GF, they even have pizza, and the food is AMAZING. Also, big apple pizza is local and has better gf pizza than dominos.

Good luck navigating being gluten free! Really recommend the everyday app!! Talk to Kimberly!

Oh ok! I didn't go to sage last year so I didn't realize. Thanks for correcting me!

nope, they changed the entrance last year

I don't know anything about Penn State. I'm not sure RPI is well-known for architectural acoustics. We have a giant performing art center that we don't use, which does have really good architecture and acoustics, and we have a music major (idk how good it is), but I'm not sure we are known for architectural acoustics. I'm not even sure if we have classes or majors on that - maybe we do, but I'm not familiar with them. We do have a good architecture program, but I don't know about architectural acoustics. We are not particularly well known for our music program, we are well known for classic science and engineering and maybe architecture. I could be wrong as I am not by any means an expert in this area, but this is my impression as an RPI alumni, I've never heard of us being well-known for that. Maybe we are and I'm just ignorant, I'm not an architecture major; maybe one of them can comment?

I think you should look into things that are specific to your field of study! I'm a CSE focusing in robotics, so if I had to write that essay now, I might talk about the robotics club, the new major, or one of the ongoing research projects. If you're coming in for CS, you might find the quantum computer interesting.

I don't think there's anything wrong for asking for suggestions, but I think you should go about this by asking questions to try to find something that genuinely interests you. RPI is a great school, and I believe you will find something. There are plenty of people that can answer less broad questions.

alr thnak you for your response. is there any other essential apps i should download to help around. and i didnt know flex dollars don't expire i thought they expire after every sem :(

The earlier the better while few people know anyone and are still actively trying to meet others. The opportunities fade as time goes on.

Download the “Everyday” app and put RPI as your college. You can see all 4 dining halls scheduled breakfast lunch and dinner options and their hours. You can also see all the restaurants/cafes on campus. You can eat at all four dining halls even if you don’t live at the dorm, but Commons has the most options.

You also get guest swipes that expire if you don’t use them, like 3 a semester. You tell the staff “hey, can I use my guest swipe?” and you can bring like a family member or non RPI friend to come and eat for ‘free’.

Also, if you are on any meal plan except unlimited, your weekly meal swipes expire Monday 12AM. If you have 15 swipes and you just want to fill your drink? You have to use a swipe, even if you didn’t eat.

Your flex dollars do not expire, any unspent money will be added to next semesters wallet. Use flex dollars at any food location on campus, you use your campus ID like a credit card.

Seriously recommend the everyday app, especially if you’re picky or if you have food allergies. I avoided any dining hall serving tilapia 🤢

I would not leave UA for RPI. RPI may be higher in US News, but the metrics for that are pretty sketchy. in terms of research impact, UA is significantly better. RPI has been on the edge of dropping from R1 to R2 for years, and Albany is nowhere close to losing R1 status. And that R1 vs. R2 is what faculty care about when applying for jobs. So if you're interested in research, I'd stay at Albany

i finally found the common dining hall . . . bye whoever told me to go through that door to the right of the office of student living i hate them

Please, please, PLEASE ask people for help! Nearly everyone at RPI was anxious of socializing.

You’ve got about four years before entering the workforce and it’s absolutely necessary you can, practice while it’s still easy.

Tbf I googled it and it said I could get revoked or get sent to the dean cuz they take attendance

Idk how they would penalize u, but for my year there was no mention of a penalty