<p>I was a student at IIT. When I was applying to colleges my senior year, IIT stood out because it was supposed to be an excellent school for engineering. So I applied, (the free application fee was a plus) and was accepted. When I enrolled four months later, I instantly hated IIT. The campus was tiny (1/4 of a square mile), there was a 2:1 ratio of men to women, the only social life on campus was tied to the dorms and Greek life (IIT had 9 fraternities and 3 sororities at the time). </p>
<p>Then there were the academics. For some reason, I felt uninspired to do the work at the school. Perhaps after four years at a top-ranked high school I was burned out, but the classes at IIT weren’t worth anything to me. The teaching was terrible. Professors would spend entire class period rambling on about nothing, leaving the student to teach themselves 100% of the material. The were no such things as discussion and recitation sections for students, like at other universities. The lectures were so boring that people would lay on the floor and sleep the entire period. The core classes were stupid and consisted solely of social sciences and english classes. As for advising, advisors were sporadic at best. It took three weeks for my advisor to be able to see me. Whenever I spoke to faculty members about my concerns, they asked why didn’t I go to RIT(which is in my hometown) instead of their school. At the time, I thought they were insulting me or something, but now I feel that they were saying that I was better off staying in Rochester and going to a higher quality school.</p>
<p>I’ve already said that campus life was dull. I didn’t get along with anyone on campus. There were hardly any other black people on campus (I’m not racist, but I’d like to think that I’m not the only person like me on campus:)). The other students there acted as if they were dilettantes. A few even had classist leanings in that they always had snide remarks about the housing projects to the north and south of campus (i.e. “Oh my laptop’s missing, I think someone stole it!”, “Well look where we are!”(next to the projects)). Because of this, I usually left campus on the weekends to find things to do in Downtown Chicago. </p>
<p>Needless to say, I dropped out of IIT at the end of freshman year. Maybe in the five years since then, IIT has cleaned up their act and made their academics, student support services, social life, and campus life better. But in hindsight, I would’ve been better off at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) crosstown, or one of the other schools I applied to, but I didn’t know that there other campuses of UI besides Urbana-Champlaign(sp?). </p>
<p>To Rellin, don’t let my negative experiences deter you from IIT. However, please know that IIT is geared towards architecture, engineering, and science, with the heaviest emphasis on architecture. If you still are interested in IIT, I encourage you to visit the campus first to see how you’d fit in. Also visit the other two schools you mentioned in your first post. If you’re have any questions, feel free to PM me.</p>