The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was founded in 1829 by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester to promote the learning of literature, science and the arts to the local community, and to offer public lectures and debates.
The modern RIT is a privately endowed, coeducational university set in 1,300 acres of land in suburban Rochester – the third-largest city in New York state – with around 15,400 undergraduate and 3,200 graduate students in attendance.
RIT prides itself on having a diverse campus and outlook. Its students come from all 50 US states and represent more than 100 countries. About 2,700 are international students and an additional 1,700 students are enrolled at its international campuses in Eastern Europe, Dubai, and China.
The university comprises nine colleges and emphasises career focussed, technological education. Among them is the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which supports more than 1,200 students who are deaf or hard of hearing, offering specialised programs, job placements and support services that is, say RIT, unique among any higher educational institution the world over.
The main RIT campus is located six miles from downtown Rochester, giving students access to big city resources within a smaller and more accessible environment. New York City, Boston and Philadelphia are a six hour drive away, while Niagara Falls and Toronto are much closer.
As a career-focused university, RIT students benefit from the close proximity of several high-tech, communications and manufacturing companies (many of them Fortune 500) that are located in Rochester.
In addition to RIT’s international campuses, study abroad opportunities are also available via its partnerships with universities throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
RIT athletic teams are known as the Tigers and a Bengal tiger, known as ‘Ritchie’, acts as their mascot.
Every Friday at RIT is designated ‘Spirit Day’, when staff and students wear clothes in the university colours of orange and brown.
- Ranked 117th in the “National Universities” category (2022)
- Ranked 12th among top schools' co-op or internship programs (2022)
- Ranked 52nd among “best value schools” (2022)
- Tied for 135th among “Best Colleges for Veterans” (2022)
- Ranked 81st for student excellence, a combination of ACT/SAT scores and percentage of first-year students who rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class (2022)
- Ranked 100th for social mobility, which measured how well schools graduate students receiving federal Pell grants (2022)
- Ranked 57th among "most innovative schools" (2022)
Princeton Review
- Listed in 2021 edition of The Best Value Colleges: 200 Schools with Exceptional ROI for Your Tuition Investment
- Listed in 2022’s Best 387 Colleges. Also appeared on several other lists within the edition, including:
- Best Northeastern Universities;
- Best Value Colleges, based on a combination of institutional and student survey data including academic rigor, affordability, and career outcomes for graduates;
- Colleges That Create Futures, which are those that empower students to discover practical applications for their talents and interests through experiences that complement their classes and coursework; and
- Green Colleges.
- RIT’s Saunders College of Business is ranked 27th in the “Top 50 Online MBA Programs” for 2022
- Ranked 36th in “The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges: 2022 Edition” (12th consecutive year in the ranking)
Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education
- Ranked 155th among U.S. colleges in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education rankings, placing RIT among the top 25 percent of colleges and universities in nation.
- Engagement: Ranked No. 38 for engagement—how immersed students are in the academic experience, a result of survey responses on the difficulty of classes and the students’ likelihood to recommend RIT to their peers, among other indicators—placing RIT in the top 10 percent in the nation.
- Right choice! If you could start over, would you still choose this college? Of all the students surveyed, those at RIT were more likely than students at most other colleges to say they would choose it again.
- Inspiring! Does your college provide an environment where you feel you are surrounded by exceptional students? Students at RIT were more likely to feel inspired by their classmates than students at many other colleges.
- Worth the Cost! Do you think your college will be worth what you and your family are paying? Of all the students surveyed, those at RIT were more likely than those at many other schools to believe their experience was worth the investment.
