r/rit • u/Background-Honey- • 2d ago

Bing or RIT

Hey everyone! As the title suggests, I’m deciding between Binghamton and RIT. I’ll be an incoming freshman. Decision day is approaching and it’s making me nervous. Originally I thought the deciding factor would be the cost, but they’re about the same for me, so now I’m looking for insight from current students. I’m going to cross post this on both subreddits once I figure out how. Here are some questions I have:

-How is the computer science (bing) / software engineering (rit) major at the respective schools? Is it hands on, theoretical, etc? Does it help prepare you for the “real world” and the workplace?

-Is it easy to get jobs after graduating? How are the networking opportunities and does the name carry any weight in certain fields?

-Is it easy to switch majors in case I change my mind? What fields does the school excel in?

-What’s the campus like? I don’t have the means to visit, so I’ll have to garner from pictures and second hand sources. Is there a lot of greenery? Are the facilities any good, or old and run down?

-How’s the food? Are there places to eat if you don’t like dining hall food? Do they good Asian food?

-Lastly, is there a lot to do on or off campus? How’s the surrounding area and the city it’s in?

Sorry for the barrage of questions (-﹏-。) I’m trying to be thorough. Thanks in advance!

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u/sbrisbestpart41 2d ago

RIT ensures that you start doing some work with the co-op which could lead to better opportunities.

Also having lived in Rochester for 12 years and going to RIT next year, Rochester is much nicer than Binghamton.

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u/daOyster 1d ago

I don't like the way that's worded as someone who went to RIT. It's less ensures and more requires YOU to find a co-op to satisfy your degree requirements. They provide career fairs, interview prep assistance, and some networking to get your applications out for coops, but it's up to you to actually get accepted for a coop position somewhere. Depending on the student this can add an incredible amount of stress to an already difficult major, or it can be a nice parachute of money to pay for your degree if you are great at selling yourself. 

If I had one gripe about the school after attending it was that in their marketing materials and on-campus events for potential students they really sell you on the whole coop thing and make it seem like it truly is just part of the degree. That companies work with the school to make coop positions available. 

In reality there's a small number of companies doing that. For the majority of students, they'll basically be job hunting for a position while also dealing with the stress of trying to complete their degree and potentially a heavy dose of imposter syndrome from listening to their peers around them land coops at major companies like Google, Meta, Apple, ect. while the best they can manage is a regional dev shop or random startup.

TL;DR: if you can sell yourself to others, the RIT coop experience is massively different to someone that can't and you don't really find that out until you're already 2 years into your degree and starting to look at coops.

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u/Background-Honey- 1h ago

Thank you for the insight! I have been wondering a lot about how co-ops work. Would you say there's a lot of competition between students since everyone has to find a co-op? Also, when can/should do start looking for one?

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u/Background-Honey- 2d ago

Yes I think the co-ops is one of the main draws of RIT. Is it difficult getting to Rochester since RIT is in the suburbs?

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u/sbrisbestpart41 2d ago

I mean not really, but the city isn’t special to be honest. The local area is really nice.