<p>If BS is a terminal degree for you and you can afford the cost and withstand the weather and crime-infested neighborhood, Rochester is a good school for you. The academics is reasonably challenging.</p>
<p>But forget about graduate school which usually needs recommendations. Professors did not even bother to reply to the many requests for recommendations my son sent out, let alone show the common decency to send a reply saying that they are too busy with research or whatever else they do.</p>
<p>All of my daughter’s friends have had the opposite experience. And all her friends are currently in graduate or professional schools. This includes students in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, medical and law schools. (Her BA is her terminal degree.)</p>
<p>I’m sorry your son has had a rough time of it.</p>
<p>Additionally, she never had a run-in with a crime, nor have her friends. Yes, Rochester is a city, but even at Riverview, the area is hardly “crime infested.” No more than in any city.</p>
<p>Odd, since D2 had no trouble getting LORs. At graduation this spring, two of her profs pulled me aside to tell me they had letters (which D2 hasn’t even asked for yet!) all written and ready to go whenever she wants them. A third prof offered to write her a LOR “whenever she’s ready to apply.” She never had a problem getting LORs for fellowships and internships during her student years either. </p>
<p>D2’s friends, most of whom will be attending a variety of grad (science, engineering, social sciences, education) or professional school (medicine, vet, PA, PsyD) programs, had no issues getting LORs, nor did her friend who needed LORs as part of her vetting process to work at the White House.</p>
<p>D2 lived in Riverview and the only “crime” she ran into was vandalism and rowdy behavior by her fellow students. </p>
<p>Yes, parts of Rochester are not so nice, but that’s true of any city. It’s not like there’s open gang warfare going on a block off campus.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear your son had difficult time, but his experience is far from a universal problem.</p>
<p>You might have to look at this and come to the conclusion that they didn’t want to write a LOR for your son for whatever reason. The problem may have been on his end more than theirs as tough as it is to consider that a possibility. I know from our high school not all teachers want to write a great LOR for any and all students - even if they had high grades. They will try to give hints for them to ask others, or, not write such a great letter if they end up having to do it. In today’s sue happy world, telling the truth can get one into trouble, so they don’t verbalize the truth to the student. I know some who put off such letters hoping it will “go away.” This is at my high school, not any college, but I suspect the underlying feelings can be universal.</p>
<p>With the students and alumni we talked with while searching out colleges, it wasn’t an issue at all (for them) at UR. I’m sure there are some who have problems, but I don’t think the problem lies with the profs. Just graduating from a good school is not all it takes.</p>
<p>Let’s not over react. The UR board gets very few negative posters. All colleges with activity get some. Most are kids who transfer out but who need to persuade others that their dislike of whatever school it is must be universal. I call them “ghosts” because they hang around even after they’re gone.</p>
<p>Notice the OP is a new member making a first post. Maybe there was a bad experience. Maybe it’s not a parent at all. Maybe it’s a ■■■■■. Doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>This thought crossed my mind too, but in reality, there are people whose personalities just don’t have people wanting to write them LORs even if their grades are decent. Often the parents can’t understand why and demand answers that are tough to verbalize without hurting feelings (and potentially more with lawsuits or whatever). They just don’t see the whole picture or maybe they prefer the type of personality many of the rest of us don’t care for. Who knows?</p>
<p>My reasoning is this: new member, first post, joined the day of the post. If you are a parent and you didn’t know about this board, you would somehow have stored up this anger over something unspecified and then found this board, decided to register and then post some non-specific stuff … makes me wonder. If it’s not a ■■■■■, then it’s someone with an anger issue. I don’t know what it is but people say and do things in anger that don’t reflect their rational selves.</p>
<p>There are trolls everywhere. An old line in the Usenet days was every connection is a bridge and there is a ■■■■■ under every bridge. They like to stir things up. Heck, there’s an industry around trolling for Mac fans.</p>
<p>I am not trolling. Having investing over 200K over 4 years, it seems a bit unfair when Professors do not bother to reply to a request for a recommendation. It is fine if they donot want to write a recommendation. Not replying is just not right.</p>
<p>Did your son pursue the request? Or did he just send an email and sit back and wait for something to happen? </p>
<p>Email can get lost, get shunted to spam folders, etc. </p>
<p>It’s much harder to “lose” a in-person request with an email or phone call follow-up. Or an email request to someone the student knows well (had for several classes or had a mentoring relationship with) containing all the relevant info* with one or two follow-ups.</p>
<ul>
<li>Profs can teach several hundred students a year and it’s really easy to forget who someone was. A request needs to include a reminder of when the student took a class with prof, which course it was and include a complete CV so the prof can write something beyond: he was in my class and passed it</li>
</ul>
<p>Unless your son did all that and still didn’t get a response, I don’t have alot of sympathy.</p>
<p>NewYorkGuy, if you son was persistent the way WOWMom indicated but still did not get a response, then I suggest your son call (not email) the head of the dept. </p>
<p>Explain the situation and let the head follow up with the professor(s). Without knowing more, it is hard to know why your son’s request was not met.</p>