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Worcester Polytechnic Institute Data & Information Overview

429 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
60% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how Worcester Polytechnic Institute ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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How Well Is Worcester Polytechnic Institute Ranked?

#53 Best Colleges in Nation
#5 Best Colleges in MA
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute was awarded 429 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is other multi/interdisciplinary studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked WPI as #53 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when WPI held the #67 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 63 colleges in Massachusetts, WPI is ranked at #5.

See all of the rankings for Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Is It Hard to Get Into WPI?

60% Acceptance Rate
37% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

If you're applying to Worcester Polytechnic Institute you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 60%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.

Learn more about Worcester Polytechnic Institute admissions.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Faculty

14 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, this ratio is 14 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

94% Freshmen Retention
82% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Worcester Polytechnic Institute has a freshmen retention rate of 94%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  94 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At WPI the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 82%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  82 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Undergraduate Student Diversity

4,709 Full-Time Undergraduates
23.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
40.3% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 4,892 undergraduates at WPI with 4,709 being full-time and 183 being part-time.

How Much Does Worcester Polytechnic Institute Cost?

$42,835 Net Price
55% Take Out Loans
$58,236 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of WPI is $42,835. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for WPI

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$31,779 $33,976 $33,999 $40,094 $46,023

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of WPI, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

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 55% of students took out student loans averaging $14,559 a year. That adds up to $58,236 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.

Get more details about paying for Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

How Much Money Do WPI Graduates Make?

$89,405 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from WPI with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $89,405 in their early years. That's great news for WPI students since it is 110% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute make the most money.

Location of Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Massachusetts State
4,709 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private not-for-profit institution located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

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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

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Majors

48 Majors With Completions
1,372 Undergraduate Degrees
876 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 48 majors graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Of these students, 1,372 received undergraduate degrees and 876 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Economics 229 NA
Mechanical Engineering 229 $68,074
Computer Science 183 $86,601
Biomedical Engineering 101 $57,498
Robotics Engineering 95 $77,253
Electrical Engineering 95 $74,310
Chemical Engineering 71 $67,835
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering 59 $72,303
Civil Engineering 39 $67,056
General Biology 31 $43,799

Learn more about the majors offered at Worcester Polytechnic Institute along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at WPI

32% Take At Least One Class Online
12% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 2,304 students took at least one online class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This is an increase from the 834 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 2,304 873
2019-2020 834 661
2018-2019 998 683
2017-2018 1,089 653
2016-2017 1,014 540

Learn more about online learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Notes and References

Footnotes

*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.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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