Founded in 1829 as the Rochester Athenaeum, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has been a pioneer in career-oriented education and a leader in cooperative education since 1912. RIT has one of the oldest and largest co-op programs in the world, with more than 1,300 employers and 2,500 students participating. Many co-op employers hire co-op students upon graduation.

RIT is a coeducational, privately endowed Institute, enrolling more than 14,600 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students preparing for technical and professional careers. Its eight colleges include Applied Science and Technology, Business, Computing and Information Sciences, Engineering, Imaging Arts and Sciences, Liberal Arts, Science, and the primarily federally funded National Technical Institute for the Deaf. There are more than 80,000 RIT alumni in all 50 states and many foreign countries.

RIT's modern 1,300-acre campus is located in Rochester, the third-largest city in New York State.