The Rochester Institute of Technology

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-

Academics: RIT offers a challenging and fast paced education. Although RIT is run on 10 week quarters, most courses cover more than semester school courses would cover in 10 weeks. That means if you fall behind in your work, you are in big trouble. The positive aspect of the quarter system is that you can take 1/3rd more courses than at a semester school. If you don't like a particular course, it's over in 10 weeks.

In general, computer science courses are more down to earth than theoretical, although I think the balance is just right. This does not apply to some of the upper level courses though, which may be nearly completely theoretical. The upshot of this is that you spend your 4-5 years here gaining skills that are useful in the real world. And you will have the right background in abstract CS concepts to quickly adapt to new changes in the field.

Co-op: This should be made very clear: Although some programs have mandatory co-ops (Computer Science has 4 quarters), RIT DOES NOT FIND YOU A CO-OP. You are on your own, although RIT has a co-op and career services office with a lot of nice people who can give you a hand. Although finding a co-op takes some work, I don't know of anyone who has been seriously snagged by the co-op requirements.

Social life: Be warned, you will NOT get the normal college experience at RIT. Although I thought RIT was a diverse place when I arrived, it was mostly due to my small town background, and at this point I can clearly see that RIT's population is very homogeneous (despite NTID). What this means is that, if you like doing nerdy things with nerdy people, you'll love this place. Otherwise you'll find yourself up at 3:00am trying to figure out if Penn State will accept all your transfer credits.

Campus: Honestly, a pretty campus is a plus. But an ugly campus is not a negative. If it takes a campus full of buildings that look like old churches to keep you inspired, RIT is not your kind of place.Final note: Although my rating is positive for RIT, I still would go to another school if given the opportunity. The reason is because I feel like I'm missing out on the real college experience. I got a lot out of the good academics here, sure. But I'm just not convinced that I had as good of a time as I could have over these last four years.

4th Year Male -- Class 2006

Campus Maintenance: A+, Campus Aesthetics: D

OK, RIT
this is the college
That everyone hates. But you have to understand. Its not all bad. Its your mind set.
So Listen, this is the most useful, honest opinion of this school ever addressing all the things, you , the student would care about.

!!!1!!!
~Women ! Yes, there is a bad ratio girls to guys, girls you listening ? Anyways it depends on your major. If your not engineering or technical [read art/business/la] DONT WORRY ! the ratio only shows in technical classes. In my math/physics/and engineering classes its about average to have 4-5 girls and 15 guys. But dont worry yet guys. About 5-10 guys in your class wont know how to approach a girl. And you dont have to worry about them. Its pretty competitive, but if your serious about finding someone you will. All my friends who really wanted a relationship found one. BTW Hot girls do go to RIT, but you have to be reasonable. They are HOT and at RIT. So if you want that ass you gotta be the Fabio of RIT. So prepare to at least lower your standards a bit. You also have to prepare for girls here, who, for lack of better words, have a personality/intelligence. Therefore, you actually see some of the jocks having more trouble than geeks getting laid, because the classic abercrombie shirt and nice car spiel dosent work here. Unless your the fabio guy, or find one of those types of ladys. More on this later.

~~!SOCIAL LIFE
Theres is a socail scene at RIT. But Like Incubus once said, HIGH SCHOOL NEVER ENDS !
READ
IF YOU WERE A LONER IN HIGH SCHOOL AND ALL YOU DID WAS READ MANGA BY YOURSELF AND PLAY COUNTERSTRIKE. YOU WILL MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE THE SAME. you will always see these kids on their floor on weekend nights. Complaining theres no partys or girls. Unfortunaetly, its pretty much your fault.

If you were a jock in highschool, youll probably hang out with the ultra jocks here who feel out of place among the geeks and therefore go into hyper jock mode to make up for their dwindling numbers

ANIME KIDS ! your good, dont worry theres enough anime kids here that you get your own thing going
There are emo kids here to dont worry, you have your scene.
The alternative are very well represented here.
So basically for social life stick to the highschool rule. Your social life in highschool will be like you life at RIT.If you went to partys, were social, and went out. The same will applying to RIT. If you think everything is stupid, and avoid people like the plague expect more of that here.

~~classes~~
Classes are actually really good
except physics
physics here sucks
~~~dorms~~~
the dorms are really nice, kids like to complain, but jesus ! Have you seen Clarkson's dorms ! These dorms are nice and well maintained. And if your lucky or have connections you be able to get an ON CAMPUS appartment your second year, and these things cost sometime less than dorms. So Housing HERE ROCKS.

~~Food~~
Same go for food.
The basic Freshman cafeteria GRACIES is alright, much better than some places. But the other places on campus are nicer you have an on campus Ben and Jerrys, quiznos, and like a million pizza, grill, and pita places.

THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH FOOD IN ROCHESTER IS PIZZA !
PIZZA IN ROCHESTER SUCKS
I DONT MEAN LIKE PIZZA HUT AND PAPA JOHNS
those are here and always the same
but real pizza
ny style thin crust shit
the good stuff
they dont know how to do that here
sorry
PARTYS
PARTYS
PARTYS
PARTYS
Someone always knows about a party at RIT.
My first 2 freshmen quarters I went to a party just about every weekend. Some were tiny and personal in apt's with friends. But I went to a few where you were f*cking pressed against the walls with 2 storys of drunk college peeps[read off campus banned frat partys]

so there there
but the trick to getting into a party is having a hip trendy friend or have a hot friend
If you know a girl
and shes hot
even decent looking
in fact
you dont even need to know them
every decent looking girl on campus has like a party information signal in their brain.
ask them, theyll always be sure to give you information on the 10million partys horny engineering students desperatley invite them to.

CO-OPS ARE NICE
ADVISORS ARE DECENT
~~~~WEATHER
a lot of people complain about the weather
it is windy here alot, but thats only because of RIT's design, its only in a few places when your walking to class from the dorms.

basically heres a quick way to tell if youll hate the weather here.
if you live in or around new york:

You wont really notice much difference, its definitely windier. Snowier ? it depends where your from. Colder ? once again depends. Typical new york lake effect weather.

if your not from around these parts:

Do you like cold ?
Its that simple.
Some people can take it some cant.
I know a girl who moved here from a fucking tropical resort island community, and she has no problem.

on the other hand my friend from NJ couldnt handle the way and transferred out.
so its a preference.
Basically best advice is
RIT is a nerd school
were a bunch of anime,tech,computer,whatever geeks.
Theres alotta of complaining becuase think about it
geeks dont have a social life
geeks dont get laid
geeks dont like outside
by the way I am a geek
so you then ask
how can I know all this
All I can say is I have good friends here who hook me up.
And I was a freak before I was a geek and a jock somewhere in between. So I have seen many different angles in this world.

If your looking for an engineering school in or near NY.
Come to RIT
fuck RPI, their a bunch of elistist snobs !
MIT, please by all means if you get in
Clarkson ? Do you like living in no-where land ?
any of the ladys out there, please come ! RIT needs women. Im getting sick of driving down to Geneseo [ the exact opposite of RIT, too many women !]

2nd Year Male -- Class 2010

Campus Maintenance: A+, University Resource Use/ spending: F