Worcester Polytechnic Institute Overview

Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private not-for-profit institution situated 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.
• In 2017-2018, 80% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, WPI bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $84,900 a year. That's about 108% more than their peers at other schools.
• The average WPI student graduates in 4.1 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Rankings

WPI landed the #53 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 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 72 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
#11	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#29	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#42	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#52	Best 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 Manufacturing Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Biotechnology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Robotics Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Other Business & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Biochemistry & Biophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Management Information Systems Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best General Biology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	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
#5	Best Management Information Systems Schools	College Factual
#12	Best General Biology Schools	College Factual
#17	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#43	Best Computer & Information Sciences Schools	College Factual
#53	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#63	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

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
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?

The acceptance rate at WPI is 59%, which is a sign that the school is fairly selective. While it may not be as hard to get into as other colleges, you should not take admission for granted.

Approximately 68% of accepted students are men and 32% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 56%, and the acceptance rate for women is 67%.

Can I Afford Worcester Polytechnic Institute?

The overall average net price of WPI is $51,379. 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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At WPI, approximately 59% of students took out student loans averaging $14,589 a year. That adds up to $58,356 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WPI is 0.7%. 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 4,892 undergraduate students at WPI, with 4,709 being full-time and 183 being part-time.

There are also 2,028 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,709 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	365
Black or African American	131
Hispanic or Latino	429
White	2,980
International Students	347
Other Races/Ethnicities	457

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 2019-2020, 834 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 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of WPI

The following table shows how WPI is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Robotics Engineering	#1	#1
Mathematics & Computer Science	#1	#1
Systems Theory	#4	#4
Biotechnology	#4	#4
Biomedical Engineering	#13	#13
Environmental Engineering	#28	#28
General Biology	#31	#31
Systems Engineering	#37	#37
Other Engineering	#39	#39
Mathematics	#49	#49
Civil Engineering	#67	#67
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	#73	#73

Online Growth Rankings of WPI

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was 9.2%. This is the #1,421 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
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	26%
Computer & Information Sciences	3%
Computer Science	11%
Mathematics & Computer Science	16%
Mechanical Engineering	1%
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	2%
Robotics Engineering	2%

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
Biotechnology	#13
Environmental Engineering	#13
Other Engineering	#19
Systems Engineering	#29
Mechanical Engineering	#34
Civil Engineering	#43
Electrical Engineering	#55
Computer Science	#71
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#97
Engineering	#171
Computer Information Systems	#296
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#394

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	262	1	79	4	346
Computer Science	201	3	47	5	256
Electrical Engineering	100	8	69	5	182
Robotics Engineering	95	2	63	5	165
Biomedical Engineering	100	0	16	6	122
Chemical Engineering	76	0	9	6	91
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	37	0	27	2	66
Mathematics & Computer Science	0	2	61	0	63
Civil Engineering	49	3	7	2	61
Systems Engineering	0	3	51	0	54
Business Administration & Management	0	0	45	1	46
General Biology	39	0	2	3	44
Computer Information Systems	0	0	30	0	30
Industrial Engineering	30	0	0	0	30
Mathematics	18	0	10	2	30
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	20	0	7	1	28
Other Business, Management & Marketing	26	1	0	0	27
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	3	24	0	27
Computer Software & Applications	17	0	8	0	25
Manufacturing Engineering	1	12	8	2	23
Materials Engineering	0	0	20	3	23
Other Engineering	0	2	20	0	22
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	3	8	10	1	22
Physics	12	0	5	4	21
General Business/Commerce	3	5	12	0	20
Environmental Engineering	9	0	6	0	15
Management Information Systems	10	3	0	0	13
Other Statistics	10	0	0	0	10
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	5	0	3	1	9
Architectural Engineering	9	0	0	0	9
Applied Mathematics	0	0	8	0	8
Human Computer Interaction	0	0	7	0	7
Design & Applied Arts	7	0	0	0	7
Marketing	0	0	6	0	6
Public Relations & Advertising	6	0	0	0	6
Statistics	0	0	6	0	6
General Psychology	6	0	0	0	6
Biotechnology	0	0	4	0	4
Systems Theory	1	2	1	0	4
Chemistry	2	0	2	0	4
Instructional Media Design	0	0	1	1	2
Sustainability Science	2	0	0	0	2
Economics	2	0	0	0	2
Liberal Arts General Studies	1	0	0	0	1
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering Physics	0	0	0	0	0
Nuclear Engineering	0	0	0	0	0
Science, Technology & Society	0	0	0	0	0
International Relations & National Security	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,159	58	674	54	1,945

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.