arisamp–just for comparison’s sake, US Air offers non-stop flights between Rochester and Boston, and the Rochester airport is only 10 minutes from the campus. Travel between Boston and Rochester is also surprisingly easy.
Thanks colorado_mom. He received a nice one from Case. Long wait until university of Rochester is out!
I don’t know anything about these schools in terms of engineering. But in terms of arts and culture, the U of R has a shuttle bus that takes students from the River Campus (main campus) to the Eastman school. Therefore, students can easily get to the city even if they don’t have a car. And the new college town they have built near campus is just amazing.
In terms of research, when I went there it was pretty easy to get involved conducting research with a professor. Basically just had to ask. And when my son toured the U of R a few years ago, the admissions office talked a lot about student research and how basically, if you were interested, you would be able to find an opportunity.
my D is an engineering major and received merit offers from both schools, she is at Case. She has not done research and I would agree with the comment up thread about the coop experience. If this is important to you, ask to see the statistics, same for summer internships. I don’t know if they are able to break down number of jobs obtained through the coop/career offices, vs those students find on their own.
If cost is about the same, distance about the same, it comes to personal preferance, IMO Cleveland is a bigger city. URochester has more of a campus I’ve known kids who have loved both schools and kids who have not. Depends upon the kid.
For the top 50 private university rating by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance (Feb 2015) - article says full rankings etc College Rankings | Kiplinger U of Rochester is ranked 28 and Case Western is 46. U of Rochester says 98% of need met; Case Western says 83%. U of Rochester has 77% graduating in 4 years; Case Western has 65%. Admission rate is higher for Case Western (42%) to U of Rochester (36%).
There are a lot of individual details that may have one be a better fit than the other. Case Western has a higher % of need aid and non-need aid but higher avg debt at graduation. U of Rochester has a higher avg cost after non-need based aid ($49,948 compared to Case Western $36,422).
Glad to hear DS has a nice offer from Case.
The best on a good decision process and happiness with decision.
I have a dau studying engineering, and the important thing is getting a good education w/o financial stress. Student is happy and parents are happy.
When we were looking 5 years ago, Case had a reputation for low FA… high merit scholarships. DS (stellar stats, interesting ECs) had a scholarship offer that made Case about the same price as state flagship.
OP here… DS accepted into URochester. He received a close merit award and we await financial aid data from both. We are planning trips to both in March. I appreciate all the feedback so far. I will report back about the visits… It may come down to that fit thing:)
I don’t know anything about URochester. However, I am a junior at Case with several BME friends. In regards to the BME department (based on friends conversations):
PROS:
All tracks of BME will leave you well prepared for the workforce.
Program is extremely well regarded outside of case
CONS:
most professors in the BME department are horrible
one of the hardest majors at Case
must fulfill abnormally high number of requirements for BME degree
If going for BME computing track, it is suggested to do a CS degree with minor in Biology instead
If you have any questions about Case, let me know.
Case is very well known for Biomedical Engineering. It is ranked 15th in the nation for BME.
Congratulations. Note that at most schools you cannot “stack” merit scholarships and need-based Financial Aid. So do your research with all the numbers. (Also factor in years where you might have more than one in college - those are the years when the family is likely to get more FA).
OP - sounds like you are in the same boat we were in four years ago ! D had to choose between the same two schools and she had good merit offers from both. Rochester was a tad bit more expensive (Case was more generous) - but we had told her that finances didn’t matter at that point - the difference was insignificant for us - fit was more important. As I mentioned before, she chose Case and has been very very happy her four years there. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact me.