<p>I am an international student from Bangladesh. I am applying to Mechanical Engineering in IIT and I have a few questions. I would be glad to receive answers from someone currently involved with IIT. Here are my questions:</p>
<p>1) Are there merit-based scholarships available for international students? What is the approximate amount? I scored a 2100 in my SAT and got a GPA of 4.0. </p>
<p>2) How does the campus look? Is it modern or more traditional old-fashioned buildings?</p>
<p>3) How is the Mechanical Engineering department?</p>
<p>4) Are Co-ops and Internships available for international students?</p>
<p>5) I read about the engineering portfolio in the website. How useful is it?</p>
<p>6) What are the job prospects of an international student after graduating with decent grades?</p>
<p>7) Are the merit based scholarship decisions given with the admission decision?</p>
<p>8) How is the reputation of IIT among employers of big engineering firms?</p>
<p>Any answer will be greatly appreciated as IIT is one of my top choices.</p>
<p>@devileng Let me try to answer your questions. if you have more, I can try to get you intouch with the right individuals on the IIT campus.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yes, on a case-by-case basis these decisions are made. I do not know the amount but once you are accepted, you are usually informed of the merit scholarship in the admission letter.</p></li>
<li><p>It depends on what you mean by “modern”. Many of the buildings were built by [Ludwig</a> Mies van der Rohe](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe"]Ludwig”>Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Wikipedia) or his disciples in the 1950’s and 1960’s but there are some much more recent buildings built by prominent architects as well. There is a [virtual</a> tour](<a href=“Undergraduate Visits and Tours | Illinois Institute of Technology”>Undergraduate Visits and Tours | Illinois Institute of Technology) of the campus which shows you the way it looks. I think the campus is actually quite nice looking and many of the buildings are being updated and renovated without losing the original look of the campus which is modernistic.</p></li>
<li><p>Our Mechanical Engineering department is one of the more popular ones on campus and it is probably one of the higher ranked ones. Rankings are funny things. IIT has high quality but small research-oriented departments. The size is really a disadvantage in these rankings. The faculty are quite good. The students gete a rigorous education and they find good jobs after graduation.</p></li>
<li><p>Internships for international students are available using the [Curricular</a> Practical Training](<a href=“Optional Practical Training - Wikipedia”>Optional Practical Training - Wikipedia) mechanism. I think this might not cover co-ops though.</p></li>
<li><p>You will have to ask the Admission office or the MMAE Department about this directly, I am a physics professor…</p></li>
<li><p>Well you can apply for Optional Practical Training and get a job for up to 18 months. After that, the rest is up to you and your employer wanting to sponsor you. A significant number of our international students get one of these positions but I do not know the statistics offhand. The Career Management Center would know and you could ask the Admissions office for details. Send them an email.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, see (1) above.</p></li>
<li><p>It is quite good in the Chicago area (a lot of our alumni do the hiring) and I believe that it is good across the country. IIT is one of the [url=“<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url</a>] schools and they all are well regarded for their engineering education (you can’t ague with MIT, Cal Tech, Case, CMU, RPI, and Drexel which are also members).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sir, Thank you very much for your reply. I would be delighted if you can get me in touch with any international student studying engineering in IIT. Thank you very much for all your answers. It cleared a lot of questions I had in mind. If you don’t mind I would like to get some more information about the university. If you time please tell me about the following things:</p>
<p>1) Do a significant number of students go into elite graduate schools, such as MIT, Cornell, Stanford etc?</p>
<p>2) Are there a lot of engineering clubs or organizations? Such as the ones concerning automobiles or technology.</p>
<p>3) Is the study abroad program for international students as well? Or are they just for US students?</p>
<p>4) How are the research opportunities for undergraduates?</p>
<p>5) Are there significant ECA in the campus which can add to my resume after I graduate?</p>
<p>6) What about the social life? Are the students friendly and accepting of international students?</p>
<p>7) How much can we customize our major? I mean if I get into Mechanical Engineering will I be bound to a specific set of classes or can I incorporate some classes of my own choice?</p>
<p>8) How is the relationship between students and professors? Are they close to each other and know each other personally?</p>
<p>9) Lastly, how are the engineering facilities in the university? To be more specific, the labs, instruments, technology used etc. </p>
<p>I am really sorry for so many questions. But as you know being an international student I can’t visit the university myself. There is only so much I can know by visiting websites. And as this is a really important decision for me I would like to be as sure as possible before choosing the university</p>
<p>You might try @hopingforbetter he is in chemical engineering. You certainly have a bunch of questions… here goes</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yes, our students do go to highly selective graduate programs (I hate the word “elite”). It is not so much where you get your degree but your ability to take advantage of all the resources available to you by taking the most demanding coursework (and doing well) and getting significant research experience. I can tell you that in physics, the students who go to these graduate programs find themselves as well or better prepared than their classmates. I think it is true for engineering as well. IIT expects just as much of its students as many other technological universities.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, there are professional societies for just about every field and then there are other teams for competitions. For example, robotics, steel bridge, concrete canoe, electric vehicle and so on.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know the answer. I suspect the International Center can answer if the Admissions office cannot.</p></li>
<li><p>You have to make your own opportunities. I can tell you that any undergraduate who really wants to get involved can do so. There are only 3,000 undergraduates on campus and so the student faculty ratio is pretty good. Not everyone wants to get involve in research. What you will not find is a research matchmaking office. However, it is easy to talk to faculty, just engage tham after class or go to their office. most of us are more than happy to speak with undergraduates.</p></li>
<li><p>There is plenty to do and you can stat your own club easily enough. However, ECs enrich your campus experience but mean nothing as far as getting a job or getting into graduate school. Graduate programs care nothing for ECs, just your preparation in academics and research.</p></li>
<li><p>Absolutely! The best event we have at IIT is the International Fest. We have many international graduate students and a growing number of international undergraduates too.</p></li>
<li><p>You need to do a bit of research on your own. The curricula are all [on</a> the web page](<a href=“http://engineering.iit.edu/programs/undergraduate/bachelor-science-mechanical-engineering"]on”>Mechanical Engineering (B.S.) | Illinois Institute of Technology) and in the [2014-2016</a> Undergraduate Bulletin](<a href=“http://www.iit.edu/ugaa/pdfs/ugbulletin14-16.pdf"]2014-2016”>http://www.iit.edu/ugaa/pdfs/ugbulletin14-16.pdf).</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, the student faculty ratio is relatively small and your upper division courses will generally be under 20 students so there is plenty of opportunity to get to know faculty. You will also have a chance to develop a professional relationship with your academic advisor who is a professor. Mechanical Engineering is one of our larger departments and so the classes might be a bit bigger but there is still the same opportunity if you take advantage of it. Believe me, not all students do.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a renovation gong on in the Engineering 1 building right now. This is where the Mechanical Engineering program resides. This renovation includes some lab facilities as well. You might wish to contact the department about this directly.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>no problem with all the questions, I would much rather have them than not get any…</p>
@xraymancs : At the outset, I must appreciate your clarity and patience in replying to so many queries. I kindly request your feedback on the following:
How would you rate / rank computer science undergraduate programme at IIT
I am an international applicant with some specific interest across broad realm of computer science, is it a good idea to contact Professors directly
Can I request for need based financial aid, as the merit aid is insufficient to cover the gap left after substantial effort to raise funds from parents and personal sources. If yes, what should I do.
While being pursuing computer science, I also would like to take a course in environmental engineering. Is that possible ? Or for that matter some course in finance ? Are these inter disciplinary perspective encouraged at IIT
How safe are the campus and residential areas, especially for an international girl student
Many thanks in advance for your reply.
It is hard to offer an objective "ranking" of specific undergraduate programs. There are lots of metrics and most of them are flawed one way or another. My impression is that the undergraduate curriculum in computer science is solid. You can take all the courses that you need to get a good background. Of course you can choose to take a harder or easier curriculum with your elective courses, that would be up to you. Probably a better measure of the quality of an undergraduate program is the opportunities it offers for internships and so on (if your goal is to get a job right after your B.S.). In that respect, Chicago is a pretty good place as there are a lot of financial institutions who like to hire our students for internships and after graduation. My son got his Computer Engineering degree from IIT in 2010 and found an excellent job in the financial sector within a month despite the recession. He is not a programmer but he was offered a programming job at the same firm. He chose the operations engineering job instead. In order to maximize your opportunities for internships and jobs after graduation, it is wise to get heavily involved in co-curricular activities to develop what you learn in class in a practical sense. The required IPRO courses help with that if you take them seriously.
For undergraduate studies, there is no real reason to do so. If you wish to get involved in research, which is the primary reason for contacting faculty, then you have plenty of opportunities after your first year or so of studies.
You can always ask. Contact the Admissions Office and see what they can do to help you afford coming to IIT. There is no guarantee as we already give a substantial discount as merit aid but I believe that they try to help applicants who really want to come to IIT to find a way.
My son, a well qualified OOS junior, is strongly considering IIT. After reading IIT Admissions page, http://admissions.iit.edu/undergraduate/apply/deadlines, I see IIT provides a priority deadline (nonbinding) for merit scholarships, but otherwise IIT has a nonbinding rolling admissions process. Am I correct that a student may apply nonbinding EA to another school (so long as that school permits early application to schools with rolling admissions) and also apply by the priority deadline to IIT? Thank you very much.
I believe that is the case. None of IIT’s applications are binding and so from the IIT perspective, it is fine if your son applies EA to some other university. My understanding of EA (as opposed to ED) is that it is not binding on the student’s part so it really should be no problem to apply in more than one place.
You are correct, we don’t have any binding policies related to our applications. As long as a student applies before December 1st we can consider them for our top level scholarships.
Hello, my son is a junior and would like to apply to one Chicago area school. It just happened that we got a card from IIT the other day. It’s hard to determine how good a fit he is for most colleges, as his test scores and GPA don’t appear to match. His GPA is around 3.4, mostly due to some low English grades. The magnet math classes have mostly resulted in A’s. His PSAT was 224 with little or no preparation, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him score in the 2300 range when he takes the SAT this weekend. Would his GPA be too much of a red flag to make IIT a viable option?
It shouldn’t be a problem, particularly if the GPA is lowered primarily by non STEM courses. We look for strong math and science grades and test scores as that is the best indicator of success at Illinois Tech.
Hi! @xraymancs
I was considering about applying to IIT, but I’m not sure if I have the credentials to get in. It would be of great help if you could give me a good idea of my elligibility. Thanks!
Credentials:
GPA: 3.54
SAT (1600 scale): 1260
SAT Math Level 1: 720
As far as extracurriculars go, I’ve been the class secretary for the past 3 years, been on the soccer team during my junior year, and have done some community service.
Hi @stayfly - Is the GPA weighted or unweighted? I cannot guarantee anything because I am not in the admission office but I think you have a good chance of being admitted. Is this for Fall 2017 or 2018?