The Rochester Institute of Technology

I am hard-of-hearing and know the basics of American Sign Language. However, I'd just come out of a dry spell of having little to no interaction with people of the Deaf community for three years. So I was unable to feel completely comfortable conversing with Deaf people. The main reason I came to RIT was to have more interaction with Deaf people, but the experience was difficult for me because I could not just 'jump in' to any conversations. I did take ASL 1 my second semester, but by then it was too late to really get to know anyone better because they'd all made their social groups and weren't really looking for new members.

That's not to say Deaf people weren't generally polite to me. The vast majority were friendly to me and allowed me to sign and didn't interrupt me. However, my interactions with them were limited to 'hi, how are you' and I quickly became frustrated.

My hearing classmates were actually worse with interaction. At least with Deaf people I could hold a short conversation - with hearing people the moment they realized I had hearing loss, they tended to suddenly find other people to talk to. The exception was the interpreting majors. Other hearing people tended to not know what to do with me. Not that I was surprised by that, it was just rather sad that a school with so many Deaf people tends to be segregated into hearing and Deaf with not much of a middle ground.

I should add that it took me a while to realize that just because I wasn't having much success with making friends, didn't mean I had to ignore all opportunities on campus. I volunteered for a couple of events in the spring semester which were a lot of fun and made me feel like an actual person. You don't have to have friends to volunteer, you just need to show up and be polite and friendly. Another thing that kept me sane was Ballroom Dance Club. I was the only one with hearing loss in the club, but I enjoyed the dancing, which was something I'd always wanted to learn but hadn't had a chance to until then. However, the club tended to give me weird looks when I spoke up in club and it was very hard for me to have a conversation with them. But I was there for the dancing so I tried not to let it bother me too much.

Unfortunately, I never did find a 'group' where I fit in. That left a lot of emotional scarring. I was only majoring in Communications because it sort of had something to do with what I want to get into (publishing). But because I neither had friends nor a stimulating academic program, I will be transferring in the fall to a state school.If you are of a liberal arts mindset, I strongly encourage you to look elsewhere for a degree. I learned that tech school is really not the place to be if you have any interest in liberal arts, unless you are in the NTID program. The Communications major should only be considered if you know what it is exactly and know what you would do with it. Otherwise, look elsewhere for a degree. This is coming from a person with an associate's in English Literature. I plan to transfer to a state school to get my Bachelor's in English Literature, because I failed at RIT to get either a stimulating major or a social circle. The courses I took in the spring semester can be transferred to an English Literature major because they do have to offer some English Literature classes for general education. But the classes were not at the level that an English Literature major would find very stimulating.

1st Year Female -- Class 2017

Scholastic Success: A+, Education Quality: F