Is RPI or Ohio State more fun for undergrads?

The biggest practical tradeoff is this: Ohio State offers a much bigger, more visible social scene built around a large student body, Big Ten sports, and a classic college-town rhythm, while RPI tends to feel smaller, more academically intense, and more self-directed socially. At Ohio State, there are constant campus events, major football culture, and a huge range of clubs and student communities. At RPI, fun is usually less about a single dominant campus culture and more about finding your niche through friends, organizations, gaming, maker culture, Greek life, or nearby activities in the Capital Region.

If by “more fun” you mean lots happening every weekend, school spirit that is easy to plug into, and a campus where it is hard to run out of people or events, Ohio State is the clearer answer. Columbus is also a major advantage here because students are not limited to campus for restaurants, concerts, internships, and nightlife. The sheer scale of the university creates more social variety, and that matters a lot for undergrads who want energy around them without having to work hard to create it.

RPI can absolutely be enjoyable, but the experience is more dependent on your own initiative and on whether you like its particular student culture. It has a reputation for being more engineering-heavy, more workload-driven, and less centered on broad school-spirit traditions. Students who like tight-knit circles, project-based communities, and a somewhat more offbeat social scene can have a very good time there, but it usually does not deliver the same built-in, high-volume undergraduate social experience as Ohio State.

So if your question is purely about overall undergraduate fun in the broadest sense, Ohio State has the edge by a noticeable margin. RPI makes more sense only if you actively prefer a smaller, more niche environment and do not need campus life to be the main attraction.