College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Student to Faculty Ratio & Faculty Composition

Does RPI have a good student to faculty ratio?

Use the student to faculty ratio, as well as the faculty composition to get an idea of how much attention you'll receive as an individual student at RPI .

Above Average Student to Faculty Ratio

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , with 13 students for every instructional faculty member, has more professors per student than the national average, which is 15 students for every one instructor. This student to faculty ratio is one of the standard metrics used to gauge the number of teaching resources a school provides for its students, and therefore, the individualized attention or quality of instruction the student might receive.

Breakdown of Instructional Staff

The following table shows all the employees the school considers instructional, and therefore, part of the above student-to-faculty ratio. These include both those employees designated as either "primarily instructional" or as "instructional combined with research/public service". It does not include employees that have been identified by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as primarily performing research or public service.

TotalFull TimePart TimePercent Full Time
Total of Instructional Employees4704145688.1%
Total of Those With Faculty Status4654095688.0%
Tenured Faculty233233-100.0%
On Tenure Track5858-100.0%
Not on Tenure Track1741185667.8%
Without Faculty Status55-100.0%
Graduate Assistants325-325-

Do You Like Being Taught by Full-Time Teachers? Then You're Picking the Right School.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's utilization of full-time teaching staff ranks among the highest in the nation, with 88.0% of instructors employed full time.

Any Questions?

Not Many Adjunct Teachers Here

At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , only 12.0% of the teaching staff are part-time non-faculty or non-tenure track faculty. This use of adjuncts is far below the national average of 51.4%, which could be indicative of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's commitment to building a strong, long-term instructional team.

Colleges often use part-time professors and adjuncts to teach courses, rather than full-time faculty. This hiring practice is primarily a way to save money amid increasingly tight budgets. However, it is a controversial practice with strong views on either side. We encourage you to understand this topic more deeply, and how the colleges you are interested in approach faculty hiring. It's your education and your money on the line. Make sure you know what you are getting for it.

Additional Information

You May End Up Getting Taught by a Grad Assistant

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has 325 instructional graduate assistants that teach or provide teaching-related duties. These responsibilities could range from entirely teaching lower-level courses themselves, to assisting professors by developing teaching materials, preparing or giving exams and grading student work. We suggest you ask the college to what extent graduate assistants are relied on for instruction, so you know what you are paying for.

Additionally, the school has 393 non-instructional graduate assistants.

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