This week, Campus.News reported that graduating senior Brendan Harnett has successfully paid for his entire undergraduate degree himself, without using any student loans. The architecture major reportedly worked at a number of jobs in high school, invested in the stock market during the boom, sold in a timely manner, paid the capital gains, and used the proceeds to fund his education.

While at RPI, Harnett worked as a Teaching Assistant, "usually had another job on the side, and always worked in the summer". He also had the time to start his own architectural design firm and win an award from Architecture for Humanity for a mobile medical unit to be used in sub-Saharan Africa.