Reviews vs reality

Colleges and Universities A-Z Illinois Institute of Technology
1

I’m a potential transfer student who was accepted into IIT and trying to decide if I will go there in the fall vs. a cheaper school in the suburbs much closer to me. One thing I am really curious about is what the reality of attending IIT would be like compared to the reviews. I understand the vast majority of IIT students are in architecture or engineering, and I suspect that might skew the reviews in ways that wouldn’t be relevant to me since I would be in the applied analytics program which wouldn’t require me to take one single architecture or engineering class.

The reviews I have seen of IIT seem to have many complaints about students being overworked and stressed out. From what I understand, that’s what it’s like to be an engineering or architecture student everywhere, right? I am just concerned about this because one of the major reasons I am transferring is because my previous school gave insane amounts of homework with reading assignments (like one class having 4 required books, reading over 100 pages in a day to be quizzed on it). I’m a hard worker but there’s only 24 hours in a day so I can either commute 3+ hours, or read all day long, but not both. And for what it’s worth, moving to the city is not a feasible option or I would have already done it so please don’t suggest that I move.

If I transfer to IIT for applied analytics, I would be taking CS classes, math up to vector calculus at least, 4 communication classes, but no architecture or engineering. I would need 2 science classes in a sequence plus humanities. Is the course load for that crazy, or just run of the mill?

Obviously, the schools in the suburbs by me have way better commutes, but they have their problems as well such as not offering the right classes to graduate frequently enough so it’s playing Russian roulette to enroll there even though daily life would be easier to juggle. That’s why I’m trying to get an idea of what it would be like if I were to enroll at IIT. Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you.

2

IIT is a STEM school primarily. Most of the students are actually engineers and CS majors (CS is in the College of Science and is the largest department on campus). Architecture is not as big as it used to be because of the employment crisis in the field. In Science and Engineering, we expect our students to work hard but in my 33 years as a professor at Illinois Tech, I am positive that there is time for a social life. The problem is that many students self-select for not having much of a social life. That is student driven, not a university policy.

The course load is not any harder than in any other STEM program where you are a serious student. I would not be afraid of it at all. The Applied Analytics program is in the College of Human Sciences and is likely to be less technical than a degree in the College of Engineering or College of Science (Architecture is not so technical but it is a lot of work because of the studio classes). It would be, however, more challenging than a degree in psychology or political science because of the CS and mathematics requirements.

I’m not sure I have answered your questions but if not, just ask a more specific question and I will try to answer.

3

Thanks for the prompt reply. I guess if I had to ask anything more specific, do you know of many classes that assign multiple required books? Or over 100 pages to read in just one class with less than a week to complete it?

4

Well, I don’t know about the 100 pages a week but I know that some of the humanities and social sciences courses have multiple books.