By Ray Bert '93, Alan Earles, Bonnie Gelbwasser,
Joan Killough-Miller, Roger N. Perry Jr. '45 and Ruth Trask
Illustrations by Fabio Deponte, White Pickets Studio

The best way to understand what makes the WPI Plan unique and uniquely effective is to talk to the men and women whose lives it has touched.

Since the WPI Plan was first implemented in the early 1970s, hundreds of thousands of words have been written about the workings and benefits of this groundbreaking undergraduate program. The lion's share of those words have focused on the Plan's outcome-oriented approach. In other words, while most programs of technological higher education ask, "What should students learn?" the Plan asks instead, "What should technological professionals be? What skills, abilities and qualities should they take with them as they begin their careers and lives?"

During the Plan's first quarter century, more than 12,000 young men and women have earned their bachelor of science degrees at WPI, studying under this student-centered, project-driven, outcome-oriented program. Their stories provide a compelling and often poignant confirmation of all those many words. Here are 10 of those tales. To avoid repetition, we have not provided definitions of the components of the WPI Plan within each story. For definitions of the Sufficiency, Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) and Major Qualifying Project (MQP), please refer to "A Gateway to Adulthood,".

You may click on any of the names below to go directly to those stories or proceed to the first story.