RIT Early Action / Early Decision Class of 2030 Official Thread

Colleges & Universities Rochester Institute of Technology
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This is the official thread for those applying EA/ED to Rochester Institute of Technology.

List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!

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Hello! D26 really loved RIT when we visited in February (despite the cold and the snow that she’s totally not used to, lol). She considered ED but will most likely just do EA.

Unweighted GPA is 95.84 out of 100. Weighted GPA is 99.19.

SAT is 1560.

AP classes – US History, Calc AB, Calc BC, Physics 1, Bio, Literature (her schools limits to six total). Most everything else honors level.

Other:

–National Merit Semifinalist (anticipated, she got a 1510 and has an index of 27)

–Marching band from 7th through 12th grade, band president this year, woodwind section captain last two years

–Lead and supporting roles in several spring plays

–Costume lead in winter musical last year, costume assistant in previous years. Includes sewing costumes from scratch and creating spreadsheet to plan and track complicated quick changes

–Symphonic band all four years, first chair clarinet this year, several concerts and LGPE, district honor band auditions (she made it in 10th)

–Founder of Foundation for Hospital Art club (painting multi-panel canvases to donate to hospitals)

–Other clubs: Jazz club, Chess club, Service club that tutors kids and offers homework help in underprivileged communities

–Lots of creative hobbies such as crochet, sewing, etc. Entered Duck Brand’s Stuck on Prom duct tape prom dress scholarship contest

–Honor societies: NHS, Latin, Math, Science, English, Music

–Two gold and two silver medals on National Latin Exam

–Other awards such as Overall Outstanding Sophomore Girl and Woodwind Player of the Year (11th)

–Year-long project in STEM Seminar this year to create a mobile app that gamifies various self-care and mental health wellness tasks

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D26 is interested in the New Media Design major and also Humanities, Computing and Design. She would like to do UX/UI stuff and game design – but she’s not really a studio artist and doesn’t have a traditional portfolio (the New Media Design major is the only BFA that doesn’t require one), and she’s not a coder, either. The Game Design and Development major seems too coding-heavy. She likes the idea of digital storytelling and narrative design. She’s not set on game design, though, and thinks she’d like UX/UI for other industries. I think New Media Design is the closest match to her interests.

RIT is supposed to be in our area for interviews soon, but she isn’t available those times because of band. Question is, should she book an online interview? How important is this? Her stats are pretty solid but not over the top – how likely is she to be admitted to her first-choice major?

She did get the Women in STEM $24K a year scholarship they offer to juniors – but of course, she still has to get in.

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I would say that your daughter is an absolute shoe-in for acceptance to any major she wants at RIT. Her stats are fantastic and they would be incredibly lucky to have her. My son had similar stats and was given all kinds of goodies to attend. He wound up going somewhere else instead, but the offer was excellent. I think she can consider RIT an absolute “yes”!

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Thanks for your perspective – so glad to hear this! :smiley:

So should she try to get the online interview, or it doesn’t matter too much?

She is friendly and reasonably attractive and engaging in an interview, but she talks very fast – a million thoughts in that brain all trying to get out at once – so I’m a tiny bit concerned that it might hurt her.

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RIT is a safety with those Stats. I wouldn’t worry about acceptance at all.

I wouldn’t bother with interview if it’s going to cause stress.

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I’m not aware of the interview opportunity they offer (my son toured and loved it but did not do an interview). I think they will roll out the red carpet for her regardless of the interview, so I think she should absolutely feel comfortable skipping it if that is more convenient OR if you think the interview may actually raise any flags to RIT. How exciting for your family!

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Interest is very important to them! It is one of the very few schools I know that says interest is “important” on CDS though.

also agree it is a safety especially as you visited— doing a touch more DI would seek the deal, even for yield protection risk. I’d not be surprised if they got honors college too

(Note I edited this after I realized they had visited!)

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Oh, I didn’t think about yield protection. My D22 ran into that with Tulane and Davidson – her stats were a good bit higher than her sister’s – and it was NOT cool. I’ll talk to D26 about the interview, then – she is genuinely very interested in RIT (it’s in her top three), and I think she’d be able to convey that in an interview.

I didn’t realize RIT had an honors college. We’ll have to go see what the benefits are – I feel like it’s worth it at some schools, but definitely not everywhere.

Hope your kiddo has settled in and is having a better experience!

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I don’t know a huge amount about honors program, but it does have dedicated floors in dorms and some special events and such!

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We were just going through the Common App tonight, and RIT asks for 150 words about why you’re interested in the honors program, if you want to be considered.

D26 decided she may as well indicate that she wants to be considered – if she gets it, she can always decline or drop out if it’s not working for her (there’s no penalty). But now she needs to write 150 words about it, lol.

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I hate all the “why us” questions - it’s rare a school Is soooo unique that this is needed IMO - I guess it proves you read marketing materials?

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My kiddo is very interested in RIT for Game design, computer science. We visited in March and he loved it.

4.0 weighted, 3.8 UW

33 ACT

Does not have a lot of activities:

Band/marching band since 5th grade

Esports throughout college

Works a PT job

Plans to apply Early action

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Son is a neurodiverse senior in a dual enrollment school. Completed first year of college classes and is in his second year now. Will graduate with a HS degree and an Associate’s degree.

GPA is 3.6

SATs 1330

Wants Civil Engineering

Loved the vibe and quirkiness of the school when we visited last week. It’s in his top 3 (he’s kind of undecided within those 3 which is #1). Will apply early action.

Sending good vibes to all!

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Hello all!
My daughter is applying for Computer Engineering.

She has submitted the application already and applied EA.
Right now, there is 3-way tie for top school, so definitely was not applying ED. The having to wait until end of January though for a decision is going to drive her (and me) mad!!!
The other 2 top choices will have their admission decisions out by the Christmas break (possible sooner).

We are working on getting a visit in soon.
Have yet to see the campus- on paper this school is perfect, but who knows what she will think of the ‘vibe’ once there.
She has ‘fit’ on top of the list of important factors. She is a quirky nerdy type of student (and proud of that description :wink: ). So I think we will be good on that aspect (from all that we have seen online about this school)
Trying to decide if we are going to make it down there for one of the Open House events (which will require missing a day or 2 of school- we are out of state/out west- so we must travel to) or waiting for Thanksgiving break and just doing a regular tour?

Suggestions from anyone who has done either?

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Are you willing to share what his other two top choices are? I’m always curious to see where else kids who liked RIT are applying. :slightly_smiling_face:

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We did a regular tour, and I thought the info session was good – interesting and helpful – and we saw quite a lot of campus, including the art building and game design stuff that my D26 is interested in. We also added on the separate dorm tour, definitely recommend that if you can. And all of this happened early morning, so we had a couple hours to grab lunch and sit and just get a feel for the students on campus.

I haven’t looked too closely at the open house schedule – we aren’t planning to go – so I don’t know exactly what they offer. I do think the opportunity to meet and talk to professors would be great – what else is there in addition to the regular tour?

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If you can swing it, go to the open house. You’ll get a better sense of the vibe, and since fit is important to her, I’d think it would be worth missing a day or two, assuming attendance is otherwise good. RIT is a special place and really embraces the quirky. I hope she loves it as much as my quirky kid did!

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We decided on the open house in November :-).

We actually planned out the trip last night and got the plane tickets and hotel squared away.
Just hate doing that much traveling (and spending that much on plane tickets :nauseated_face:) just to be in-and-out.

But I do think the open house will be worth it.
I doubt we would have done all this for many other schools- but again (same as most people on this thread) this school seems like the perfect fit! - so want to make sure we get a good and comprehensive visit in and done in a very condensed time frame!
And the open house seems like a very easy one stop shop of everything we want to see along with activities and an overall high energy vibe.

Now just trying to decide if we are going to the hockey game the night we are going to be there. :wink:

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Can I ask which airport you plan to fly into? I’m trying to get a sense of how complicated it would be to have our son attend given we live so far away. Thank you!