The most significant transformation posited by The Rensselaer Plan is that Rensselaer achieve tier-one ranking among U.S. technological research universities. The key to accomplishing this is that Rensselaer create a research portfolio of substantially greater size, quality, prominence, and impact.
In the future, research at Rensselaer will extend across a spectrum that places the Institute in leadership positions both in established fields and in evolving areas of inquiry that hold out great promise and opportunity.
Leadership in research requires a dramatic enhancement in inquiry-based graduate programs.
Graduate education must be supported by policies that promote excellence. To accomplish this, and to fully serve the students who are accepted by Rensselaer for graduate study, the graduate program must have a firm financial foundation.
To allow Rensselaer to provide the necessary infrastructure for our scientific endeavors and to expand significantly the number of research-active faculty, we must greatly increase research funding from external sources. This means that we must seek funding at levels that truly cover the costs associated with world-class research.
It is for these reasons that the Board of Trustees has affirmed new guidelines for graduate study and has approved a new policy for graduate pricing. The implementation of the new policy includes a transition plan to assure that current students will be treated fairly.
The policy for graduate study and the transition plan are available online at http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/tuition_policy.html
There are three key elements of the new policy: 1) With the exception of students in special cohort programs, full-time graduate tuition will be the same as full-time undergraduate tuition; 2) those full-time graduate students, chosen for support, will receive assistantships, for a specified period, with tuition waivers and a minimum academic year or calendar year stipend; 3) a transition plan has been worked out for students in each category, which is designed to be as fair as possible to each student, while nonetheless moving, within a specified time frame, to the full implementation of the new policy.
If you have questions or concerns related to the new policy, Tom Apple, dean of graduate education and his staff will gladly work with you. You can also be sure that your questions to president@rpi.edu will receive my full attention.
Together we can and will build a program of research and graduate study that is truly world class. Thank you for sharing in this mission of such critical importance to your future and to our world.
