<p>Ok, here is a little background. I was accepted at IIT, RIT, and Clark, and wait listed at RPI, WPI, and Stevens Tech. So, for now I've pretty much narrowed done my choices to IIT and RIT. I have visited both schools and here is how I feel.</p>
<p>RIT:
The good:
Seems like a tough academic program.
Departments are big so there will be a lot of research opportunities (plan on going to grad. school).
Talked to some people, and they said co-op is a HUGE help, long story short, their son did a co-op in college had no trouble finding a job, their daughter didn't and had trouble.
Tons of clubs (to make for short comings mentioned below)
Brand new expensive undergrad. labs.
Interested in producing real world results. (An example of this is the senior design project you do for computer engineering. You have to design it, build it, and the professors are interesting in actually getting it to work.)
RIT appears to have fabrication facilities on campus, which as far as I know no other school has. </p>
<p>The bad:
Did not like campus at all.
Dorms were probably the worst I have seen.
People complain about food.
The campus isn't diverse.
Nothing to do in Rochester. (reason why there are tons of clubs)
Housing problems (think forced triples and quads in dorm rooms which barely fit 2 people)
Off campus housing is far away, and there is no chance I would be able to walk especially in the winter.
They used to have one of the lowest retention rates in the country. Its all explained here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/234615-answer-why-rit-has-low-retention.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/234615-answer-why-rit-has-low-retention.html</a></p>
<p>IIT:
The Good:
Absolutely loved the campus.
Very diverse.
Its in Chicago.
Doing research in areas which I am interested, but smaller departments.
No housing problems. (a majority of the students live in dorms after their first year, because the school is in Chicago, which i'll explain below)
Some students think the school is challenging in terms of academics.
I liked the dorms. I went to one of the old dorms and it was plain amazing. The rooms were not that much bigger than RIT, but they were bigger and the size made a difference. They don't do forced triples or anything. They have nice lounges, smaller ones for hallways to share, and larger ones for entire floors to share.
Vandercook college of music is on campus. As opposed to RIT where you have to go to the uni. of Rochester's music school, which seems to be downtown and is far from campus. (music is an ec for me and I play the drums, so just in terms of equipment in case anything needs to be moved or what not the closer the better, especially in winter time) </p>
<p>The Bad:
Its in Chicago. (A lot of parts of Chicago just aren't safe to be in. What I was told by my mom is that because I am not from the city, I won't know how to judge an area. She lived in Chicago for 3 years. She also said is that its going to become even more difficult for me because they are tearing down all the projects and replacing them with condominiums, so every neighborhood I saw I thought was safe. There definitely are areas around the campus that are not safe and you would not be in at night, but the campus itself is safe, and i remember my tour guide mentioning that its the 2nd or 3rd safest campus in IL.)
I felt like in terms of academics that their program was not as strong as RIT. Their labs were not on par with RIT, and it seemed like everything was more theoretical. Again an example is the senior design project for computer engineering. At IIT thats all it is, a design project. You are expected to design hardware, and simulate it on the computer. If it works and its a good design the professors will get it fabricated and thats the end of it.
It seems like things move slowly because its on the semester system as opposed to RIT which does 10 week quarters.
I also talked to people from their career office about their co-op program, and they require you do it with the same employer for 3 semsters. RIT you are required to do 3 co-ops for engineering, but you can do all 3 with different employers to help you figure out what kind of job you are looking for. I think I would prefer a co-op program like RIT's, because you might get lucky and fall in love with the company you do your first co-op with and just end up doing all 3 there, but if not then no hard feelings and you just go somewhere else for the next one. </p>
<p>Misc: When I was visiting IIT, one of the professors thought that IIT was the school for me. If anyone has any views on the schools I was wait listed at please tell me. I think at this point WPI might be a possibility too if I get in, but one of the problems I have with it is that its only an hour from my house, and my grandparents live in worcester, so its only like 10 minutes from their house. I was also told that its extremely fast paced, and that if you miss 1 day of class, your pretty much done for the term. For those that don't know, it uses 7 week quarters as opposed to RIT 10 week quarters.</p>
<p>So, in conclusion, I think I am starting to think like my parents (which college is going to get me the job or help me get into a top grad. school), while still maintaining my teenage mentality (i have to live there for 4 years!).</p>