The Right Fit
Coming to Rochester Institute of Technology is about connecting with other students like you.
It’s a place where you will meet many other students who share the same experiences you did growing up—students you can relate to and who can relate to you. Many RIT students attended mainstream schools. Others attended schools for the deaf. Some grew up in families where they were the only deaf person. Others came from culturally Deaf families. Some prefer to communicate using Spoken English. Others prefer sign language or a combination of speaking and signing.
Students bring a variety of life experiences to RIT, but all have one fundamental thing in common—these students all chose RIT because it was the right fit for them.
It wasn’t that important for me to attend a college with other deaf and hard-of-hearing students because I grew up in a hearing environment with all hearing friends. I chose RIT because of its strong cooperative education program, outstanding engineering programs and because its graduates get jobs. I also wanted to attend college in another part of the country and learn to become independent. Now that I’m enrolled at RIT, I realize the exposure to other deaf and hard-of-hearing students is a plus, because I’m meeting so many other students like me who shared similar experiences growing up.
I felt I could fit in at any college, but RIT really stood out to me in my college search because it has outstanding communication access and a friendly learning environment loaded with deaf students like me. I felt that the opportunity to interact with a large deaf community on campus was a once-in-a-life-time chance. RIT has been a perfect match for me. Seeing how other deaf people go about things has taught me a lot, and I learn from them. That's definitely helping me succeed because I'm learning from people who share the same identity as I do. RIT is above and beyond all of my expectations. I've gotten so much exposure to wonderful people, and I wouldn't be the same person if I didn't go here. I'm pretty grateful that I'm calling RIT home!
When I was searching for a college, I wanted to find a place that accepted me for me because people in my high school didn’t understand my hearing loss, and I was treated differently. I never felt like I belonged. I’m smart, I just can’t hear, but kids in my high school couldn’t understand that. When I visited RIT, I met another hard-of-hearing student like me, and we connected right away. I knew if I could make a connection that fast that I had found my home at RIT. I’m so happy here. The entire campus community is open and accepting of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. I fit in perfectly.
