The Fashion Institute of Technology

Date: Mar 11 2010
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
I thought I did my research before attending FIT. I made a career change and left a stable job to attend FIT and pursue a degree in Fashion Merchandising Management. It was my understanding that the resources I would find at this school would help me get into a stable career in the business side of the fashion industry.

I have been extremely disappointed with the outcome of the decision to come to FIT. I would say generally the faculty and staff at FIT do not support the students. The Residential Life department is very rude. I was assigned housing less than two weeks before moving from another state. I was assigned a suite and my meal plan was taken away and the money for my meal plan was applied to the suite. I am happy to have a larger room but feel that it was unfair to lead me to believe my money would be applied to a meal plan and then it was applied to my room instead. I was informed that the school is over their head in a financial situation with their 31st street dorm mortgage. I assume that they assigned me a suite last minute so that the additional 2K would go towards their housing costs instead of a meal plan. The maintenance of the buildings is very bad. In my first two weeks the maintenance men had to attend to three different issues. The IT department is friendly, however you are constantly running into IT issues. Passwords are often invalid and the entire internet system goes down several times a month. I have a wireless connection in my room that goes out several times a day. I have a teacher who barely speaks plain English. He is very difficult to understand. When I approached him for assistance on a term paper I was even more confused… and realized that he cannot communicate his thoughts into English to explain to the students in ENGLISH what he wants them to do in a 15 page paper. I have a teacher who teaches Introduction to the Fashion Industry. She apparently sold Couture…30 years ago.

I do have two teachers that are very good. I find the merchandising math very helpful. I enjoy my advertising class as well. So out of 6 classes here at FIT, I am getting an education out of 3 of them.

Overall, carefully weigh your decision to come here. I understand that the design part of the curriculum here is probably better than the business side. The school is in financial difficulty right now with budget cuts.

Coming here made me see that sometimes it is better to live in reality than to chase a dream. I am fortunate that I had the experience to try to make a dream come true to work in the fashion industry. You need to have realistic expectations for the outcome of your experience here.