An interesting article about RIT

Colleges & Universities Rochester Institute of Technology
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<p>From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
<a href=“http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/NEWS01/609190332[/url]”>http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/NEWS01/609190332&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>And another:</p>

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<p>I’m not going to deny that having several programs under one roof is nice; HOWEVER, RIT should have used the money to build more dorms on campus. Lack of long term, quality, on-campus housing has been a major complaint among students. They could have built more appartment type of dorms easily with the money and perhaps enhanced retention.</p>

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<p>I agree! I kept thinking that same thing!</p>

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<p>Weenie-
I am from Rochester. It seems like RIT has been under construction for 15 years!! But that’s a good thing, I suppose.</p>

<p>However, President Simone is very unrealistic about RIT being on par with Harvard and MIT. I think he would be much more effective if he set realistic and attainable goals. But, as long as your goals are impossible to reach, nobody can fault you for failing to achieve them!! Good strategy.</p>

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<p>Collegehelp notes,“However, President Simone is very unrealistic about RIT being on par with Harvard and MIT”</p>

<p>Response: Simone didn’t exactly say that RIT will be on par with MIT and Harvard. In fact, he implied that it will be the school of choice for the lower third tier. That could mean that RIT would be close in quality to these institutions, which seems to be the way you interpreted it, or it could be a distant third in quality. His statements can be construed either way.</p>

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<p>taxguy, thanks for the clarification. It think I remember reading about his comparison with MIT several years ago and I thought it was strange then. It must have embarrassed the faculty to have their President talking crazy. My impression then was that he wanted RIT to be a top tier tech school.</p>

<p>I don’t think student diversity has improved at RIT. If you look at trends, the percent female has been going down, percent minority about the same. Deceptive advertising is a pet peeve of mine. I hate the business/marketing side of higher ed.</p>

<p>RIT still hasn’t recovered from the decline of Kodak and other local industry. Its current enrollment is about 20% lower than its historical high. They keep constructing buildings but the enrollment doesn’t change. It doesn’t look good for the future either because the number of high school grads in the northeast in going to decline.</p>

<p>I will say however that some of the nicest kids from local high schools go to RIT. They are smart but more well-rounded, not obsessed. I really think highly of the students I know at RIT.</p>

<p>nice chatting with you, taxguy</p>

<p>By the way, your analysis of the retention problem at RIT was very insightful, as was weenies reply</p>

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<p>collegehelp, for what it’s worth, when we visited RIT, we were very impressed. You are right. The kids seemed both smart and well-grounded for the most part. </p>

<p>As for decreasing female enrollment, if you check their enrollment data, there is a higher percentage of females than ever. Admittedly it isn’t at 50% yet,but it is improving.</p>

<p>It was also nice chatting with you too.</p>

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<p>taxguy-
According to the IPEDS data, the current percent female at RIT is 30%. In 1995 and 1985 the percent was about 33%. If you exclude the deaf school and the european schools, the percent female on campus at RIT is probably substantially lower.</p>

<p>In contrast, the percent female at MIT is 44% and the percent female at CMU is 40%.</p>

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<p>Why are you excluding the deaf students in your calculation?</p>

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<p>I didn’t exclude deaf students as far as I know. The calculation is whatever was on the IPEDS website. I would however exclude deaf students if I could because they are a nontraditional group that does not (could not) interact very much with other students. I imagine RIT treats them separately as well.</p>

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<p>My son is a freshman at RIT living on a mainstreamed floor in the dorms. He says the population on that floor is about 60 percent hearing, 40 percent deaf or hard of hearing. I think there are separate majors and courses in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, but NTID students can also major in subjects in any of the other colleges and take courses throughout the Institute. The president of the student government this year - that’s the student government for all of RIT - is deaf. I get the impression that RIT doesn’t treat deaf students seperately at all. My son says that it IS hard for hearing and deaf students to interact, but they muddle along, and they certainly seem to be together a great deal (at least physically, if not socially) in classes and the residences.</p>

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<p>This seems like a great point to join the conversation and say a couple things from a 2nd year point of view.</p>

<p>In regards to the freshman population, while I have seen no statistics, I have only heard from professors and fellow students that the female ratio has increased in the most recent classes to enter the university.</p>

<p>In regards to the deaf exclusion comment made by collegehelp, I would have to say that he is off-base. The effort that RIT makes to include the deaf population into the rest of the students is impressive (if perhaps somewhat tedious at times for other students). I have personally been in many classes with deaf students (perhaps 20% of my classes so far). In those classes, their education is provided through at least one, often two, dedicated interpreters who translate the gist of the lesson for them. In addition, many classes also have a notetaking system in place so that the deaf students can focus entirely on the interpreter.</p>

<p>As for the overall student body size, I would have to say that the school is clearly around their current capacity goals, as the dorms are effectively packed already.</p>

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<p>tabletcorry-</p>

<p>Based on real IPEDS data, I think the percent female has decreased at RIT over the past five years. Perhaps you could try to get the answer to this from an authoritative source. I would be interested in what you find out.</p>

<p>The deaf students may be in the same classes sometimes but I wouldn’t think there would be much socializing outside of class because of communication barriers. It’s great that deaf students are so well supported at RIT and their presence is no doubt mutually beneficial for hearing students.</p>

<p>I think the dorms are packed because of housing problems. At least that was a comment I read earlier in the thread.</p>

<p>What is your major at RIT? Do you have any thoughts on retention at RIT?</p>

<p>Thanks for your interesting post.</p>

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<p>Well, I would appreciate a link to the IPEDS data, as I looked there myself and can find no history function in order to view past data. From what I can see, the ratio of females to males has gone up by nearly 2% in the last year alone.</p>

<p>Yes the dorms are packed, and yes, that is because of the choices that RIT has made.</p>

<p>I am a Computer Science major, and I have my ideas for why retention is low, but I have no real proof for any of them, so I don’t feel that I should mention them here.</p>

<p>As to your continued comments on the deaf population, I can only say that you need to be here in order to understand what it is like, and you are making far too many assumptions.</p>

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<p>tabletcorry-
Here is a link to a post with instructions how to use the IPEDS data. It is a pretty cool website if you are curious about colleges. To get a historical trend, you select different years.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=238707&highlight=IPEDS[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=238707&highlight=IPEDS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds[/url]”>http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>What I found on IPEDS:
first-time, full-time, undergrad enrollment percent female</p>

<p>2001 26.6%
2002 25.6%
2003 27.1%
2004 25.0%</p>

<p>The only point I was trying to make about the deaf students was that it made sense to exclude them (and the foreign schools) from the male-female ratio because they are not as integrated into the on-campus social experience. I may not be on campus but I know people who go there.</p>

<p>RIT must be a great place for comp sci. How do you like that huge new building?</p>

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<p>tabletcorry, I’m curious to know your thoughts about the idea, mentioned on the “retention” thread, that there’s not much for students to do at RIT. From my son, I get the sense that ARE things to do on campus and close by, but school work is so demanding that it’s hard to make time for swimming or Thursday night movies or many club activities. Or else, you can choose to make time for those things, but then you don’t get enough sleep. Is that your experience?</p>

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<p>In 1980, the percent females for the freshman class was 34% at RIT. So, in 25 years the percent of incoming females has decreased almost 10%. That can’t help retention.</p>

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<p>According to the RIT Web site, current enrollment (undergrad and graduate combined) is 10,583 male and 4,974 female. That puts female enrollment for 2006-2007 at almost 32 percent. They don’t break the numbers out separately for undergraduates.</p>

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<p>jdsmom, My thoughts on their being plenty to do are that you simply have to look for a group of friends, and if you are smart, join a Special Interest House like I did. I find that while I cannot always spend some time each day there, it is quite common so long as you plan out your week around the assignments that are due.</p>

<p>I personally get exactly 8 hours of sleep each night, but perhaps I am the exception.</p>