The history of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) spans nearly two hundred years beginning with its founding in 1824. RPI is the oldest continuously operating technological university in both the English-speaking world and the Americas.[1] The Institute was the first to grant a civil engineering degree in the United States, in 1835.[2][3] More recently, RPI also offered the first environmental engineering degree in the United States in 1961,[4] and possibly the first ever undergraduate degree in video game design, in 2007.[5][6]
^"RPI History". Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved May 1, 2009. Note: a possible competitor for this title is the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, which claims to have the oldest engineering department in the US [1]Archived August 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. While this is true, it is still true that RPI offered the first engineering degree (Civil Engineering) in 1835. The statement of being 'the oldest" is thus justified in different ways by both. The modifier "in continuous existence" appears in Ricketts, Palmer C. History of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 2nd e.