RIT named among the nation’s ‘Best 385 Colleges’

Rochester Institute of Technology is considered one of the nation’s best universities for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education-services company features RIT in the just-published 2020 edition of its annual book The Best 385 Colleges.

Only about 13 percent of the nation’s 3,000 four-year colleges are profiled in the book, which is one of The Princeton Review’s most popular publications. The company chooses the colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from administrators and surveys of 140,000 college students who rate and report on various aspects of their campus and community experiences.

According to a summary of student comments, RIT is an “academic stalwart (that) boasts one of the country’s oldest and largest co-op programs and regularly turns out job-ready students from its arts, business and engineering programs alike.” Students call the workload “daunting,” but say professors are “more than happy to help” and “truly take pride in helping their students become successful.” One student said, “When I’m in a classroom, I feel like I’m learning and that I have a voice.”

The students give RIT high marks for diversity, including a vibrant LBGTQ community. RIT is a place where diversity is highlighted [and] academics are prominent,” one student said. According to another student, the RIT student population is “as unique and diverse as they come.” Students cited RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf as “providing amazing accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who attend the university, including notetaking, interpreters and CPrint technology.” They also praised RIT campus life, calling it “a culture for everybody,” with a wide array of clubs, activities and organizations “where students are able to create what their minds generate.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book, but instead reports 62 ranking lists of top 20 schools in the book in various categories important to prospective applicants and their parents. Among those categories, RIT was ranked 18th by its students for political awareness.

"We salute RIT for its outstanding academics and we are truly pleased to recommend it to prospective applicants searching for their personal ‘best-fit’ college,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief and lead author of The Best 385 Colleges.

The Princeton Review is just one of several national rankings received by RIT.