Information for Prospective and Accepted Students
We welcome prospective and accepted students and their families to the Computer Science Department at Rensselaer! Use this webpage to familiarize yourself with our department and get some of your questions answered.
About the Department
The undergraduate program in computer science prepares students to solve real-world problems and carry out fundamental research. Our undergraduates distinguish themselves by landing high-income jobs at such companies as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Bloomberg, Epic Systems, Facebook, Amazon, and numerous other companies both large and small. Many of our students go on to prominent graduate schools. Given our strengths and successes, for the last few years, our incoming class of first-year students has increased and been among the largest ever in our close to 40-year history. Recently, in the Fall 2018 semester, computer science became the largest undergraduate major at Rensselaer.
Our undergraduate program is both rigorous and flexible. Our rigor makes our students highly desirable for employment after graduation, with the average starting salary for computer science students graduating in 2020 or 2021 at just over $96,000. Our program's flexibility enables our students to earn dual majors in computer science and another discipline, including various fields of engineering (e.g., computer and systems engineering), as well as mathematics (MATH), information technology and web science (ITWS), business and management (BMGT), games and simulation arts and sciences (GSAS), electronic media arts and communication (EMAC), and many more. Close to 40% of our majors are dual majors, and many students also pursue minors in other fields.
Select the URLs below for more specific information (all URLs open in a new browser window):
- Welcome Letter for Computer Science
- CSCI Advising Checklist
- Answer to frequently asked questions from prospective students
- Faculty research interests (also check out the computer science faculty page)
- Class of 2021 computer science reported salary information and employers
- Class of 2020 computer science reported salary information and employers
- Computer Science website (for more curriculum information)
CS Clubs and Organizations
Our students are very active in extracurricular activities. Within our department, students participate in the RPI Computing Club, Upsilon Pi Epsilon (or UPE, the computer science honor society), RPISEC (the computer security club), ACM-W (women in computing), HackRPI, and Coding&&Community. With well over 200 student organizations on campus, students find many opportunities to pursue their extracurricular interests.
Select the URLs below for flyers and/or links to websites for these organization (all URLs open in a new browser window):
- Rensselaer Center for Open Source (RCOS) --- (alumni magazine article)
- HackRPI flyer
- ACM-W flyer
- RPISEC (also check out https://rpis.ec/)
- UPE flyer (also check out https://www.cs.rpi.edu/~upe/)
- Coding&&Community
CS News
A few recent news and articles involving our students and faculty are included below (all URLs open in a new browser window). Also consider following our Twitter feed (click here)!
- Rensselaer Students Empowered by Conference Celebrating Women in Tech
- Computer Science Students Attend Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing
- Rensselaer Researcher Mohammed Zaki Is an AAAS Fellow
- Breast Cancer Survivor Uses Personal and Professional Experience to Help Others
- Sharing Human History
- Federation of American Scientists (FAS) announces COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force, including Professor Jim Hendler
- Student-Built Program (Submitty) Supports Thousands During Remote Learning Experience
- App Developed at Rensselaer Can Help Guide COVID-19 Management on Any Campus
- RCOS Member Mallory Gaspard is a finalist in the Red Hat Open Source Woman of the Year award
- Coding&&Community featured in recent alumni magazine
- CS sophomore and RCOS coordinator, Frank Matranga, was interviewed by GitHub for his RCOS project, LATE
- Introducing AiMOS, one of the world's most powerful supercomputers
- Rensselaer offers AiMOS supercomputing capabilities to battle COVID-19
Past Events
A few recent events that focused on prospective and accepted students are listed below.
- Accepted Students Celebration for CSCI/ITWS [Monday, April 24, 2023]: Professor Brian Callahan (ITWS) and Professor David Goldschmidt (CSCI) held an online session for accepted and prospective students interested in CSCI and/or ITWS that included a panel of current CSCI/ITWS students. Click here to view a recording of this past event.
- Meet a Faculty Member in CS [Monday, March 21, 2022]: In this session, hear Professor David Goldschmidt describe life in the department, in particular software-focused courses and programs. Click here to view a recording of this past event.
- Accepted Students Celebration #1 [Sunday, February 28, 2021]: Professor Chuck Stewart, CS Department Head, introduced the department, our curriculum, our students, and the many activities students get involved with. Click here to view a recording of this past event.
- CS Student Webinar [Tuesday, March 16, 2021]: Meet a panel of current students, ask questions, and learn about their experiences at Rensselaer. Click here to view a recording of this past event.