laldm

Hi, I'm an IIT student. This forum has been strangely quiet. If anyone is interested in this great school, ask away.

neverborn

Please, ask. I will give you a real answer. You may also PM me, AIM me, or e-mail me any questions you have about my two years at IIT, and why I feel the institution is a worthless sinkhole who will dupe you into coming with financial aid and then trap you.

Love,
neverborn.

laldm

Apparently, both realistic and jaded perspectives are available.

That's actually pretty typical of IIT. The complete and utter incompetence of the administration tends to make people hate the school. However, if you look beyond that, the school offers very high-quality programs (not all - don't come here for a humanities/social sciences major, obviously), some awesome financial aid, and a location in an improving (but historically ghetto, think: cheap rent) section of one of the most interesting cities in America for a student to live, Chicago.

There - that should satisfy even neverborn. :-)

Not that anybody reads this forum anyway.

neverborn

Realistic and jaded? Mine is every bit as realistic as his. /eyeroll

aileen_shinn

how about the biology major offered at the school?

the housing is awesome?

BananaJelly

Please tell me more about IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology). I got accepted as a Graduate Student, seeking an M.S. in Food Processing. I've been looking for information about it, but it seems that nobody's even heard of the school.

Why is it called an "international" private school?

Are there special programs and student organizations within the school?

What is the environment like? Urban or City? Weather--cold or hot?

How is the faculty? Supportive?

How does this school rank compared to other U.S. universities?

Does it provide strong academics?

And what's the deal about the funding? It seems confusing.

Thanks.

trygstad

Hi BananaJelly,

IIT is "International" for a couple of reasons; we have a very large population of International students, particularly in the Graduate programs where the percentage ranges from 75-85%, and we do offer graduate programs online and in other countries, most notably in Bangalore, India.

Lots of special programs and clubs...what are your interests? That would be easier to answer.

Climate: Hot in the summer, pretty darn cold in the winter and gorgeous in the fall and spring.

Faculty: Depends on your program. I like them but I've been a part of them for 18 years now so that means I'm not the best judge. You do need to realize that IIT is a major research university which means the major focus of many of the faculty is research. If you are doing an M.S. this is to your benefit as it means more research opportunities for you, but it also means that classroom teaching may not be the main focus of some of your faculty. There are also non-research faculty and sometimes you just need to figure out who is best to go to when you have problems.

Environment: Definitely and aggressively URBAN in one of the greatest cities in the world. IIT requires all residential students to get a U-Pass, which allows you unlimited rides on buses and the El trains. This means you can hop on the Red Line or Green Line trains from the south end of the IIT campus and be in the heart of Chicago in about seven minutes. It is an exciting and vibrant city with plenty of cool free entertainment going on all the time.

Rankings: In U.S. News and World Report, IIT ranked 106 among major U.S. universities and is part of Tier 1. See Illinois Institute of Technology - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report. IIT was ranked the 72nd best graduate school for engineering in US News and World Report's "Best Graduate Schools 2009". IIT was also on Princeton Review's list of 368 best colleges in the United States and on its list of Best Midwest Colleges.

Academics: Rigorous with high expectations. But you will learn a lot...and that's the point, isn't it?

Financial Aid: Oooo faculty members don't know anything about financial aid. Sorry.