Rochester Institute of Technology | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Cassie

Class: Freshman
Major: Biology
Gender: F

High School: Ardsley High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

Sometimes I get the impression that RIT is a next-to-Ivy-League school, and sometimes I feel like we're not doing as well as we could. I tell people I'm attending RIT and I get responses like, "Oh, wow, you must be brilliant." However, some of my teachers have been mediocre - the ones integral to my major, incidentally. What I like most about RIT is that it's easy to become a leader in extracurriculars. While RIT doesn't have an official music program and its arts are limited, there's a lot to do in the city of Rochester. All you need is a car and an interest, and you'll be endlessly entertained. For instance, last night I went to a swing dance downtown for the first time, and had a great time. Afterwards everyone was invited to the swing instructor's house for some more dancing. It was fantastic. Also, a lot of touring companies for Broadway shows come to Rochester. This year we had The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Avenue Q, Wicked, among others. There's a good amount of community theater to get involved in, including the RIT Players, RIT's biggest theater group. This year we did a musical: On The Twentieth Century. Our tech crew is fabulous, as one would expect from a technical institute.

Academic Life

All of my professors know my name. Even in lectures of 70 people, my professors are willing to talk one-on-one, especially if they see your interest. I'm dissatisfied with my Intro Biology and General/Analytical Chemistry professors. Neither of them really teaches; they just throw equations or facts up on the board and talk without getting anywhere. As a result I've struggled in Biology, even though I'm an eager and capable student. However, I'm told by upperclassmen that the upper level courses are much better. RIT's goal is to prepare you to jump straight into work in whatever field you're interested in. There is a ton of research available on campus or at the University of Rochester.

Student Body

The student body at RIT is very diverse. We have students from a lot of different countries, though most of our student body is middle-class Caucasian. The biggest difference between RIT's population and any other institute/university is that we have the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). 10% of the student population is deaf or hard-of-hearing. This means learning a little bit of sign language can benefit you a lot - it's a little awkward to try to talk to someone and not know how.