We live in Rochester and our son chose RPI over RIT. RIT has a large off-campus/working adult student body (some 19K or more total, many who take a long time to graduate – compares with about 7K total at RPI), more adjuncts, more part-time profs/instructors and students. I’d say it’s a great place to live in a city (Rochester metro area), work, and go to school at the same time. Wide variety of applied disciplines useful for the workforce. Probably easier to live in the Rochester area with everything it has to offer. RPI is smaller, very focused, does have a higher reputation in several Engineering and other majors and as a whole, and is more selective. It has highly ranked/regarded, relatively new programs in IT and Web Science, Gaming Design, Simulation, etc. RIT is very strong in Computer Science, and Industrial/other Design disciplines – I am not sure about the gaming/simulation etc. aspects at RIT. However, given CS is very strong at RIT and considering the Rochester metro environment and the the significantly lower cost – I might choose RIT for a Computer Science degree…? Sciences, Computer Science and Engineering, and particularly all Engineering are very strong at RPI however – if his focus was Engineering with any chance he’d change from CSE to ChemE, AeroE, MechE, NukeE…etc. I’d prefer RPI (still, have to disregard the cost difference in this case). I also think career opportunities and earning potential are significantly better at RPI as well – including better internships and co-ops before graduation, and recruiting before and after graduation. The alumni network, competitiveness and reputation have a lot to do with that. Still, it would have been a very easy decision for our son to go to RIT as well, it has a lot to offer – and he did receive a very generous financial package to go there if he’d chosen to.