Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Date: Nov 09 2012
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Unfortunately I cannot say my experience at WPI was a positive one, for a multitude of reasons. I ended up transferring out of the school after my freshman year. If you would like a school that solely offers academic challenges, this is the school for you. Beyond that, I would argue that you will not find much here. My experiences with the faculty, aside from one particular professor in the chemistry department, were generally positive. I found the faculty to be extremely approachable and helpful during their office hours. The grounds of the campus are also well maintained, as I indicated earlier.

I did observe something in the student body that really shocked me, and that somehow I was completely oblivious to during my freshman year. The students at this school are extremely conservative and close-minded. The students I interacted with were never open to worldly discussions and had a very limited mindset. I also noted that racism was a bigger issue than I would have expected for a school that is supposed to attract bright students. I use the term racism in the loosest sense, not just referring to the color of your skin, but even extended to homophobia. Diversity of opinions does not seem to be encouraged by the student body unfortunately. I then wondered why the majority of the students were so conservative? Many of the students who come from Massachusetts belong to very wealthy families and appropriately have views I would say skewed towards their families' beliefs.

While I tried tennis, I found the club to be extremely exclusive. They really did not welcome those who wanted to play at the recreational level. Everyone always thought they were better than the next person, which can be extended outside of the club to the rest of the student body. I had never met students who were more down about the very school (WPI) they were attending. Everyone complained about how much they hated the school, yet the irony was that they choose to miserably stay there.

My life rather quickly unraveled before my eyes. I was starting to isolate my self from my friends because I wasn't keeping up with the workload and I did not have enough of a social life to balance my course work. My grades were excellent though, but they came at an expense. My social life. There really was not much to do on the campus. Greek life is surprisingly prevalent on campus, but these also are exclusive. I really don't think Greek life should be the only way to have a social life at a campus.

The result of this very toxic environment was that I suffered a bout of depression that I had to overcome. While I do not blame my roommates for it, they did serve as a catalyst to my unraveling. They saw I was noticeably depressed and my mood was changing, yet they didn't offer to go with me to the counseling center. They would tell me I was clearly depressed, but didn't tell me I should go get help. I was smart enough to reach the conclusion on my own. Even after that though, I felt WPI's counseling was worthless. I had to be hospitalized and put on medication for a short time. No student should ever have to experience this. If someone seems like they need psychological help, they should be able to rely on the people they call friends to guide them to help. I guess the people I thought were my friends, really were not. Whatever the case, I am not resentful. I have decided that this was only my personal experience with the WPI student body, not everyone's. WPI was not a match for me, but maybe it will be for you. It was my safety.