page_title: Rochester Institute of Technology
section_title: Notable academic programs
hierarchical_section_title: Rochester Institute of Technology / Academics / Notable academic programs
caption_attribution_description: English: Atrium in the Golisano Building (70) at the en:Rochester Institute of Technology
context_page_description: Rochester Institute of Technology is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees and online masters as well.
  The university was founded in 1829 and is the tenth largest private university in the country in terms of full-time students. It is internationally known for its science, computer, engineering, and art programs, as well as for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a leading deaf-education institution that provides educational opportunities to more than 1000 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. RIT is known for its Co-op program that gives students professional and industrial experience. It has the fourth oldest and one of the largest Co-op programs in the world.
  RIT student population is approximately 19,000 students, about 16,000 undergraduate and 3000 graduate. Demographically, students attend from all 50 states in the United States and from more than 100 countries around the world.
context_section_description: The Imaging science department was the first at the university to offer a doctoral program, in 1989, and remains the only formal program in Imaging Science in the nation (as a multidisciplinary field—separate constituent fields of physics, optics, and computer science are common in higher education). Associations exist between the department and Rochester-area imagery and optics companies such as Xerox, Kodak, and the ITT Corporation. Such connections have reinforced the research portfolio, expertise, and graduate reputation of the imaging researchers and staff of the department. As of 2008, imaging-related research has the largest budget at the university from grants and independent research.
  The Microelectronic Engineering program, created in 1982 and the only ABET-accredited undergraduate program in the country, was the nation's first Bachelor of Science program specializing in the fabrication of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. The information technology program was the first nationally recognized IT degree, created in 1993.
  In 1996, Rochester Institute of Technology established the first software engineering bachelor's degree program in the United States but did not obtain ABET accreditation until 2003, the same time as Clarkson University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and Mississippi State University.
  Starting in 2000, RIT began admitting students in the top of their application pools into the RIT Honors Program. Each college participates voluntarily in the program and defines their own program details. As an example, the College of Engineering focuses on engineering in a global economy, and uses much of the honors budget to pay for domestic and international trips for engineering students. In contrast, the College of Science is focused on expanding research, and provides most of its budget to student research endeavors. Students admitted to the program are given a small scholarship and have the opportunity to live in the honors residence hall.
  In 2019, the video game design program at RIT, one of two majors offered by School of Interactive Games and Media in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, was recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the top 10 programs in the country for video game design, with the undergraduate program ranking eighth, and the master's degree graduate program ranking seventh.
caption: Interior view of the B. Thomas Golisano Hall, home of the College of Computing and Information Sciences, known as GCCIS.
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