The Florida Institute of Technology

Date: Sep 08 2008
Major: Aerospace Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
FIT tends to spend their money on trivial items, like aesthetics. Instead of diverting some of the money to their labs which are decrepit. Also parking here is horrible, there is no guarantee that I can ever get a parking spot without having to pay for a fine. Also students are pushed aside whenever an organization outside wants FIT to host their seminar/convention. FIT will bend over-backwards to make them "feel @ home". So the students/faculty who already pay for their permits are pushed aside to parking that's already maxed out. There has been an inordinate number of palm trees & plants bought by the school recently. While the budget for the existing labs & machineshop does not exist. So in order to repair or modify an existing lab equipment or get more tools, etc for the machine shop requires massive paperwork & takes up a lot of time. If you're doing research here it's unbelieveable what the school takes away. 49% off the top (for most research) is taken away, then the professor has to pay for a part of the gradstudent's tuition, & stipend if available, then the professor has to take his fair share (which is nothing compared to grad students), then ususally what's left is actually for the research which is about 10-15%. Consulting on the other had has the same issue's only the school takes 15% off the top. Also the school does not provide anything from what they take off the top, nada. No computers (not suppose to use the lab computers for research), they don't even share lab equipment. Also if equipment exceeds $1,500, then it's considered "school property" for "insurance purposes". So of that 10-15% that you actually DO keep, the school wants to own what ever is of any value. Also the school has a contract with Dell so even though purchase of a oomputer is still inexpensive, Dells are not decent machines. IT (software standpoint) is horrible, the licenses for critical software does not get resolved till a month later, sometimes over a semester. The bookstore like any other school is extremely expensive, go online, and to get the same book it's ususally <50% of what they charge. The food is okay here, rooms are like anyother school. Until a couple of years ago there were minimal safety regulations here until they were fined a massive amout. Now they follow everthing to the letter for safety. Also some professors are a little to absorbed in their own research and VERY unavailable, but for the most part (including other departments) they are very inviting, and helpful. Though for senior design projects make the Mechanical engineers work on something other than a car project. I know why they do it (lots of money, fame for the school, multiple disciplines for the mechanical engineers), but seriously how many ways can you MAKE A CAR. Mechanical engineering is not ALL about making cars.

Like everywhere there are a lot of people working the system with high GPA's, but no knowledge, and getting good jobs. What disturbs me is when these people get fired it will hurt my chances of getting hired at the same place.