<p>Status: Accepted student at both colleges. </p>
<p>Major: Eco or Biz most possibly, although I'm pretty undecided.</p>
<p>Preferences:
-Student body: Are students nice?
-Location: How are the locations of both schools? I personally dont really like big cities, but also not a big fan of urban area. I just hate driving half an hour to a supermarket or something like that. And since I am not expecting to get a car in freshmen year, I do hope around the school it has really good public transportation system.
Socially: I love doing volunteers. Do both schools have strong community service involved? What about the party scenes?
Academically: which school has a better undergraduate biz program? I know the one at Brandeis is just newly set-up, or wasnt? I wonder if Rochester does have a better biz program than Brandeis does.
The costs: would the living cost around Boston much higher than that in Rochester？
Many thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I would say kids are probably nice at both schools. Both are good academic places. </p>
<p>Waltham is a suburb of Boston. Brandeis is not really anywhere except off a road. It has a leafy green campus. They have regular shuttle buses to the train and to other schools. If you want at some point to live off campus, it will cost quite a bit more than Rochester. Waltham is a hike from Boston, meaning not a trip you’d take often. Waltham itself is a reasonable town, mixed income, lots of immigrants, some nice ethnic restaurants. There is a Hannaford’s supermarket.</p>
<p>Waltham, btw, is where American manufacturing took off. Waltham Watch started making watches - duh - using interchangeable parts, meaning they made a lot of each part and then made watches rather than fitting each watch together handcrafted piece by piece by piece. This made watches affordable and was one of the first American style “make a lot and put the pieces together” companies. This was before the Civil War, so if you see movies or re
enactments, the officers at least would have timepieces. </p>
<p>UR is located in Rochester but is separated from the city by the river, parks and a giant green cemetery. The school runs shuttle buses downtown - where Eastman is - and out to the shopping centers around the city. Those are a few minutes away because it’s extremely easy to get around Rochester. </p>
<p>UR’s campus is not as leafy. It looks more like Brown, with a lot of red brick and traditional college looking buildings in quads mixed with new buildings. UR and Brandeis are good examples of those two kinds of campuses. </p>
<p>At both schools, you’d be living on campus for at least 1 year, probably 2. Rent in Rochester is very low. </p>
<p>I’m not sure about community service at Brandeis. I assume it’s done a lot because the school was founded in that tradition. There is a lot at UR and the size of the community means it’s quite easy to become involved fairly deeply. UR is the largest employer and has many ties all over the area, from government to charity to business.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info
Lergnom, um, is that true Brandeis has better biz program than Rochester does? And is it hard to get into the biz program at Rochester(or Brandeis)?
Thank you sooo much~!!!</p>
<p>Rochester’s undergrad business major is brand new. I believe Fall 2012 will be it’s inaugural year. However, the program has been designed thoughtfully and is an offshoot of UR’s well regarded economics program and the Simon Graduate School of Business.</p>
<p>The UG business program’s requirements are here:</p>
<p>I can’t imagine there’s a quality difference between the schools. Not one that’s measurable. They’re both business majors, not separate schools. Both are connected to their well-regarded graduate schools. </p>
<p>You should look up the Rochester Curriculum so you can understand how much more freedom you have at UR in taking courses than at nearly all other schools. Brandeis has somewhat stricter requirements, though theirs are at the looser end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>I had a daughter graduate from each school, although neither in business. I would suggest you visit both schools. They have very similar academic profiles and attract many students who make this decision. In fact, the daughter who attended Brandeis also was accepted at Rochester. Both undergrad business programs are relatively new majors (within the past 5-10 years). Rochester is noted for economic department.
It is really easy for Brandeis students to go to Boston and many do go frequently to Boston and to Cambridge-to concerts and events at other schools, to movies and to dinner, to museums, to Celtics games. There is commuter rail walking distance from campus and from Thursday to Sunday, Bran Van shuttle service to Cambridge. Rochester is more compact city and it is relatively easy to get around on public transportation and cabs to restaurants on East Ave, to Eastman School of Music, to malls. I personally like both campuses, although very different from one another. Both daughters had good experiences at their respective schools, made great friends, both studied abroad junior year, took advantage of clubs and activities they were interested in and had leadership positions. There are some things I liked better about Rochester and others I liked better about Brandeis, primarily related to communication with parents, housing, and specifics related to their academic departments and experiences.</p>
<p>Another thought about Rochester’s Open Curriculum- while it great that there are no required sequences for all freshmen, I preferred the Brandeis approach which is similar but actually much more flexible than Rochester with the exception of foreign language requirement,although it is easy to place out. For us that was not an issue at all as both wanted to continue language study as part of study abroad. Brandeis does require a year of non-graded physical education and there are many choices.</p>
<p>bookmama22, thank you for your insightful thoughts !
um, do you think Rochester pays more attention to the undergraduate research compared to Brandeis? also, how is the Brandeis Curriculum Code like? Do you mind briefly explaining it? Thanks!</p>
<p>Rochester affords numerous research opportunities in the sciences especially. I really cannnot speak with any knowledge about the opportunities in business as I have no direct personal experience other than d’s friend who was involved with Investment Banking student organization, had excellent placement in study abroad in London which led to summer internship and job upon graduation’
The Brandeis Curriculum requires as does Rochester, freshman writing and two other classes that are considered Writing Intensive. All classes are coded so you know exactly what the classes qualify for in terms of any requirements. You must take 1 class that is classified quantitative reasoning, one humanities, one social science, one non-western culture, one year of physical education (ungraded) and either a year of foreign language or place out. Courses toward your major can apply such as in Art History, a required non-western culture Art History class counts as well for the university requirement, classes you take for Study Abroad can count with approval, either with syllabus in advance or because Study Abroad department has already made that determination. Again as with Rochester, any Study Abroad program must be approved in advance and if not on the approved list of programs, there is usually a supplemental fee charged and not a good chance of classes counting toward your major or electives within your major.</p>
