<p>Hi, so I am currently here at Rochester, planning on double majoring in Computer Science and English with a minor in Philosophy and maybe a cluster in legal.</p>
<p>Anyway, I thought it would be nice to answer questions prospective students have, comming from a current student's position. So ask away about anything, academics, social scene, the surrounding area, whatever, and I'll do my best to answer.</p>
<p>My daughter loves Rochester but I wonder what her chances of getting in are. We have been there twice so far-one was the for an interview. She did not do well on the SAT but did better on the ACT composite 24, Gpa 3.92, Ap/honors Math for four years, college course honors English,senior year with lots of science courses. She is interested in science. She will be doing an over-night visit soon plus the open house the following Saturday. Do you think that in the admissions process UR looks at the amount of times you visited the school as repesentative of your desire to go there?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Does it feel like an overwhelming majority of kids there are from Long Island, New Jersey, or New York city surroundings?</p>
<p>@iamtim
Not really, there are kids from all over. One of my roomates is from Colorado and the other is from Florida. There are quite a few people from NY but not just near rochester or the city but from all over NY,and not as many as you would think from NJ. Most of the students I know are from out-of-state, so its pretty diverse up here.</p>
<p>@mom24
Ah chances. I was in your daughter's shoes, Im sure you'll find my stats elsewhere on the board, I had a real good gpa, but my sats were horrendous. Rochester is awesome in that it judges applications hollistically, so they aren't only about test scores. They want the individual, so my advice for your daughter is to do just that. Write a very good essay to show Rochester who you are, and why you are unique. The gpa and school activities will really help. They want active students who are productive in the community and in school, not just book worms. So I think she has a great chance. Also a few words of advice, a. DON'T APPLY EARLY, and b. apply before december. I applied regular and got in, not to difficult, ed causes alot a problems if you are not careful. And in order to be considered for scholarships you need to apply before a certain date in December which I can't remember off the top of my head. But I finished my apps in November, which usually is a good idea since it frees up alot of time. </p>
<p>feel free to pm me with more questions</p>
<p>Thanks insane! I'll take your advice!!</p>
<p>How is the weather at Rochester? Super cold?
Are there any places to sit on grass and study?
Dining options are okay?
Is there school spirit?
Do professors really care about students?
Could you explain the cluster thing?
How is the Rochester interview?
Is there anything special that Rochester looks for in their applicants / do they favor a particular gender, race, etc?</p>
<p>Weather so far has been good, actually quite good now that I think about it. Fingers crossed. It gets cold in the winter from what I hear, but I haven't experianced the infamous Rochester winter yet, so I can't quite comment.</p>
<p>Ohh the campus is very very green. Lots of places to sit and study, or if you're like me toss a frisbee around. Most people are either in front of the library in the academic quad relaxing and studying, or at the res quad, or by sue b.</p>
<p>Dining is eh, not Rochester's forte. I am getting to the point where I am sick of campus food, but that's only because I am vegetarian and my options are pretty limited to repetitive food. The food is ok, not great not bad, but there are many places on campus to dine.</p>
<p>School Spirit is there, though our football team sucks. We have pride for our college, especially in the academic areas.</p>
<p>Can't speak for all professors, but the ones I've had so far, yes. They are amazing, very accesible and very helpful. I was amazed that one of the Philosphy professors I met briefly, remembered my name and what we talked about. All my professors and even ones that don't teach me know me by name, so it says something.</p>
<p>I'll explain the cluster thing in the another post, a little complicated.</p>
<p>The interview is awesome, very informal and laid back. Go in with questions, relax, and think of it as a conversation. My went on for a good hour, and we talked about everything from music to poetry. So it was fun.</p>
<p>Unique individuals that can contrbrute to school's diversity. Really there is no one perfect applicant, or one perfect card you can play like race or high test scorer to get in. Its about what you have to offer, are you diverse, active, passionate about something, research, music, or anything, and can you bring that passion to Rochester. They want strong students, but that doesn't always mean book smart.</p>
<p>Cluster System in a nutshell. Basically there are no required courses outside of your major(and/or minor) at Rochester. Well technically there is one, every student must take a CAS class their freshman year to get aquainted with college writing. CAS classes are offered in lots of sbjects so pick the one that interests you.</p>
<p>Back to clusters, so in order to graduate you need to take a combination of classes in three fields, humanities (english, philosophy, etc), social sciences (psychology, sociology, etc), and natural sciences (math, biology, chemistry). A cluster is usually three classes or more within one of three fields desribed above. So basically your major counts towards one the fields, and you take two clusters, or a minimum of three classes in two of the other fields. The classes you take are up to you, and you can either chose from existing clusters or propose your own. This way you can study what you want and at the same time expose your self to a diversity of classes.</p>
<p>The one exception, is engineering majors, they only have to take one cluster outside their major only because engineering is very hard on the courseload. </p>
<p>For more info:
<a href="http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/clusters/%5B/url%5D">http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/clusters/</a></p>
<p>Cluster Directory to see what they offer
<a href="http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/clusters/cluster_directory7.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/clusters/cluster_directory7.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks for answering my questions.. I have more, though.. Haha.</p>
<p>I visited the Rochester website & I noticed they are really using the "new ivy" thing to attract more applicants. Do you think its a good idea to mention this during interviews or in the application for them, or will it seem that Im only applying to the school for prestige?</p>
<p>Is there a kind of Rochester forums where Rochester students come to talk that I can join/visit to ask other Rochester students questions?</p>
<p>Do many students propose their own clusters, and is this a difficult process? </p>
<p>You mentioned that there are a lot of grassy areas, is the school very pretty then? The campus is nice? Could you compare it to another college campus?</p>
<p>Are there sufficient gym facilities?
How are the dorms? Do most people get doubles or triples (freshmen)? Are they small? Communal bathrooms?</p>
<p>How is the financial aid? Merit-based & need-based.</p>
<p>What are classes I could take that would relate to Business in any way?</p>
<p>How is graduate school placement? Do a lot of people go on to ivys/top schools?</p>
<p>What are Rochester students most proud of about their school?</p>
<p>My son is there as a freshman and is definitely not noticing a preponderance of downstate NY/New Jersey students. We are Upstate New Yorkers, and his roommates are from Puerto Rico and Texas.</p>
<p>Heyy,
I'm a freshman so i'll help insanemembrane out...</p>
<p>so yeah, don't make the new ivy thing a big deal...talk more of the other stuff than prestige...prestige thing just sounds like you want to go here just because of the ranking or w/e...they want ppl who respect everything else about the school...</p>
<p>well, i know that once you're accepted, you can go on the rochester website message boards...but for now, it's just cc and like facebook...</p>
<p>i'll let insane handle the clusters...</p>
<p>ok, about the campus atmosphere...i'll definitely say that it's beautiful...especially since leaves are changing colors and stuff...it's really pretty...if you've ever seen upenn's campus, it's in some odd way related, but u of r's campus is much more organized and more grassy...</p>
<p>umm gym facilities are pretty nice actually...it's just that if you want to use indoor courts, its best to use em with a club cause it's hard to reserve courts on ur own...</p>
<p>as far as dorms go...i think they're awesome wherever you are...i'm in gilbert and i got a single (yes, i'm a freshman) and it's not a five-star hotel room but it's manageable especially if you get bed lofted cause u get room, so i love my hall and everything, but i talked to ppl in sue b and stuff and they love it wherever they are...but regarding bathrooms, the ones in gilbert are said to be the neatest/most new in comparison to the others...</p>
<p>regarding financial aid, i got all need-based....so the merit-based aid isn't too great unless you have killer sat scores and stuff or if you got any corporate awards...</p>
<p>yeah, definitely(business), you can basically major not exactly in business, but economics or finance or one of the others out there...i'm considering going econ...</p>
<p>for grad school a lot of ppl are definitely going to big schools...and a lot of grad students are coming here from other schools to do their phd/mba/etc....</p>
<p>ok, idk, what rochester students, as a whole, are proud of but it may be the ability to take whatever course one desires...but to me the campus is so suburban since i come from a south jersey high school, and i love that atmosphere...and the people here are soo awesome and friendly...that homely feeling is what allows me not to be as homesick as i would be in another school...</p>