New Account Pickup

Congratulations on your decision to join Rensselaer! As one of the newest members of the Rensselaer community you are now eligible to pick up your Rensselaer Computing System (RCS) userid on-line. Your RCS userid will allow you to access your Rensselaer email and comes with many other privileges that you will be able to take advantage of as a member of the Rensselaer community. We’d like to invite you to follow the Account Retrieval Tool below to activate your account – but first a few important points.

Procedures

1. In order to begin the activation process you will need the 16 digit PIN number sent to your email address.
2. After entering your PIN you will be given your RCS userid and a password to your RCS account that has been randomly generated and is close to impossible to remember – WRITE IT DOWN exactly as it appears – it is case sensitive and will always be 16 characters (including numbers or punctuation) long.
3. In activating your account, almost immediately after you are given this password, the system will prompt you to change it to something that is more familiar to you and that you are more likely to remember.
4. Whatever you do, keep track of your password! For security reasons passwords cannot be given out over the phone or via email. Passwords must be 15 to 30 characters in length and must contain at least one non-alpha character (a number, punctuation, etc.).
5. If you need your PIN reset, please submit an online Support Request or call the help desk at 518.276.7777

Important Note: After you retrieve your account information and have waited at least 15 minutes you will need to install Cisco AnyConnect Duo for multi-factor authentication.  Cisco AnyConnect VPN in order to access some RPI systems  from off-campus:

Duo Mobile - Multi-Factor Authentication

VPN Installation and Connection

Once connected to VPN using Duo, you can check your RPI email 15 minutes after you change your password at https://outlook.office.com .

Please visit this section of the knowledge base for useful information for those new to the community:
New to Rensselaer community - for Students, Faculty and Staff

Account Retrieval Tool

This tool allows you to retrieve your Rensselaer Computing Services (RCS) account information. Your RCS account provides access to e-mail, wi-fi, the learning management system, public computers, printing, and many other services. 

To use this tool, you:

1. Must be a current member of the Rensselaer community (this includes accepted students)
2. Need to have been issued a 16-character PIN.

Please submit a Support Request if you have not been issued a PIN, or for any other difficulties with this process or your RCS account (including password reset requests).

Please do not press the back button during the registration process. For security reasons, backing up to previous pages is disallowed.

When you have your Registration PIN in front of you, click below to continue and follow the directions for retrieving your RCS userid and temporary password - waiting 15 minutes before changing that password and waiting an additional 15 minutes before using to login to your email:
Continue to Account Retrieval Tool

Last Reviewed: 07-Mar-2023