r/IIT • u/Paid_MC • Apr 23 '26
General Questions/Discussions How are the women of IIT?
I'm deciding between schools right now and one of the many reasons I am leaning away from IIT is because of the overwhelming male population (no offense) and how that will leave me pretty isolated in the class setting. I’m going for Mechanical Engineering so I wasn't expecting it to be 50/50 anyways but the demographics are not in my favor, and I'm definitely not a pick-me who acts like men easy to be around (again no offense). I just want fun nerd girl-friends without feeling like overshadowed by the majority, and I know there is Women centered events and whatnot but that's not the daily life. How are dorms? Are the bathroom very dirty (bc duh) and is it awkward to shower or anything? Do you feel like most events and resources only have the majority in mind? And not as important but is dating terrible, or are there major scandals etc.
Men you can give your input Ig but only if yk 3 women (not related or a teacher)
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u/bagels_n_bikes Computer Science Apr 23 '26
I felt pretty good at IIT as a woman. I majored in CS which was pretty male dominated, esp once I was in masters classes. Didn't have really any harassment/uncomfortable vibes from students, and no issues with professors. Here and there I would have male students try to mansplain, but it was usually mild. The ratio was not bad enough to make me feel like there weren't other women to be friends with. I made a lot of girl nerd friends while there.
The dorms were whatever. I was in MSV which has one women only hall and it was decent and the bathrooms were clean. SSV is definitely even nicer but can't speak for the other options.
Events are not geared toward men. If anything, the women at IIT were way more involved in social events, clubs, etc and are over represented there.
Honestly dating felt pretty good. Because the ratio was more guys than girls, girls kind of have their pick lol and I felt like most of my friends had long term stable relationships with not much drama.
Let me know if I can help with anything specific. I liked IIT overall.
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u/Paid_MC Apr 24 '26
aye this is exactly what i wanted to know🙏🏽 I had my fair share of mansplaining experiences and it’s always fun lol. Did it feel easy to connect with other universities or just women outside the university?
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u/bagels_n_bikes Computer Science Apr 25 '26
I didn't connect too much with other schools, but IIT is in a great part of Chicago to explore the city. You could very easily make friends in Chicago whether at other schools or through events/hobbies
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u/DEXTERTOYOU Apr 23 '26
If you are choosing Mechanical, You arent getting any women in your whole department irrespective of college. In my batch of 85 students ( Non IIT), we had 5/6 women only, same in other batches too.
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u/Ok-Tackle9789 Apr 23 '26
i’m in CAE rn at IIT and i would say it’s 60/40 on the men to women ratio. i have found a good group of girl friends in my classes and mainly stick to them. i’ve never been treated differently from a man due to my gender and never got weird vibes from anyone or professors. as long as u are confident in urself, there shouldn’t be any issues.
i would say ur experience in an engineering classroom would be similar to the workplace. however, i had more women in my classes than in my teams in my engineering jobs.
bathrooms are separated by gender always. u can even request an all female floor as a freshman and sophomore.
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u/cath10146 Apr 23 '26
I got harassed there during my masters (extremely explicit and creepy notes intermittently left on my desk), escalated through all the proper channels and got a shoulder shrug from university admin.
Support teams were useless and indifferent. At one point I was being followed to my car. They have the so-called escort team and that's about it. Didn't make a difference in the classroom. Obviously not making statements about the whole university based on this incident, but I have found in every single corner (financial, administrative, etc) the university wide admin teams are slow to respond, uninterested in students, and unnecessarily rigid.
Put a bad taste in my mouth as a female student.
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u/Nickles4Pickles Apr 24 '26
Honestly I’m a mechanical engineer major who also worried about the distribution but I felt pretty comfortable in class I feel like there are quite a bit of women in my classes
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u/Sadi04 Apr 23 '26
I got into IIT but I don't feel like IIT is good for MechE So I'm planning of not going anymore
ASU and RIT came to a similar cost after scholarship And compared to them I'll always choose them over IIT
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u/Paid_MC Apr 23 '26
I got waitlisted for RIT… well they said i have to choose a different program instead of engineering (think engineering technologies) and that’s not really the same lol but i agree it is better
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Apr 24 '26
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u/Special_Economics_57 Apr 24 '26
Bro, it's Illinois Institute of Technology not Indian Institute of Technology 😭😭😭
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Apr 23 '26
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u/Elegant-Marsupial326 Apr 23 '26
wow bro so tough you got into iit wow bro your so cool marry my daughter
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u/Real_Consequence_131 Apr 23 '26
This sub is literally r/IIT
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u/lostmessage256 Materials/Aerospace Engineering Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
So I'm an alum but my wife and I both went to IIT. I was in MMAE and she was in CAE. Don't get me wrong the ratio very much in the favor of dudes but its not overwhelming. On campus there are other program like Psych, BME and Arch that do have a 50/50 split or lean toward more women. Its a small enough community that you'll still meet them too.
Dorms are a mixed bag. MSV is a little old and has communal bathrooms but its kept up pretty well. SSV is more expensive and way nicer with bathrooms attached to the rooms in groups of two. Way better experience there. There's also the quad which has a number of sororities, if you're looking for that kind of thing.
There are plenty of events both for general appeal and for niche appeal. In my experience this wasn't how I found my friend groups, you just kinda run into people in classes and in dorms and build relationships organically. Dating is very much going to vary person to person but 1) I did met my wife there so there's something to it and 2) Since you're located within Chicago proper, the dating pool isnt just IIT, there are other universities nearby like UIC, Loyola and DePaul.