The Illinois Institute of Technology

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Mechanical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
If you have other opportunities, take them. IIT no longer (if it ever did) gives a damn about Ph.D. students. TA/RA opportunities are very scarce so if you are looking for a funded position it will be very hard to get. They drew me in with a 1 year TAship then when it came time to focus on my research, my advisor went

Well, my funding ran out

so as an international student I was left scrambling for funding, which never came from IIT. As a consequence, I am transferring to Purdue.

The Mechanical Engineering Department is understaffed and the faculty that are present have very little to no funding. Except for a couple of labs there are no research opportunities available.

During my TAship, I supervised the senior year mechanical lab and even that was underfunded, crowded with students and poorly organized. Haven't seen the professor actually in the lab the whole semester, he just taught the theory behind it and that's it.

Some of the faculty are very nice and helpful but without funding opportunities there is not much that they can do for you. A lot of young professors stay around for 2-3 years then leave for better schools leaving some Ph.D. students behind and suddenly unfunded.

When I went to our dean for help with my funding situation, he just said

look for an internship

Well, I came to IIT with 5 years work experience, I did not come here to work, I came here to do research. If I could have found employment for myself, I wouldn't have been in IIT.

Overall, terrible experience. If you are looking for a place to do your Ph.D., this is not it.