Worcester Polytechnic Institute Overview

Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private not-for-profit institution located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Worcester Polytechnic Institute Known For?

• The 1% student loan default rate at WPI is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at WPI is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 82% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from WPI with a bachelor's degree make about $84,900 a year. That's 108% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• It takes the average WPI student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Rankings

WPI landed the #77 spot in our 2021 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,320 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. Out of the 63 colleges in Massachusetts, it is ranked at #9.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

WPI has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#13	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#50	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#60	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#290	Most Popular Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at WPI.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Mathematics & Computer Science Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Systems Theory Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Management Information Systems Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Other Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best General Business/Commerce Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards WPI has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#4	Best Colleges for Computer & Information Sciences	College Factual
#5	Best Colleges for Engineering	College Factual
#6	Best Colleges for Mechanical Engineering	College Factual
#6	Best Colleges for Computer Science	College Factual
#6	Best Colleges for Chemical Engineering	College Factual
#16	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central

Where Is Worcester Polytechnic Institute?

Contact details for WPI are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Phone:	508-831-5000
Website:	https://www.wpi.edu/
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/wpi.edu
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/wpi

How Do I Get Into WPI?

You can apply to WPI online at: https://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/apply/how-to

Admission Requirements for WPI

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	considered but not required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	neither required nor recommended
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into WPI?

You'll need to do what you can to make your application stand out if you plan to apply to WPI. The school screens its applicants carefully and has a fairly low acceptance rate of 48%. So, don't just throw your admission packet together at the last minute!

Approximately 66% of accepted students are men and 34% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 43%, and the acceptance rate for women is 64%.

Can I Afford Worcester Polytechnic Institute?

The overall average net price of WPI is $50,572. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At WPI, approximately 53% of students took out student loans averaging $13,238 a year. That adds up to $52,952 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WPI is 1.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 4,761 undergraduate students at WPI, with 4,642 being full-time and 119 being part-time.

There are also 2,133 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,642 full-time undergraduates at WPI, 60% are male and 40% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Worcester Polytechnic Institute students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	293
Black or African American	137
Hispanic or Latino	411
White	2,872
International Students	395
Other Races/Ethnicities	534

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. At this time, 37 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 80 countries are represented at WPI. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Vietnam.

Online Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

In 2017-2018, 1,089 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at WPI has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 15th most popular in Massachusetts for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2017-2018.

Online Growth Rankings of WPI

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was 12.2%. This is the #1,200 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at WPI regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of WPI majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Civil Engineering	19%
Computer & Information Sciences	4%
Computer Science	7%
Electrical Engineering	11%
Engineering	10%
Environmental Engineering	19%
Mathematics & Computer Science	2%
Mechanical Engineering	18%
Other Engineering	4%
Robotics Engineering	12%
Systems Engineering	17%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at WPI ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at WPI.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Mathematics & Computer Science	#1
Robotics Engineering	#1
Systems Theory	#2
Environmental Engineering	#5
Biomedical Engineering	#6
Other Engineering	#11
Mathematics	#13
Systems Engineering	#14
General Biology	#15
Mechanical Engineering	#16
Civil Engineering	#17
Mathematics & Statistics	#21
Electrical Engineering	#24
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#29
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	#41
Engineering	#51
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#86

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Mechanical Engineering	248	2	88	4	342
Computer Science	172	1	47	7	227
Electrical Engineering	101	5	79	6	191
Robotics Engineering	83	1	72	5	161
Biomedical Engineering	79	0	13	3	95
Chemical Engineering	78	0	6	2	86
Systems Engineering	0	5	78	0	83
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	55	0	23	2	80
Civil Engineering	53	12	9	0	74
Mathematics & Computer Science	0	1	50	2	53
Other Engineering	0	2	49	0	51
Computer Information Systems	0	2	48	0	50
Business Administration & Management	0	0	39	1	40
Industrial Engineering	36	0	0	0	36
Materials Engineering	0	0	26	10	36
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	1	20	13	1	35
General Biology	32	0	1	1	34
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	32	0	32
Mathematics	15	0	11	3	29
General Business/Commerce	4	6	18	0	28
Marketing	0	0	28	0	28
Environmental Engineering	14	0	12	0	26
Other Business, Management & Marketing	23	2	0	0	25
Computer Software & Applications	19	0	6	0	25
Physics	18	0	1	0	19
Manufacturing Engineering	0	7	8	3	18
Architectural Engineering	17	0	0	0	17
Applied Mathematics	0	0	17	0	17
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	16	0	0	0	16
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	8	0	4	1	13
Public Relations & Advertising	12	0	0	0	12
Statistics	0	0	7	3	10
Other Statistics	10	0	0	0	10
Chemistry	6	0	1	3	10
International Relations & National Security	9	0	0	0	9
Instructional Media Design	0	0	4	3	7
Design & Applied Arts	7	0	0	0	7
General Psychology	5	0	0	0	5
Management Information Systems	4	0	0	0	4
Science, Technology & Society	4	0	0	0	4
Liberal Arts General Studies	3	0	0	0	3
Sustainability Science	3	0	0	0	3
Economics	3	0	0	0	3
Nuclear Engineering	0	1	0	0	1
Systems Theory	0	0	1	0	1
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering Physics	0	0	0	0	0
Human Computer Interaction	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,138	67	791	60	2,056

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Runningonbrains under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.