The Rochester Institute of Technology

I transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology after finishing a couple of years from the University of Hawaii. Yes, the two campuses were very different in terms of the weather and demographics. Academically, I love RIT and I am glad that I went to that school. Upon graduation, I took fond memories and career-oriented skills with me.

I learned to be an independent learner, taking charge of my own education and direction in life, while I was a student at RIT and living in Rochester NY. In the midst of all the complainers and lazy students at RIT, I did not let their negativity bother me. They tend to be bitter because of the cold winters and lack of motivation.

RIT is a tough school and it trains you for real-life situation. If you do not do an internship (which for some majors is a requirement, but it was not for me), you will not learn about potential career paths (and what to avoid). I did several internships as a student and gained a lot of valuable insights. RIT encourages students to participate in internships and co-op, which attracted me to the school.

RIT is face-paced, which is quite different from what I was used to in Hawaii. But I wanted a faster pace of life, which I got in RIT. I got to meet wondeful people and lifelong friends. I was able to also travel through various parts of the country because of friends, internship opportunities, and scientific conferences: Niagara Falls, Toronto, New York City, Charlottesville VA, Boston, San Diego, Washington DC, New Orlearns, Seattle, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and other places. I got to go to many of these places for a reduce price because of traveling with friends and acquiring travel funds to attend conferences. If you work hard, you can play hard as well.

I love the RIT fieldhouse. The gym is awesome! I love the sauna and jacuzzi too. Those are the things that kept me very warm in the winter.

If you are a go-getter, an over-achiever, very motivated, and you know what you want out of life, then RIT would be the thing for you. If you don't know what you want, you won't succeed at RIT. I think that RIT is mostly tailored for those who have a good idea of what they want to do or is at least motivated to explore around. I think I was able to take advantage of what the school has to offered.

Some of the students at RIT are sometimes anti-social and uniquely eccentric. The dorks or geeks of high school strive in here. I was a dork in high school and I felt comfortable and at home at RIT. I got to meet people like me there with the same passion that I have for science and technology. There are social activities to do here on campus, but some students don't take advantage of it though. I hate how some students complain that there's nothing to do there when there were stuff to do on campus. Some would just stay in their apartment or dorm room and play on the computer when they could have been meeting people and hanging out. RIT sometimes attract some loners and some anti-social people and I just hope some were able to find people they can relate to just as I have.

I miss the computers and internet connection at RIT. You get hook on the high speed and the amazing computers there. When you leave the campus and go home, all other internet connections icluding cable is just too slow. You get so spoiled in the quality of technology in school.

I like the RIT Library and the coffee shop in it too. It's a cool hang out place and to study late in the evening. The art students are cool and balances all the techies.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I am a sophmore student in computer Engineering, I originally came to RIT for Information Security and Forensics, but soon realized that networking was not for me, and fell in love with the hardware/software aspect of RIT.

I would say that the snow is a serious part of RIT life, it makes winter travel a pain if your not used to the northeast. Plus 8am classes when its 9* outside sucks, especially if your walking or waiting for a bus that is late.

Fall and Spring at RIT seem to be much livelier and more fun. Its a shame the winters often over shadow this. RIT does not have something to do every night, however usually weekly there is something to do, and you can get involved with things and find things to do every night. However myself I am more a hermit and tend to stay inside. I find alot of the groups are often not so approachable as I would like, its often like you need to know someone or be very friendly and socialable already.

The academics make you feel like youve actually learned something useful, however at times you wounder if the staff has even read over some of the work. Often my lab instructors have to change many things just so a lab will work or make sense. Its very frustrating that rit is not so upto date with academics and prefers to spend so much time focusing on making rit more popular, and being the buisness they are. I wish they would focus on the aspects of the school they dont show the tour groups, and update the old parts of rit instead of building new useless water fountains they can't even run all year...

Professors are usually willing to help you as long as you are responsible in approaching them in timely manners. Sometimes you get a foreign teacher and that complicates things sometime, but usually everything can be worked out.

Much of the work you will have to do on your own, and learn which i do not like, i feel like it should be more spoon fed, then figure this out yourself.

I get by with minimal studying but you really need to study at rit to do well.
Partys, - okay, i will say that RIT is NOT a party school, if you want crazy partys look somewhere else .at rit you come to learn. That being said, you can FIND partys, and some are actually pretty good. RIT has this strange atmosphere, where we all are very friendly and like to get along and have a good time. if you leave your room and ask around and get involved you will have a great time. the occasional RIT events are usually amazing and tons of fun.

3oh3 came to rit and we had a pool party with them. Seriously rit is a great school for having fun and getting a great education.Rit for me was a really great school, my first year i met a ton of friends in my dorm, which shifted through the year. Now they are part of my life and im really happy with it. For me everything worked out and i am enjoying my time here. I would say RIT is a frustrating school, but if you can put up with all of its faults, you will get a great paying job and walk away with a great knowledge.

1st Year Male -- Class 2014

Surrounding City: A+, Campus Maintenance: D

Reading the rest of the views, I have to say I really don't know what these people are talking about when they claim there is no social life. Personally, I can't remember one night spent sitting in my room doing nothing. Sure there were nights a group of us spent in my room (a large triple with 1 roommate missing), but thats by choice or because it was just a good place to drink.

The social aspect of RIT depends of you going out and making friends with A) the people on your floor or B) networking through classes or orientation your first week. My problem was that the people on my floor are whats known as 'cavemen' where they rarely left the room. There were 3 people on my floor (out of 12, it was a small floor) that I would associate with. The rest were people I had networked with on my own. My advice for you and the point of this? RIT's social life is what you make of it, if you go out of your room and meet people, you'll find some really great people, I sure did.

The faculty are amazing. I had one bad class my second quarter which was taught a professor who was disorganized. I complained to the department and it was looked into to my satisfaction, good enough for me. The rest of the faculty are amazing. They will stay after class, give you their personal screen names, and even pull all nighters with you in the labs while you work on projects. It dawned on me midway through my 2nd quarter that the teachers weren't just there because it was a job, they were there to teach and they even got frustrated when kids didn't show up to class because they were there to teach.

The campus itself isn't that bad looking. Sure it's brick, but in the fall and the spring, facilities management does a great job keeping the grass green and the trees blooming. The winter this year wasn't bad but obviously thats not normal so I can't really comment on that.

The surrounding area certainly isn't as great as NYC or Boston, but theres enough to do to keep you amused. A decent sized mall, a movie theater, Walmart and Wegmans(grocery store) are open 24/7, plenty of places to eat(I recommened Philips European Bakery if you like cakes), and downtown Buffalo and Rochester aren't very far. Honestly, who doesn't want to go to Canada occasionally, if you catch my drift.

The field house, while useless to many, provides great services to those who wish to use them. An olyimpic pool, a small lazy river, a 20 person hottub, and a large gym (which is usually crowded but you can find open time), also an indoor track, many basketball courts and other stuff. CAB also has events and people come to the school as well as movies every thursday night incase you and your friends can't think of anything.

The big concern a lot of people have with RIT is the girl to guy ratio. Plain and simple, 35% of the guys don't leave their room because they love their computers. That puts the ratio of guys to girls who leave their room just about on level. Theres plenty of good looking girls and guys so don't worry.

Parties, yes we have them every weekend, meet some upperclassmen, we'll tell you where they are.
The Bad stuff:

Trying to register for classes is a 6AM ordeal which can be very frustating, but apparently it's being fixed.

Gracies food isn't horrible, but its not great either. Luckily meal options and debit can save you.
The B-lot parking lot (the one for freshmen) is a 5-10 minute walk depending on where your dorm is, you get used to it, but when its cold...

Student Government has poor participation and seems useless, never really had to deal with them or thought they could be of much help.

Depending on how you look at it, the quarter mile is part of a great fitness plan, or a long pain in the ass to walk in the cold.

Conclusion:
RIT is what you make of it. I had a great year and couldn't imagine going to another school. The classes were great, some I skipped, but overall worth the money, the people who actually leave their rooms are dynamic and cool to hang out with. If your looking for a well known school and want to feel like you learned something, RIT might just be right for you. It helped me find a great Co-op just after one year, making double what I was the previous year.Any questions, comments, or want some more advice? Feel free to email me at (account for RITIRC and to prevent spam).

1st Year Male -- Class 2010

Faculty Accessibility: A, Innovation: B-