RIT Launches Full Tuition Scholarships for City Students ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) announced Tuesday it's opening its doors - and its pockets - to more Rochester City School District students.

Starting next fall, RIT will be offering full tuition, through a combination of state, federal and university funds, to qualified city school students.

To make the grade, applicants need to be accepted to RIT based on its admission criteria, have lived in the city and gone to city schools for three years of high school, and have an annual family income of less than $60,000.

RIT president Bill Destler says for many young people, college is an "impossible dream."

"Because they see no way in which they or their families could afford the tuition at any college or university, let alone a prestigious private institution like RIT. So while the program announced today will be available to students enrolled in the Rochester City School District (RCSD) starting next fall, it is really intended for those students in middle school or below who will hopefully see a good four-year college education as a possible dream."

The program is open only to freshmen entering college immediately after high school.

The cost of annual tuition at RIT is $28,866; the school says it expects to bear about two-thirds of the cost of attendance for each student who's accepted from city schools. The balance of the cost would be made up by federal and state grants, which the school would help students apply for through the FAFSA process.

Students in the program will be responsible for their own room and board.

A similar program launched in the 2008-2009 school year at the University of Rochester. It offers students from Rochester city schools $100,000 over four years for an undergraduate degree. Students must be in Rochester schools for two years prior to college, and can transfer in to the U of R from schools like Monroe Community College - an option that's not currently included in RIT's scholarship.

RIT's program will not cap the number of students who can attend, though currently the number of Rochester students who head to the Henrietta campus after high school is low. Only 23 students in RIT's freshman class are from city schools.

The school says it has no plans to modify admission requirements to limit the number of students who can attend. Destler says if the school is flooded with qualified applications he'll "be out on the street" to raise funds for the program, rather than turn students away.

Destler and his wife also announced Tuesday that they intend to donate $150,000 annually to the program, and ask that others step forward to contribute as well, saying that it will act as a "life raft for a whole new generation of students going through city schools."

Rochester city school superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard called the program "a dream come true for many of our kids" and said that it would sync well with existing RCSD programs that nudge students toward college, by introducing them to campus life and the college application process.

Of Rochester city school graduates, about 70% go on to college, but most head to two-year schools like Monroe Community College.

Brizard says sending kids to college is the best way to "cut the cycle of poverty."

Destler says the program could eventually be extended to low-income families in Rochester's suburbs, but notes the city has the highest concentration of students who meet the $60,000 threshold for the scholarship. © Copyright 2010, WXXI