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The Rochester Institute of Technology

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I don't know what it is about thisQuite BrightFine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc
I don't know what it is about this school. It's a great place to learn, tops in many of its degree programs. Most students are eager to learn and very motivated. But over and over again, I have seen friends - some with only a year left to graduation - leave RIT for other, less highly ranked schools.

It might be Rochester itself. The weather is frequently overcast and drizzly. The area around the school consists of highways and shopping malls (although the campus itself it quite nice). Downtown Rochester is run down and depressing.

It might be RIT's quarter system. You get one- or two-week breaks at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and in the spring, so you are never on break at the same time as your friends at other schools. This was something I never took into consideration when choosing a schhol. To my surprise, it does make a big difference.

It might be academic pressure. The quarter system means you cram a semester's worth of learning into a 10-week period. The pace can be brutal, especially the final two week of each quarter.

Social life? There are things to do if you look for them. This is not a party school. If that's your goal for your college years - to party as much as possible - go elsewhere. But RIT has its fair share of on-campus events, and there are bars and clubs near campus.

The reason I am very positive about RIT is that I CAME HERE TO LEARN. I'm not overwhelmingly concerned with the weather or the city or my social life. I wanted to go to a school that would give me a top-notch education, and I feel RIT has provided that. I'm excited by my classes, challenged by my professors, and I learn something every day. My program (photography) is highly regarded in the professional community. Photographers are so impressed when I tell them I'm studying at RIT that I feel like I'm attending the Harvard of photography schools.So RIT can be a compromise. There are negatives and positives, but the quality of the education I'm getting outweighs the negatives by far.

3rd Year Female -- Class 2008
Education Quality: A+, Surrounding City: C-
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I left RIT for UB a few yearsQuite BrightElectrical Engineering
I left RIT for UB a few years ago because of price. RIT was so much better that I came back even if it is 4 times the tuition. Academically the EE department is excellent. Some classes are very difficult, but believe me that you do learn more. I took Linear Systems and Electronics at both schools (because RIT wouldn't accept the transfer) and you get what you pay for.
4th Year Male -- Class 2008
Education Quality: A+, Campus Aesthetics: C
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This one is for all those soon toQuite BrightCommunications
This one is for all those soon to be graduating high school seniors. It was only a short while ago when I was in your position, reading anything and everything I could about RIT and colleges in general. I used this website a lot and found most of the negative comments to be really amusing. "Could RIT really be that bad?" I often wondered to myself. Well after surviving two years there I can safely say yes.

THE SOCIAL LIFE: Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. The Frats are a joke. Thankfully the U of R is nearby and their Frats are real good at throwing parties. Most people at RIT keep to themselves. This place doesn't even have a football team, although the hockey team is good. There is very little sense of comraderie. The guy to girl ratio is awful and it has a big effect on the psyche of people attending the school. The parties suck because they are all big sausage fests. The Frats (that's you Triangle!) charge admission to their parties but then don't serve alcohol because it is a dry campus. Basically, if you are not into computer games, apparently World of Warcraft is God at this campus, then you are pretty much the odd man or woman out.

Classes: I transferred majors a couple times. My advice, If you are not sure what you want to major in start in the Explorer's program. I tried computer science and was in one of those learning group things where they have like 16 of the same students take all their courses together for the first year. Unfortunatley, the comp science students were introverted and snooty. Despite good efforts, I befriended one and the rest bowed down to World of Warcraft and other weird computer adventures.

**LISTEN CLOSE**
DO NOT go to this school if you are looking at anything in the liberal arts college.
Those classes are an extreme waste of time and money.
After learning the exact same thing in three classes I learned what a scam the communications program is.

Professors: Some are good. Some are awful. I had 3 that could not communicate effectively with me in the English language. In one of those courses, it was so frustrating I dropped it. I'm not afraid to give names. Felea, Lee, Kwon, Johnson, and Niemi cannot teach, I know from experience. Others are harsh, as in they give F's a lot, Cos and Johnson.


CO-OPS: For most majors this school requires you to co-op for as long as 5 quarters. In Advertising and Public Relations you need to co-op for two quarters. It is a real pain to land a co-op in this field. No one wants to pay you and the jobs are tedious. Thats is why liberal arts majors are a joke, employers frown upon them. I know this when I went to RIT's career fair and recieved blank stares from employers who did not seem to be hiring anyone in my field at all. Enough said.

**Quarter System Advice**
RIT goes against logic by having a retarded quarter system. It speeds things up and your breaks will never coincide, which is a BIG DEAL, with your friends who were smart enough to go to SUNY schools or any other colleges. This means you wont be partying when they are and when your ready to let loose they can't. Because all your credits will be based on the quarter system, rather than the semester system, it is a real pain to transfer out of RIT once you have started there. So if you do commit to RIT, you better be in for the long haul.

WEATHER: It sucks so bad in the winter. You will freeze your nuts off during Winter quarter. I commutted and the walk from the parking lots to classes is like the Bataan death march. Its far, its uphill, with wind blowing hard downhill and sideways. Cloudy, with little sun. Lots of Snow. The tour guides will lie to you and say Rochester is pleasant. It is from May to Oct, pretty much when you are not going to be there, but after that prepare for anything.

**RIT is dead on the weekends**
**If you do not have a car when you come to campus, make friends quickly with someone who does**
***RIT is a weird place, and not in a good way. It is not the normal college experience that most people expect to have. Its straight academics and hardly any play. Sorry, computer games don't count. Straight academics for four straight years will break most poeple unless you one of the super weird kids who attend this school. Long hair and long facial hair. You'll spot them in an instant. The majority of girls are ugly.***

DEAF CULTURE: There are a lot of Deaf people on campus because of NTID. They share in all the classes of the regular students, and if they are in your class you will be seeing an interpreter. They will constantly be waving their fingers and hands and you will notice this out of the corner of your eye when you are really just trying to pay attention in class. It is annoying. If you see a cute girl on campus there is a catch, she is deaf. Haha.

Dorms: Clean, Newer. Where people confine themselves to their computers for hours on end.

THIS SCHOOL IS EXPENSIVE!!! I paid my own way but there are plenty of privelaged people who go here and don't seem to give a shit about going here and learning nothing because Mommy and Daddy are footing the bill. This school likes to leave large gaps, thousands of dollars in your financial aid package that you just magically have to come up with. Expect to reach into and deplete your college savings or else expect to take out loans if you want to come here. For the rest of us, there a greener pastures, ones that will not leave us tens of thousands of dollars in debt after we leave with a worthless degree from RIT (ignore this if you have your master's or a degree in engineering of computers). This college seems ok from the outside, even when you come by for a visit. But when you combine all the aforementioned truths about RIT you will soon realize what a crock of shit this so called great school is. Thankfully, I got out after two years, so I can save the other two years of my life from the desparing, broken hearted feel of RIT. **Please do not take lightly this review. It is the dead honest truth. I highly advise that you not attend this school. If you are the type who doesn't like to make new friends or you know you're just a weird ass, then go here. Otherwise, save your time, money, and go somewhere you can make friends, meet a few decent ladies, but also get a well rounded education.**

2nd Year Male -- Class 2007
Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Individual Value: F
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The Rochester Institute of Technology
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