I graduated from RPI summa cum laude, with a dual major, in two honor societies, and went straight to a tech giant, working as a software engineer.

So I have standing to say that RPI has been mismanaged as an institution. Besides my personal experience, RPI's political troubles are well-documented and well-known [1][2][3]. With failed leadership and failed policies, this university has come to sit below CMU which itself is just below MIT.

UT Austin is a fine school from what I heard, and does not seem to have the toxicity of the RPI brand. That is, a second-rate school for second-rate students.

[1]https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-One-Leader-Set-a-Toxic...

[2]https://news.vice.com/article/americas-highest-paid-college-...

[3] https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Troubled-alumni-sto...

Man, does this list goes on.