What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$24,680 to $44,970 a year, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $74,626 a year. Average need-based aid package: $60,377.Aid and debt
66.6%
receive need-based grants
$44,969
average debt at graduation
3,620
students got merit aid
about 26% of undergraduates
$20,030
average merit award
Getting In
Admit rates
71.1%
admitted overall
73.2%
admitted Early Decision
71%
admitted Regular Decision
Early Decision
Early Decision applicants were admitted at 1x the Regular Decision rate, and Early Decision is binding: you commit to attend if admitted.
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Some of that gap reflects who applies early (recruited athletes, legacy applicants and highly committed students concentrate in that pool), so it isn't proof that applying early would raise any one student's own odds.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1310–1440 · 41% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 30–34 · 8% of the class submitted
40% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Important
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Character
- Considered
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- First-gen status
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
What this means for you
RIT rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay and your recommendations as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. And recommendations matter here too — a recommender who knows you well helps.
RIT rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
RIT just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-RIT essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
48.8% of RIT classes have fewer than 20 students.
48.8%
under 20 students
44.1%
20 to 49
7.1%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. RIT CDS 2025–26, I-3.
13:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
56.5%
first-years from out of state
50.5%
live on campus
3.8%
of men in fraternities
2.2%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White52.8%
- Asian11.5%
- Unknown / other10.5%
- Hispanic10.1%
- Black5.7%
- Multiracial5.4%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. RIT CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
28.8% of RIT students graduate in 4 years.
28.8%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
72%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
88.5%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
68.1% finish in 6 years, against 72% of all students.
A 3.9-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Rochester.
RIT's 1,300-acre campus sits in suburban Henrietta, about 15 minutes south of downtown Rochester — a mid-size city (metro population around 1 million) built on Kodak, Xerox and Bausch + Lomb's optics and imaging industries, which left behind a photonics and imaging cluster that still ranks among the country's largest.
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Cost of living is low for a city this size, winters are long and genuinely snowy off Lake Ontario, and the compact metro means downtown, the Eastman Museum and the Finger Lakes are all a short drive rather than a day trip.
The City
Mid-size city
Rochester, NY
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Koo Kwang-mo
Chairman and CEO of LG Corporation, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, after earning a bachelor's degree in computer science here.
Austin McChord
Founded the data-backup company Datto in his RIT dorm room, took it public in 2020, and later gave the university a $50 million gift after a bachelor's in bioinformatics.
Class of 2009
John Resig
Created jQuery, the JavaScript library that once ran on a majority of the world's websites, after studying computer science here.
Class of 2009
N. Katherine Hayles
Literary and critical theorist known for her work on digital media and posthumanism, and a longtime professor at Duke and UCLA.
Class of 1966
Robert Duffy
Served as Lieutenant Governor of New York (2011-2014) and Mayor of Rochester (2006-2011), after a degree in business management, criminal justice and communication here.
Class of 1993
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend
A mid-October weekend of alumni, family and student events, running since the first Brick City Festival in 1998. The name comes from the brick buildings of RIT's current campus, built when the university moved from downtown Rochester to Henrietta in 1968.
Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival
A campus-wide, public showcase of student and faculty projects spanning engineering, computing, art and design — hundreds of exhibits in one day, open to the surrounding Rochester community.
Hockey at the Gene Polisseni Center
RIT competes in NCAA Division III for most sports but plays Division I men's and women's hockey, and games at the 4,300-seat Gene Polisseni Center — nicknamed for its student section, the Corner Crew — regularly sell out, a rare thing for a school this size.
NTID and a mainstreamed deaf community
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one of RIT's colleges, makes RIT the largest mainstreamed deaf and hard-of-hearing program in the world. ASL interpreting is a routine part of ordinary classrooms, and many hearing students pick up some ASL simply from sharing campus life with deaf classmates.
Weekend escapes from Rochester
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Rochester
Letchworth State Park
1 hourCalled the "Grand Canyon of the East" — a 17-mile gorge on the Genesee River with three major waterfalls, popular for hiking and fall foliage.
Finger Lakes wine country
45 minutesCanandaigua Lake is the nearest of the eleven Finger Lakes, with vineyards, hiking and lake towns spreading south from Rochester's suburbs.
Niagara Falls
1.5 hoursOne of the most-visited natural landmarks in North America, straddling the US-Canada border.
Toronto, ON
3 hoursThe nearest international city by road, far enough to be a long-weekend trip; a passport is required to cross the border.
New York City
5.5 hoursReachable by car or by Amtrak from downtown Rochester, for a longer weekend away.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC)
15 minutes from campus
For international flights: Toronto Pearson International (YYZ) — about 3 hours by road, including the border crossing.
Pro sports nearby
- Rochester Red Wings MiLB
- Rochester Americans AHL
- Rochester Knighthawks NLL
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Rochester's economy still carries the imprint of Kodak, Xerox and Bausch + Lomb's optics heritage, and that legacy grew into a photonics and imaging cluster that RIT's own programs feed directly. RIT's co-op program, dating to 1912, is one of the oldest and largest in the country, and the university places students with employers across the region and beyond as a normal part of the degree rather than an optional add-on. Beyond optics, the region's other major employers span grocery, payroll technology and consumer goods.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Wegmans
- Paychex
- Constellation Brands
- Xerox
- Eastman Kodak
Downtown Rochester — about 15 minutes by car; the region's optics and imaging employers are spread across the suburbs, including Henrietta itself
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
RIT's 1,300-acre campus sits in suburban Henrietta, a short drive from a Rochester built on Kodak, Xerox and Bausch + Lomb's optics industry — RIT's own strength in imaging science and engineering grew up alongside it. The single fact that defines the place is NTID, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf: RIT is home to the largest mainstreamed deaf and hard-of-hearing program in the world, with ASL and interpreting built into ordinary classrooms rather than offered as a standalone accommodation. Co-op is the other structural fact worth naming: RIT's program dates to 1912, one of the oldest of its kind, and it is why only 28.8% of students graduate in four years against 72.0% in six. That gap is not a sign of struggling — a fifth year here usually means a semester or two spent on paid, major-related work, not falling behind. Greek life is a minor part of campus (3.8% of men, 2.2% of women), and about half of undergraduates (50.5%) live on campus. The aid picture holds up too: 87.6% of demonstrated need met and merit awards averaging $20,030 to 3,620 students, against $44,969 in average debt for those who borrow. Admission itself is broad rather than selective — a 71.1% overall admit rate — so the case for RIT rests on its community and its career model, not on how hard it is to get in.