<p>To clarify for Garrry and any other new freshman and high school students, we’re not trying to discourage asking questions, just suggesting it would be better to keep a lid on the pot. School starts soon.</p>
<p>I think there’s an open house for UR freshman tomorrow in Boston. My kid will be there. She’s really looking forward to going back. So much it annoys us.</p>
<p>I made a thread about this, but I’ll post here too. To current student:</p>
<p>I will be starting Rochester this fall at the medical center, and I was told we have two gym options: the smaller gym for the medical campus, or the main gym, called “Goergen (spelling?) Athletic Center.” Since moving to the Northeast (I’m originally from the South), I’ve realized no one here seems to like air conditioning! It’s very bizzare to me, since in the South we are VERY climate controlled (every building and house is kept around 67-70 degrees year round), and up here people don’t seem to mind being hot. When I ask why there so little air conditioner use, most people say “we don’t need it up here” - but come on guys, from late May to early September, you definitely need it here!</p>
<p>Anyway, I’ve been to two different gyms here, and both times I’ve had to quit due to temperature settings even after numerous complaints. My latest one kept the thermostat at 78 degrees in the main cardio/weight room. I thought maybe they couldn’t afford to keep it cool in summer, but in winter they jacked the heat up to 78!</p>
<p>So, for current students, my question is: Is the Athletic Center kept cool year round? I’d prefer it to be around 65 degrees, but I could handle up to about 70. Is it air conditioned and kept below 70 in the summer? In the winter, do they stupidly turn the heat up or do they allow it to fall below 70?</p>
<p>Any help would be great! Thank you!</p>
<p>My son may have the stats to get in to Rochester.</p>
<p>My question is a simple one.</p>
<p>Why did you decide to go there?</p>
<p>Considering its high ranking in US News, it doesn’t seem to be a very well known or popular school, and Rochester does not sound like the sexiest place to go to college. </p>
<p>He would likely major in English/Political Science. He is a super intellectual type kid, with no interest in sports. (kind of a University of Chicago type)</p>
<p>Is it more of a pre-med school?.</p>
<p>When I was a kid (40 years ago), I think that it was known as a good pre-med school.</p>
<p>Rochester has not been on my son’s radar screen, but given its high ranking, I would like to find out more about it from you.</p>
<p>And do they give out any merit aid?.</p>
<p>His ACT is a 34.</p>
<p>His SATs are 800 CR, 800 writing, and 700 math.</p>
<p>His gpa is only a 3.7, but because he takes all AP classes, that puts him in the top 5% of his high school class (barely)</p>
<p>One big difference between UChicago and URoch is the general ed requirements. Chicago has a very extensive core curriculum and Rochester has a very flexible requirement that can involve as little as 6 courses (two 3-course clusters).</p>
<p>It might help if you write more about what your son does or doesn’t want in a college, and then we can answer more directly about Rochester and how it may fit what he’s looking for.</p>
<p>UR is an excellent pre med school. It’s also an excellent school for physics and econ. And education. And music. And… My point is UR has many strengths. Whether it’s a good fit for your son will depend on many factors. </p>
<p>UR does give merit aid. (My D2 attends UR on very generous merit aid. So do the children of several parent posters here.) If your son is NMF, he is guaranteed at least $17,000/year in merit aid.</p>
<p>There is a thread about merit aid. The Admissions Dean has written about how UR does it; he went through their awards and figured out what they meant. The topic was picked up by the NYT. </p>
<p>UR is like where Washington University was a few years back: not as well known in high schools. In our school in Boston, no one was aware of either school until junior year when kids started looking and realized it was hard to get into WashU. (Before that, most kids would not have known it’s in St. Louis.) Why less known? Some of that is location: St. Louis, Rochester. Most people lump Rochester with Buffalo and don’t realize it’s more a high tech center based around imaging: Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, Kodak.</p>
<p>Here are some of UR’s strengths: PoliSci, Religious Studies, Dance. Sure, it’s possibly the world leader in optics-related research and perhaps the best music school in the world - likely is at the grad level - but it’s really a well-rounded university.</p>
<p>Why go there versus Chicago? More fun. More laid back. I would say more normal kids. Weather is not a big difference: it’s cold as bleep in Chicago and Rochester on the whole gets more snow. The city of Chicago is great - though the south side is still not - but Rochester is a surprisingly nice city where everything is literally 10 minutes away. My comment on location generally is: doesn’t matter much at the university level because the school is large enough for you to have a social world that isn’t confining. When you visit a Bard - fine school - and you realize these few people in this tiny town are all you see for 4 years, you know the difference. UR has 5k undergrads. That’s enough so you recognize nearly everyone and enough so you have a wide circle of friends and things to do. You don’t lack things to do at UR. Chicago is the same size for undergrad but much larger for grad school, which I think shows some of the issues of that school; they are teaching and dealing with 2x as many grad students as undergrads. (Every school has issues.) These schools are at the very low end of size for real universities. Wesleyan, by contrast, is a university but gets very little research funding and is really more a large college with a small grad program - nothing against that, just noting the difference. UR gets over $400M a year in research funding, which puts it in what’s generally called the first tier of research universities.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the English department at UR. I know the grad program is highly ranked, which matters for grad students. (I dislike rankings for undergrad programs.) I know how it is organized and, oddly, how Chicago’s is organized too: they are different so check out both. These are more a matter of fit. I think Chicago is somewhat self-consciously intelligent; they market themselves that way and they tend to attract people who see themselves that way. UR, I’d say and speaking as a geekish sort myself, tends to attract kids who see themselves more as normal and intelligent.</p>
<p>I chose Rochester because I have specific, distinct interests, and the flexibility of the core curriculum allows me to only take classes I want to take, not have to take a certain distribution of courses to meet some arbitrary “general education” requirements. I’ve had to do that before, and I hated it. The student-teacher ratio is really great, and I’ve been surprised by how many small classes I’ve had. This is good for allowing students better interaction with their teachers. I’ve been highly impressed by how helpful teachers are in their office hours and by how you can really form connections with them. I really don’t have anything bad to say about the academics.</p>
<p>The English department at UR is quite strong; my d was an English major (along with another major and a minor). There are 4 “tracks” in English: a straight English major; Creative Writing; Theater; and Language, Media & Communication. </p>
<p>What is it that you’d like to know about the department?</p>
<p>The Rochester Curriculum needs more publicity. I didn’t understand it until we came for admitted students days. </p>
<p>As they explain it, and taking that as some degree of marketing, when they looked at the issues related to teaching in a research university, they identified requirements as the biggest source of dissatisfaction for both teachers and students. In brief, students took classes they didn’t want to take and teachers had to teach students who didn’t want to be there. Rather than abandon requirements entirely outside majors, they came up with clusters. The rules can get complicated but it means you take a linked series of classes in areas you want as long as you hit the very broad, main areas of study. You can design your own cluster and a number of the approved ones came from students. Each department has clusters set up. </p>
<p>The idea they focused on was to encourage in depth study in areas you want to study. Clusters relate to minors, which are common, and then to double majors, which are also common at UR. It also relates to the Take Five program, which is meant to provide a free 5th year for kids who find they have a deep interest which they can’t truly fulfill while completing their majors. (It isn’t extra time just to complete your major, but extra time you need because you found stuff you love.) If you speak to profs, they tell you their classes work better because none of the students are there to fulfill a requirement. </p>
<p>If you notice, Chicago’s approach is different; they have added more requirements, both outside and inside majors. It’s a different approach to education. It’s a different approach to intellectualism. The important thing is to choose what fits you. </p>
<p>As an aside, my schooling was on the edge of the era of experimentation and the imposition of standards. I hated the requirements imposed on us because they drove us to easy classes that didn’t really teach much. Each person is different. An engineer, for example, particularly someone in biomed or looking at a double science major, has so many must-take classes that being driven toward easy requirements might be a godsend, depending on the person.</p>
<p>Quickie: Do language courses fulfill the humanities or social sciences requirements at UR?</p>
<p>Language courses generally fulfill the humanities requirements of the requirements</p>
<p>I agree the U of R curriculum needs more advertising. One of the reasons I wanted my son to apply is that I went to UCSC 30 years ago which also had a very flexible curriculum. I took a Mark Twain literature class to meet my English requirement and Western Civilizations to meet my history one. They allowed numerous options encouraging students to take more off beat classes.</p>