Rochester Institute of Technology — Attraction in Town of Henrietta

RIT had its time, but that has long passed.

I sort of regret writing this because I have had some great experiences to be sure. But for every great experience, I have had three negative experiences.

Infrastructure, housing, and the bus system are a joke. They are always changing things, and lots of equipment breaks down all the time. Effort to fix these issues is fairly minimal. Food is low-quality on the whole. Yesterday, I waited 30 minutes for a chicken sandwich because they didn't prepare the equipment on time. I should have waited only seven minutes. Another example is that ITS took 10 days to make brightness adjustable on a computer. This should have taken 5 minutes, and they were very defensive about that.

RIT gets really expensive because of the cost of living, and because it's really isolated. Many people will try to pressure you to buy various things and sign up for programs. There are a lot of adjunct instructors who don't have much money.

Many professors don't really teach, they just read from course materials and don't want to explain anything. There are some great profs though, including my MS thesis advisor, who was always very upbeat.

The social atmosphere used to be very friendly and laid back. For some reason, that has rapidly changed. Even though we are all nerds, people lately have been getting really offended over the smallest things. Prestigious east coast schools like Harvard and MIT are stereotyped for having pretentious students, but it seems RIT students don't know when to let go of issues. This makes them even more extreme.

For instance, I was reported to Public Safety for being lost in a building, essentially. This is despite the fact I quickly left, and the signs that I saw didn't make sense. They were very aggressive towards me (and lied that I had to attend the interrogation). Waiting for the hearing took five weeks over almost nothing. They said I wasn't careful enough, even though many things on campus break all the time.

I found an attorney. Legal fees were almost $2000, and my attorney couldn't even represent me at the hearing. Fortunately, everything was dropped, though I still feel intimidated going on campus because I don't want to be reported again. I haven't entered that building ever since.

Someone I know was in a similar situation, where he used the phrase "manifest destiny" in a joke that had nothing to do with American history. He was reported, and lost his TA position, even before the hearing. He hasn't entered the building he was in ever since, except...

Loved the atmosphere! Nothing like being surrounded by your best friends in class and on the weekends. For those that are complaining about partying... What the heck are you talking about??? RIT parties more than U of R, and our parties are a lot more fun, trust me. It might be a leeeetle harder to find them but once you do, you know where to land yourself every Friday night.

As for the area... Henrietta will leave you wanting for more, that's for sure. I would suggest moving downtown if you like the freedom and have a car, or definitely trying to live in Perkins or UC. However, if you have a bike, it's a 25 minute (safe) bike ride from the south wedge to RIT via the Lehigh Valley Trail. In the winter take the bus or carpool.

Classes: Personally, I was in the College of Liberal Arts (psychology) and got a LOT of flack for it... but I chose the school for that particular college (I transferred in from an arguably better college in California). People there have no idea how useful and amazing the co-op program is for CLA majors. I can't speak to the semester system, but on the quarter system I had to do two paid co-ops (6months total), a two quarter long senior project (which many students publish), and I had to take a programming/web design course, stats courses, and a concentration. I currently work at the U of R and mentor their BCS majors, and I must say that RIT CLA better prepared me for the work force than U of R does (and it's top rated for psychology). Additionally, most students in my major landed a job within a year of graduating OR went on to a graduate program--- very unheard of, I would say. But, that didn't mean that I didn't get made fun of ALL the time for being in CLA... which really ruined part of my experience in connecting with other people.

Also, no matter what your major, RIT makes it super easy to take any course you could imagine. Engineering major interested in fine art photo? Easy. Psych major interested in dif eq? No problem. Interested in comic books? Take a course. Want to mesh computer science and cognitive psychology? I'm sure there's an app designed by RIT students for that.

Come here if you are: smart, artsy, interested in community service/education, don't have a particular desire for a football team, or like cats. (There are wild cats on campus). There are woods on campus, and more wellness courses than you...

The teachers are great. The education is good. The facilities are excellent. But that isn't enough to save the experience. Life outside of class is brutal. The experience all together is brutal. The dorm life is terrible, the RIT INN is bad also. Apartments are overpriced from the premium ones to the unfurnished ones. The food was pound for pound the most awful food I ever had to eat in my life. The school is like 80% Male 20 % Female and out of that 20% less than 5% is attractive. So don't expect on meeting any dream girls here the chances are slim compared to other colleges. The weather is terrible, The parties don't kick it half as good as some other colleges, drugs run high here with Rochester being a warehouse city for drugs, The campus is so massive parking spots are at least a half mile away at times many times further. Lots of prank fire alarms getting pulled more often than not in the middle of the nigh. The public safety and student conduct system is rather garbage compared to other colleges due to the fact that many of the reports they receive are rigged to target another student they don't like (yes the university can be that childish sometimes they still play with nerf guns) . Everything on campus is expensive, undersized, and downgraded. The ATM machines want 4 bucks not including your own bank fees, domestic beers are 6 bucks imports are 9. The groceries are terrible unless you go off campus. Lastly there's the campus that is built on swampy wetlands and it's always soggy and miserable long after storms have passed too.

I'm thankful for the education I got it was good. But the overall experience, If I could do it all over again I think I'd take a chance elsewhere. Education is important and lots of opportunity come from it. But the experience outside of class is priceless. It's far more important because many people build the foundation of their future off of what they get from the overall experience. Education is just a tool to build off of the foundation and nothing will ever change that regardless of how nice facilities and teachers are at RIT. The experience is the foundation the education is what you use to...