It enrolls about 2600 full-time undergraduate students and about 1000 full time and part time graduate students. It falls into the Carnegie Commission doctoral two category. WPI is unique in its project-based undergraduate Plan, implemented in the early 1970s. All students must complete three projects in order to graduate. These project experiences represent the heart of the WPI approach to undergraduate education.
Teams are multidisciplinary and faculty advisors can be from any department.
The project is within the student's major and conducted under the supervision of a faculty advisor from that department. The projects usually consist of discipline-specific research, or in the case of engineering, capstone design. The IQP and the MQP are each equivalent in credit to at least three courses, or one-fourth effort for a full academic year. WPI's grading system is unique and has some bearing on the outcomes of this project. An NR in a student record may mean that the student failed to complete the academic activity at all, or that the student's work was unsatisfactory.