The Rochester Institute of Technology

I am a freshman Industrial Design major.So far(end of second quarter) I love it here. I see people posting completely horrorable comments about this school and as I understand it it is all a matter of personal preferance and desire to achieve what it is that you are lacking.

Social life. There is not much of it. But it is not like a deserted island where everyone avoids everyone else. If you have desire to obtain friends/party you can. There are parties here, I don't go there so I don't know much about them. Though another detriment to making friends might be the fact that people here are nerdy/geeky/techy for the most part. Still, if you seek, you find.

Classes. Truthfully, I love my classes. They brutally rape me, but the amount of knowledge I gained is immense. Ity is again your choise of classes. There are easy ones, and there are good one. I chose the good ones and payed with my sleep...2-4 hours a night. On the contrary my room mate is constantly playing games, watches movies and hangs out with friends and still has time to get 8-12 hours of sleep a night.

Good classes are good and if you are willing to do the work, they are just as good/better as other leading schools in Industrial Design.(RISD..AASF..Parsons..) Teachers are good too. All of the ones I have had so far were very knowledgeable, supportive and lenient when needed.

Campus and weather. This year was warm, except for a few days. Generally it is cold,gray,snowing and a little depressing once in a whiule when it rains. But when you seriously work, weather gets lost somewhere outside of the warm dorm filled with happy music and the smell of fresh paint.Ending: If you are serious about learning something and are willing to dedicate yourself to it. This school is good for that..no distractions unless you want them. On the other hand, if you want to be a fully socially dependant person with no interest or knowlegde of what to do with life, please don't go here.

1st Year Male -- Class 2010

Innovation: A+, Surrounding City: C

If you're a chick- don't come here unless you'll feel comfortable taking classes that have 33 guys, and 2 girls. Man-haters and those fearful of living in a dorm with 3:1 guy:girl ratio need not apply. On the other hand, these poor boys could use some more good women. If you have some sort of need to be in the company of other estrogen produces, there are sororities and a cheerleading squad in desperate need of fresh blood. Personally I love it here. I'm in the new honors program, which will hopefully someday be worth all the trouble it's putting us freshmen through. I found friends (and a good man) in the fraternity scene, though I'm not a big partier myself. I wouldn't be caught dead joining a sorority- one of the reasons I came here was because I don't want to have to be around chicks all the time. The key to success is that you have to be extremely devoted to your major and future career to make it through the system. Otherwise all the annoyances will send you packing within a quarter or two. Just focus on how much money you'll be making when you graduate, and you can usual forgive the dreary atmosphere.

1st Year Female -- Class 2006

Extracurricular Activities: A+, Campus Aesthetics: C

As a cross-registered student at RIT, I wear a cochlear-implant and have grown up mainstreamed all my life- at RIT I truly have found a bridge between my two worlds, the "hearing" one I was in* but was constantly struggling to keep up with, and the "deaf community" I had always wondered about. Here, its truly the best of both worlds for me, some of the closest friends I have are also CI/hearing aid wearers with the same story as I, but we all interact so well with BOTH the "hearing" population and "deaf community" here. There's a common perception that the NTID school is made up of only "signers"- I admit i thought this at first, thus had to be really pushed by my parents to even look at RIT..now i'm SO grateful I did- but this is the furthest from the truth! The majority of us are actually cross-registered students, meaning attending regular classes at RIT as an RIT students, but with "NTID support" in the classrooms such as C-print, FM systems, note taking, etc. They offer forms of support I never even knew existed!

However, this being said, I highly advise those of you looking here with hearing impairments/deafness (I consider myself "deaf" with a "lowercase d", as we call it, but there's so many individual interpretations i'm just saying this to be safe) to BE CAREFUL. There is a HUGE difference between applying TO rit THROUGH NTID, and applying TO NTID- once you apply into NTID, and discover that all the professors (unfortunately even those who are oral) sign only and will literally force you to learn or understand sign, and you decide in panic that you need to get OUT and into RIT with the rest of us, it will be a long?.long?hassle.

I have several friends whose parents even threatened to sue with lawyers, and only then did NTID give them "permission"- apparently being sued won't look good for them. NTID will very likely try to convince your not to leave or even straight out tell you you "can't" (I was told this when trying to leave a NTID class that i mistakingly signed up for thinking it was a "NTID-supported class, the woman who talked to me got so upset every time I tried to sign because I was slow and couldn't understand her FAST signing, and wrote down, "see this is why you should not leave the class, you aren't capable of reading". EXCUSE ME?! I got a perfect score on my APs and ACT writing section!!)

just be careful!Know that going into NTID you should only*** go if you are 100%*** a signer, or really REALLY ok with the sign-only environment. Its almost completely excluded from the RIT campus. And extremely difficult to "transfer" out of into RIT.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2016

Education Quality: A+, Campus Maintenance: C+