Rochester Institute of Technology

RIT was born of an unlikely institutional marriage of an influential cultural association, the Rochester Athenaeum, founded in 1829, and a technical training school, the Mechanics Institute, founded in 1885. The institute adopted the name Rochester Institute of Technology in 1944 and awarded its first bachelor of science degree in 1955.

Programs ranking in the top 10 nationally in the following areas: computing security, film and animation, fine arts (glass, metals and jewelry design), industrial design, online MBA, photography, and video game design.

Award-winning programs in a host of uncommon disciplines: sustainability, medical illustration, microelectronic engineering, packaging science, museum studies, American sign language/English interpretation, and diagnostic medical sonography.

Unique doctoral programs: RIT’s eight Ph.D. programs include astrophysics, color science, computing and information sciences, engineering, imaging science, mathematical modeling, microsystems engineering, and sustainability.

RIT sponsored research grew by 18 percent in fiscal year 2018, reaching a record $78 million in funding. RIT received 340 new awards from a variety of state, federal, corporate, and foundation sponsors.

RIT’s strategic research initiatives are in the following areas: Cybersecurity, Personalized Healthcare Technology, the Future Photon Initiative, Remote Sensing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and Computational Relativity and Gravitation.

Each year RIT gathers information about the career plans of its graduates in accordance with national standards established for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). These outcome summaries are provided for both the university overall and each RIT college at both the undergraduate and advanced degree candidate levels and reflect the career activities of graduates within 6 months of their degree certification.