Trip report: Illinois Institute of Technology

Parents Forum
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<p>One more mom posted a question about the Illinois Institute of Technology. I wanted to comment about the visit that my S and I had recently. I posted it on its own thread because it’s a trip visit. Very funny that you would post this today. I just got back from a visit to IIT and I have very mixed feelings about this school.</p>

<p>My S received a very nice award from IIT which made it very affordable for us. We have received so much mail and information from them before the visit. I was a little concerned when I called the admissions office for a visit. First I was transferred to 4 different people to set up the appointment. The person answering the phone told me that was going to be a very busy day for them; could I set up a different time? I told her that my S was an accepted student who had not seen the campus and that we were visiting several schools so that he could make a decision on where to attend next year. Also I asked if we could meet with a coach as my S was interested in joining a particular team next year.</p>

<p>We arrived at the school at the appointed time for our meeting with an admissions counselor. After we waited for a 1/2 hour, we were told that the admissions staff was in a meeting, we really didn't need to see an admissions counselor because my S was already admitted? We stated that we wished to meet with a coach, she called him but he couldn't meet with us until the afternoon. We asked to sit in on a class or meet with a professor but neither option was available. We were given passes for a free lunch and told to come back at noon for the tour. We were warned that the tour might be a little big as they were busy that day; it was spring break in the Chicago area. </p>

<p>We went to the bookstore and walked around the student center. The campus is very pretty but not a traditional ivy covered campus. The campus was designed by Mies van der Rohe and is very modern and clean looking. I thought that it was a great design for a technical school and the bathrooms in the student center were really neat. (I made my S go into the bathroom, he wasn't as impressed, and I guess that I am easily amused!) We grabbed a bite to eat (I thought that the food was very good, much better than the most of the college grub that I've had) and went back to admissions for the tour.</p>

<p>There were at least 50 people who showed up for the tour and 1 tour guide! It was crazy. We did not have a good impression about this school and the 1 tour guide (when they have already told me twice how busy they were going to be that day) was just dumb planning. I don't know how else to put it, we were very disappointed at this point but decided since we had traveled all the way there, we would stick out the tour.</p>

<p>Half way into the tour, the coach found us. The coach was great! Really made my S excited to join the team and that he would be a good fit for this school. The coach talked to us for over an hour and gave us great information about the school in general.</p>

<p>Personally I don’t think that the students here are any more happy or unhappy than any other engineering or technical school that we have toured. It’s an engineering school; you work hard, and don’t have the social life of students who pick a less intensive school. The coach was very upfront about the school and I thought that his comments were not much different than any other technical school that we’ve toured. I liked the size of the school and feel that you would get a lot of attention from the professors.</p>

<p>I wish that I had a better experience with the admissions staff at this school. I don’t understand why a school would go to such lengths to attract students and then leave them with a negative impression as the admissions office was so disorganized.</p>

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<p>Thank you, Deb! A couple of questions-- was there anything in particular that made you feel a student would get a lot of attention from the professors? (The Princeton Review had IIT scoring highly on both "Professors Get Low Marks" and "Profs make Themselves Scarce".) Also, would you say the gender imbalance affected the feel of the school (and perhaps the "happiness factor") in a negative way?</p>

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<p>The coach told us that his kids reported that they received attention from the professors, that is why I reported that. Interesting that Princeton Review reported the opposite. I thought that the coach had a good handle on the school, he was very honest in his observations of the school, even commenting on the turmoil of the admissions office.</p>

<p>The gender imbalance-oh boy what a can of worms. My S has looked at 3 schools where the boy to girl ratio is around 3:1, it seems to be a factor at any engineering intensive school. I think that you can be happy at these schools, I think that you just have to be aware that the experience is going to be different than a school that has a more gender balance. Personally, I thought that there were more girls at IIT than at Rose Hulman. My S was affected by the lack of women and people of different ethnic backgrounds at Rose. It did not seem as bad at IIT.</p>

<p>As far as gender imbalance, I think that your child has to make a decision on what is important to him. Would he rather go to a school which is heavy on engineering and light on women or a more balanced approach. I think that both kind of schools are good but they are very different. </p>

<p>My S has a lot of friends who are girls. I worry about him going to a male heavy school and will he miss his female friendships. Also will he miss out on an important part of the college experience. I wish that I knew the answer.</p>

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<p>There is just a handful of schools that offer the program my S is interested in (arch eng); most are large, state universities. I think he would be happier at a smaller school, but gender balance seems to be the trade-off. DH was an undergrad at MIT in the seventies, when the ratio was about what IIT's is now. We have talked about that and he said he would have enjoyed his undergrad experience more had there been more women around. I know MIT has a "relationship" with Wellesley. I wonder if anything along those lines exists for IIT.</p>