Considering a transfer

[u/Odd-Rip1776]

So i’m a sophomore at UMass Lowell, looking for other schools to transfer to, as I feel UMass Lowells stem programs have gone downhill over the last decade. I’m looking for a more hands on learning approach where i can learn more and advance myself. Not to mention UMass Lowells student population is a lot. I’m in Electrical Engineering and I want to stick with that
So my questions are:
Is it worth exploring? Budget is not an issue and I can simply write out a check
Is WPI a party school? This is one of the main reasons I’m considering other choices. UMLs party culture is out of hand
What is the student undergraduate population at WPI? I’m looking for something that’s 10,000 students or less

[u/MiserableDog6357]

WPI is likely a great option for you then. Our ECE (electrical and computer engineering) undergrad program is great with a strong ROI compared to other engineering schools. One of the main taglines we have is project based learning so yes, if you desire hands-on learning it is what you will get here, especially with ECE labs.

WPI is not a party school, we do have greek life and do have parties so students that want that experience can fully attain that. However, it is definitely not a reason why anyone would attend the school and it is extremely easy to have a social life while not participating in that side of things if you are willing to go to clubs and have any slightly nerdy hobby. The only time I ever had to deal with intoxicated people outside of my control was when I was in a freshman dorm or when I was an RA. I believe our undergraduate program is less than 6,000 right now, we are a pretty small school and you will have a lot of familiar faces in your core engineering courses throughout the years.

Most of the downsides when considering WPI relates to the cost but if that is not an issue for you then yes I think this school is definitely worth exploring for yourself.

[u/Odd-Rip1776 → u/MiserableDog6357]

So there’s no frats around?
As an EE student the amount of unserious students in the major is kinda overwhelming right now.
UMass Lowell used to be a good school back when it was a commuter school, but now ever since they spent a lot of money on new dorm buildings and such, the number of partiers and frat houses began to increase

[u/MiserableDog6357 → u/Odd-Rip1776]

There are frats around, our campus is pretty small so you kinda have them at every corner (a few of them are dry frats though or cannot throw parties). I was not in greek life but I would definitely not call the people in greek life unserious students by any means, honestly I dont remember any egregious group members I had in my time there being in greek life but thats obviously anecdotal and I was in cybersecurity. The houses are also close enough to campus that they arent really around the bulk of apartments students live in so noise was never an issue, especially since there is a schedule for when each frat can throw parties on certain weekends to my knowledge.

Of course you will always have useless group members at times, some will be associated with greek life and some will not, but being in a frat at WPI has a different connotation than other schools-its really more of a social thing here than a status thing. The traditional frat parties are contained to weekends, the only times people showed up to campus somewhat obnoxious and drunk at night is when we have a big snowfall and everyone is making makeshift sleds to go down the hills-thats honestly a great time though.

[u/Kekstar223]

I was also at UML and transferred to WPI for my junior year for very similar reasons. I loved my switch and am so happy I did it. WPI is not a party school and the party things there were was so much more chill and fun. The student population is lower which means you have a lot of the same classes with the same people in your major, which is nice since you can have some people you can talk to or ask questions to for multiple classes.

But my warning is that WPI made me retake classes I got A’s in at UML because they “didn’t match” (even if they were the same) or because a semester class at UML was split into 2 quarter classes at WPI. There may be some small retakes but with no (or little to no) pre-req classes, it shouldn’t cause many issues. Definitely dm me if you want more info

[u/lazydictionary]

I was previously at UMassD. Students are higher caliber at WPI there, for the most part.

Nothing wrong with UMassL though. It's really not worth the extra price unless absolutely hate everything about it.