Rochester Institute of Technology

RIT is a place where brilliant minds assemble and collaborate, where they pool together their individual talents across disciplines in service of big ideas and creative solutions.It is a vibrant community teeming with students collaborating with experts and specialists: a hub of innovation and creativity. It is an intersection of disciplines, a launching pad for a brilliant career, and a highly unique state of mind.It is a perfect environment in which to pursue your passion.Here, the future is envisioned each day. And remade each day after.

As one of the world’s leading technological institutions, RIT is a vibrant, connected community that is home to diverse, ambitious, and creative students from more than 100 countries. It offers an incredible array of academic programs; a diverse, committed, and accessible faculty; sophisticated facilities; and an unusual emphasis on experiential learning.

Few universities provide RIT’s variety of career-oriented studies. RIT’s unmatched array of academic programs attracts designers, artists, photographers, and filmmakers on the one hand, and scientists, engineers, computing scientists, and entrepreneurs on the other. When these “left-brain and right-brain” students engage with RIT’s outstanding faculty, a learning environment is created where innovation and creativity flourish.

Since 1912, the hallmark of an RIT education has been experiential learning. RIT was among the first universities in the world to offer cooperative education. Last year, more than 3,500 co-op students alternated periods of study on campus with paid employment in nearly 2,000 firms across the United States and overseas. Today, experiential learning also includes internships, study abroad, and undergraduate research.

RIT is one of the few universities where you can immerse yourself in your major from day one. Or, if you need time to explore your options, undeclared options are available at both the university and college levels. If your interests span two or more colleges within RIT, the University Studies program offers students up to one year to focus their academic and career interests. If your interests fall within one college, but you are not sure of your major, most colleges offer an undeclared option to help you discover more about the majors within the college.

Excelling in research and excelling in teaching, our faculty are passionate about their disciplines and their role in both the lab and the classroom. They are innovative and resourceful. They engage students in the process of discovery and the contribution of new knowledge to their fields.

Our strong reputation for state-of-the-art academic facilities is rightly earned. RIT has invested more than $300 million in the renovation and construction of new academic and student life facilities over the past few years to accomplish a remarkable transformation. You’ll find outstanding facilities and equipment in every area of campus, and our commitment to student success ensures that these facilities are accessible when you need them.

RIT attracts students from every state and over 2,000 international students from more than 100 countries. Embodying our commitment to diversity, more than 2,700 students of color have elected to study at RIT. Adding a social and educational dynamic not found at any other university are more than 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students supported by RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf.The variety of backgrounds and perspectives represented in the RIT community enriches the living and learning experience for all. As you interact on team-based projects, in residence halls, and in day-to-day activities, we believe you will be enriched and better prepared for the opportunities and challenges of global interdependence.

Colonel Nathaniel Rochester and other Rochester community leaders founded the Athenaeum, an association “for the purpose of cultivating and promoting literature, science, and the arts.” The Athenaeum was located in the Reynolds Arcade and housed a meeting room and a small reading room with a library, provided by Abelard Reynolds. The Rochester Athenaeum grew into a popular cultural center for Rochesterians. It offered public lectures and debates, and began establishing a substantial library.

The Athenaeum merged with the Mechanics Literary Association, founded in 1836 by William A. Reynolds (son of Abelard Reynolds), to form the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Association. It continued the tradition of public lectures, book reviews, and debates. The two groups merged their literary collections to create a singular library of more than 8,000 volumes covering a variety of subjects. Lectures were held at Corinthian Hall, which could hold 1,100, and distinguished speakers included Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Frederick Douglass.

Mechanics Institute is founded. Captain Henry Lomb, Max Lowenthal, Ezra Andrews, Frank Ritter, William Peck, and other Rochester businessmen and influential citizens established a school to provide needed technical training for skilled workers in industry. Lomb was the first president of the Board of Trustees and guided the direction of the institute until his death in 1908. Eugene Colby was appointed first teacher and principal of the Mechanics Institute. All funds for running the school were donated by the citizens of Rochester and instruction was free for the first year.The first class offered at the newly formed Mechanics Institute was mechanical drawing, held in the evening on November 23, 1885. The community response is overwhelming. More than 400 students enrolled in the institute.