You may recall that just a little over a week ago I referred to the fact that RIT only has two seasons: winter, and recruitment. The busy season has continued since then, with several more prospective student visits!
First we were visited last Tuesday by a LeRoy High School junior who has already explored RIT at open houses for engineering programs and the like, but wanted to look into Imaging Science as well after finding us by looking through all of RIT's undergraduate programs. After we chatted for a while, I introduced him to the freshmen class - he stayed for the whole two hours and said he had such a great time that he didn't want class to end! Afterward I showed him around CIS for a tour. I'm not sure ultimately what program his interests will align with best (maybe a CS/ImSci double major, eh, eh???), but I think it's fair to say we left him with a great impression of Imaging Science.
Later in the week I met with a current RIT student who is interested in transferring in to Imaging Science. He's a current physics major but not really feeling passionate about it, and is hoping to do something more applied. He also has a personal interest in astronomy, is an amateur astrophotographer, AND wants to learn more about optics. He had already checked out the classes in the ImSci curriculum per Carl's suggestion and was definitely interested in them. Does he sound like a perfect fit for Imaging Science, or what?? So there wasn't much convincing to have to do on my end, but at least I was able to help by answering questions about internship opportunities, career options, and student life. I think we have a pretty darn good chance of him transferring over, which would be great because (totally unbiased opinion) I think his interests really fit in well with the Imaging Science program. And knowing how awesome and welcoming our current freshmen are, they would all integrate together really well.
Lastly, we had a current high school junior visit today who actually was a high school intern applicant, but removed herself from consideration after receiving an offer from the UofR Laser Lab intern program. Which is TOTALLY OKAY - really. I'm not hurt by losing one of our best candidates to someone else. I don't harbor any ill will. And besides, I can't - I'm cool with LLE - hey, my husband works there and loves it. So it's all good, really. Not awkward at all. Though now I'm making such a big deal out of it it is starting to sound awkward. It really isn't. Anyways... We followed a similar format as the LeRoy junior: chat, sit in on the freshmen class, go for a tour. She, too, stayed for the full two hours and had a really great time! And the feelings were mutual: I heard a lot of feedback that she left a phenomenal impression and would be a fantastic ImSci student if we could be so lucky as to earn her application. She also had a lot of really great questions when we chatted and when we went on the tour; she is obviously a very bright student. She is really interested in astronomy, but on our tour we had a great visit with Jason up in DIRS - and we all know that remote sensing folks think astronomers have their systems posted in the wrong direction. Teasing aside, hopefully the visit helped this student know more about the many possible applications of Imaging Science. I really REALLY hope that if she comes to RIT, whether it be in ImSci or not, that she stays connected with us in some capacity. I also suggested we have some kind of an intern field trip or swap day or something to that end - who knows, we'll see! Either way I definitely hope she keeps in touch.
Anyways, that should be the last of the prospective student visits, for the immediate future at least... But you never know when another one will just pop up. In the mean time, it will be nice to give my vocal chords a rest!
No comments:
Post a Comment