<p>Did you try posting in the RIT forum?</p>
<p>I don't know a ton about the engineering program but I can say there are tons of kids in it (and CompSci). Classes seems relatively small. Calc classes are capped at 20 and taught by professors - so you won't have 400 kids in your Calc 1 class like I did at a state school. My DD has some friends in engineering and my son has 2 HS classmates there now. I think the classes seem a bit easy at first, esp if you've done well in AP Calc BC, but the pace is fast at RIT (10 week quarters) so before long, it gets much more demanding. Doing well in Calc 1 isn't indicative of how demanding Calc 2 and 3 are. Although the kids we know all had between 1300-1550 on their SATs (and received merit $), RIT accepts kids with lower stats. Some find it difficult to keep up and drop out. Some transfer. My DD is in the design school and she's known kids who transferred into RIT because the program at RIT offers much more than their previous schools.</p>
<p>Cons are it's in Rochester, NY - that's up by Canada so it's cold and snowy, which also means gloomy and windy. That can be depressing but it is typical of most places up north. RIT isn't in the city of Rochester, it's an enclosed campus in a suburb. Buses take students to the mall/food store/restaurants (a mile away) so a car isn't necessary but even freshman are allowed to have cars on campus and parking is free. There are lots of commuters/off campus students but RIT does offer on campus apts and townhouses in addition to the dorms. My DD easily got a 3 bedroom townhouse her 2nd yr and can stay in it until she graduates. All her friends got into on campus apts 2nd yr, although some chose to stay in special interest housing (dorms). The on campus fraternity/sorority houses are beautiful. New apts are being built on the edge of campus - the campus is huge with tons of room to build.</p>
<p>My DD has a fun, social group of friends who live in the on campus apts, go to sports events, work out in the fabulous new sports center and generally try to get out and have fun (some are in fraternities and sororities but she's not) but she wishes the school had more school spirit. Neither she, nor her friends, play computer games. There are kids who are real techy computer game nerds who never leave their rooms, other than to go to LAN parties. Some kids have trouble finding a group where they "fit." From what I've been told by engineering majors at other schools - RIT is typical of tech school environments - But it does have a good Div 1 hockey team if you're into sports. An engineering major at Lehigh (higher ranked than RIT) told me it's tons of hard work and then tons of hard partying. No real in between. RIT is not a big party school. In fact, the school is considered a dry school and they do enforce policies. But like most colleges, kids find parties if they want to but definitely not to the degree of a party school or most state schools.</p>
<p>At RIT, engineers are required to do several coops. I know one friend coopted 2 quarters of his 2nd yr and earned about $15,000 - not bad for a college student with 2 yrs to go - and he was offered a job if he wanted to continue working there. </p>
<p>Seems like RIT has a lot of internationals but maybe that's just who my DD knows. She lived near the International House dorm when she was a freshman and had an international exchange student as a roommate her second yr. I know RIT also has an engineering dorm. Maybe you can contact them or the International house dorm students to get better insight. Try the website or call the school. Administration at RIT has always been wonderful.</p>
<p>International house website:
<a href="http://www.rit.edu/%7Eihwww/%5B/url%5D">http://www.rit.edu/~ihwww/</a></p>
<p>Engineering house website:
<a href="http://eh.rit.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://eh.rit.edu/</a></p>