Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA
U.S. News 2026 National Universities rank: #84
Founded in 1865, WPI is a private STEM-focused university in Worcester, Massachusetts, built around a project-based curriculum rather than a conventional lecture-and-exam sequence. The academic year runs in four seven-week terms (A, B, C, D, two per semester), and students typically take about three courses per term instead of five or six spread across a full semester. Every student must complete two capstone projects: the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), which pairs technology with a societal problem, and the Major Qualifying Project (MQP), a senior project in the student's major. A large share of students complete the IQP at one of WPI's project centers on multiple continents through the Global Projects Program, which is a major reason WPI's study-abroad participation rate is far above the national norm. WPI also runs a cooperative education program alongside its project centers. The school fields NCAA Division III athletics in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference and is organized around engineering, computer science, and the sciences, with smaller offerings in humanities, arts, and business. It suits students who want early, repeated hands-on project work and are comfortable with a fast-paced, compressed term structure rather than a traditional semester rhythm.
Key figures
- Acceptance Rate (Overall): 60.2%
- Average Net Price (Federal Aid Recipients): $43,071
- 6-Year Graduation Rate: 89.7%
- Median Starting Salary: $85,022
- Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,447
- Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 13