The Rochester Institute of Technology

It's a great school with great facilities and great people. The only annoying thing is public safety, their motto is "safety over convenience" so expect to deal with stupid regulations. That would explain why everyone feels safe here but it also leaves some of us feeling hounded.

1st Year Male -- Class 2016

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Extracurricular Activities: F

I loved going to RIT for my undergrad. There are numerous extracurricular activities offered, plenty of on-campus jobs, and endless resources. They have an amazing library and plenty of places to get together.

4th Year Female -- Class 2010

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: B

RIT is a great school that I have enjoyed for my first 5 months here. I will go over the main points that those of you looking to come here are looking for, which include the social life, how difficult it is, how nice the campus is, and how the area is.

First off is the social life. First I'll list the negatives I have found about the social life here at RIT. One, there aren't a whole lot of chicks. A saying you'll hear if you decide to come here is "RIT girls are like parking spaces, they are either handicapped (deaf school), taken, or just pulled out of." It is kind of a bummer when you do a see a good looking girl just to find out she is deaf, believe me. Second is you have to be connected to really party. Luckily, I have met a lot of cool people here and I usually do not have a problem finding a good party, but If you don't know people chances are you won't find good parties. Third, there are a lot of "weird" people that go here. I have gone into my friends rooms on Saturday nights to see their roommate sitting on their computer gaming with 50 empty cans of mountain dew code red in the corner of their room, looking like they have been staring at the screen all day. Fourth, RIT is a dry campus which means they forbid alcohol on campus. I know kids that have been caught throwing out beer cans or drinking in the dorms and were put on probation.

Now for the positives. First, Parties are often in the apartments right next to campus, which means they are a small walking distance away which means no need to worry about transportation. The Province and Park Point apartments are very nice and usually great to party at. Second, The fraternities are very accessible and are available to everyone to pledge. Everyone I know that has pledged loves it and many fraternities have mansion houses right on campus. Third, the hockey games are great. Ritter Arena is always packed and the team is pretty good, and because it is the only Division 1 sport here people really rally around it. Fourth, Intramurals are offered in a wide variety of sports and are competitive and a lot of fun. Fifth, there are a TON of places just off campus to go eat or buy stuff, as there are malls EVERYWHERE and Wegmans (supermarket, I'm from Jersey so I've never seen one till I got here) is close too.

RIT has a reputation of being a challenging school, and it definitely makes good on that word. I spent a good amount of my time on lab reports and other homework my first quarter of freshman year, but none of the work I received I would consider unreasonable. As any type of engineer here, expect to work hard but be rewarded for that work with help all around and good professors.

As for the niceness of the campus, I can't complain. Everything is fairly modern and up to date, and everything is bricks. I like them for now, but I can see how the "brick city," as we call it, can start to get old. Overall if it isn't raining the campus is very nice and I would say a plus here. For a school of 14,000 students, it definitely does not feel that big as everything is compact on 1 campus 3.1 miles around. The facilities here are also a major plus. The fitness center is huge and state of the art, complete with every weight machine, treadmills and the works, ab workout area, basically everything you need to stay in shape and more, all at your disposal. Gordon Field House is also complete with a recreational pool and an Olympic sized pool, racquetball courts, basketball courts, a suspended track, indoor tennis courts, and an indoor track.

The area of Rochester RIT is in is great. Plenty of things to do just off campus and a very safe area. Definitely a plus to coming here as it is also only 15 minutes away from downtown Rochester. Overall I am glad I made the decision to come here as the students here take their education very seriously and put it first and foremost over everything, but also like to let loose and have fun too. RIT is a great mix of fun and hard work, and I would definitely recommend you to apply.

1st Year Male -- Class 2014

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Social Life: C+