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College of Science

www.rit.edu/cos

Formula for success. Start with a challenging curriculum, add a laboratory-intensive environment and a talented, dedicated, accessible faculty, and you will multiply your career and graduate study opportunities exponentially. That’s the College of Science’s proven equation for a superior undergraduate education.

In addition to the traditional sciences, mathematics and statistics, and life sciences, our College of Science offers innovative programs in biotechnology, bioinformatics, imaging science, and several other fields. You’ll need to apply theory to the solution of practical, sometimes larger-than-life problems when you graduate, so all programs are career-oriented and laboratory-intensive.

Resources

Because RIT has always been committed to undergraduate education and research, we don’t reserve the best and newest equipment for graduate students and professors. As an undergraduate, you’ll have access to it all.

Undergraduate research is important, too. Each year, the dean’s office sponsors weekly undergraduate researchers seminars (with pizza). As an example, one session featured students Sun Woo Lee, on “Grouped Theory Applied to 3-D Puzzle,” and Barbara McElwee, on “River Otter Microsatellites Work with Raccoons.”

The latest addition to the College of Science facilities is the 35,000-square-foot Center for Bioscience Education and Technology. The heart of the building is a suite of laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art technology. This facility houses both CBET training and workshop activities as well as portions of the college’s bioscience programs.

You’ll also have access to the Center for Excellence in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, a premier national science education and research facility. The center features media-supported classrooms and laboratories filled with the most up-to-date equipment and technology available.

Special options

If you are interested in working in the life sciences, mathematics, or physical sciences but are not sure which field is right for you, the college offers a general science exploration program. During this one-year option, you will take courses in a variety of science and math areas and work closely with an experienced faculty adviser. Students may then declare a major in either the College of Science or the College of Health Sciences and Technology.

Like many of our students, you may be interested in premedical studies. Once accepted into a degree program, you can begin working with a team of premedical advisers to select the courses and activities that prepare you for medical, dental, veterinary, or optometry school. One of the major benefits of this program is the clinical medicine co-op. Through a formal agreement with Rochester’s Unity Hospital, premedical students are trained to provide direct patient care. Students tell us this is one of their most rewarding opportunities, and their experience is welcomed by medical schools.

Each year, a limited number of summer research awards are available to qualified College of Science undergraduate students. Interested students submit a research proposal along with a faculty letter of support. Monetary grants are awarded to winning proposals and students spend 10 weeks in the summer at RIT and present their findings during the college’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.

College of Science students interested in pursuing careers in education can take advantage of an articulation agreement between RIT and Nazareth College. Under the agreement, qualified students may pursue up to nine credits of graduate education at Nazareth in their final undergraduate year at RIT.

Hands-on experience

You don’t have to wait until graduation from RIT to gain professional experience. If you are enrolled in the mathematics, statistics, physical sciences, or imaging science programs, you may choose the cooperative education plan, which adds several months of paid work experience, or the traditional four-year sequence. A popular option, co-op work may begin in the second or third year, depending on your major.

RIT’s medical science programs require a clinical internship in the fourth year that provides the experience necessary for professional licensing.

Center for Imaging Science

How do satellites beam images back to Earth? Could light replace electricity as an energy source? How can we enhance images of the brain taken by CAT scans?

Students in RIT’s Carlson Center for Imaging Science, a unique teaching and research facility, explore and answer questions like these. You’ll learn about imaging systems ranging from human vision to virtual reality. You’ll discover how imaging technology probes the depths of the ocean, the surface of the Earth, and the vastness of outer space.

As an imaging science student, you’ll also study physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and apply your knowledge to image creation, manipulation, storage, and transmission. You’ll have significant opportunities to work with faculty on research projects, and your lab experiments will be conducted with state-of-the-art equipment.

Imaging science is a dynamic field that provides outstanding career opportunities, and if you decide to continue your studies, RIT offers a master’s degree and the nation’s only doctoral program in imaging science.