<p>Actually the snow is not all that big of an issue. My D–from the sunny Southwest–has not had an issue with the snow. (The number of gray days is by far a bigger complaint from her.)</p>
<p>And besides, there’s always the tunnel system that connects many buildings on campus.</p>
<p>I live in Boston where there is a huge scientific / medical community. Mention Rochester to anyone connected at all to that world and they have high praise for it, almost always know someone who went there. My post-doc tenants from Europe know the school. </p>
<p>My daughter’s surgeon at their last appointment - ever, we hope - asked where she was going to school. He had to laugh; he grew up at UR because his father taught there & his sister went there.</p>
<p>The University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology often get confused, even here in New York State. U of R is indeed a great school for kids interested in the sciences, but it also has very strong programs in the arts and humanities.</p>
<p>My d is a senior at Rochester and is not a science kid - took only one science course needed for one of her majors. Her science/math cluster was calculus & statistics. She has a double major in a humanity & a social science.</p>
<p>Rochester is very strong in these areas.</p>
<p>UR has a very strong reputation among scientists and engineers at the National Labs. (We live near 2 and know people at National Labs all across the US.) They all know it–or in some cases have graduated from it.</p>
<p>When D was hiking the John Muir Trail in California this summer, she met tons of people. One of the questions she always got asked is where she went to school. College students from UGa, a bunch of Silicon Valley guys, grad students at CalTech and UCLA, post docs from Germany & Italy, a father and high school-aged son from San Fran, park rangers, even a couple of ex-soldiers from Israel–all of them recognized U of R very favorably when she answered.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback! </p>
<p>UofR sounds like a strong university, without the overly techie slant at most engineering school. Also seems like grad school prospects would be good too. </p>
<p>“Gray” weather is a definite concern for any CO kids looking back East. Yes, we have snow. But 300 days of sunshine is nice too 
I grew up in NY, so I suspect my CO-raised freshman Boston will get sunshine-sick before he gets home-sick.</p>
<p>Rochester does get clouds because of the lake, but they have one advantage over Boston: it’s light most of an hour later. It starts to get dark in Boston in what should be mid-afternoon but Rochester is half the way across the time zone. Boston in late November through to early January feels really dark, like you feel it’s getting dark at 3:30PM.</p>
<p>This all sounds very encouraging for my S-it sounds like the school would be fine for a student that still hasn’t decided on a major.</p>
<p>The cloudy days aren’t an issue since we live in NE and are used to them. The additional light at the end of the day sounds great though-although the mornings must be pretty dark to make up for it.</p>
<p>I cannot believe I never heard of this school.</p>
<p>Wow, lots of information in this thread. Pepper03… Rochester is often percieved to be a school better equipped for students in the natural sciences - perhaps inaccurately so. Economics and Political Science are among our highest ranked programs, and research opportunities at Rochester are every bit as abundant in the social sciences and humanities as they are in the natural sciences. With that said, most of our students take multiple courses across disciplines - very few will come and lock themselves in a biology lab or bury thier noses in an economics textbook without exploring other interests as well.</p>
<p>My husband came home with the feeling it would be too narrow for our son but everything I have learned since that visit tells me otherwise. I wish I could have been on that visit with them to form my own opinion.</p>
<p>Not that it is likely to interest your son, but UR has a very good dance program - plus dance groups. My daughter is taking middle eastern dance. The atmosphere, the curriculum and the type of kids admitted seem to combine to encourage experimenting and following your interests.</p>
<p>BTW, if anyone is worried about social life, I called my girl last night - on a Monday - and found she was at a very loud birthday party at a local restaurant. Works hard but also parties.</p>
<p>Pepper03: My H and I had never heard of UR either before our D started her college search. I’m sure glad we did; its a fantastic institution; our D couldn’t have made a better choice. She is a sophomore majoring in physics and loves UR. As far as the weather goes, we live in RI and we got more snow than Rochester!</p>
<p>We live in RI too! Yeah the snow thing-well he said the important thing is it doesn’t melt so it is snow covered all winter. Weird. :)</p>
<p>Yes the more I hear about Rochester the more I like it and share his enthusiasm. </p>
<p>He is probably going to apply as an Economics major instead of Engineering. He may well change-he like many kids likes a lot of different areas and Rochester seems like a place where he will not fall through the cracks-it seems like they really take care of their students.</p>
<p>If he gets accepted though it will probably come down to a cost issue. Even though he has a good chance at acceptance and even merit aid it’s still going to be tough to swing it. </p>
<p>That’s what we need to figure out and why this is a good topic-is it worth the benefits of attending since he could go to other schools including ones in this comparison for probably considerably less money.</p>
<p>Pepper03, I’ve just reread your posts on this thread. Obviously only you can decide whether or not the cost is worth it and manageable for your family. </p>
<p>You mentioned he has alot of interests but you don’t think he will fall through the cracks at Rochester. Falling through the cracks won’t be an issue at Rochester. Your son will flourish!! Rochester loves kids with eclectic mixes of interests and alot of the Rochester kids do have varied interests. My dd for example plans to major in Biology and hopes to minor in both French and German and is leaning toward political economics for her social science cluster. Your son could easily major in Econ, cluster or minor in Engineering (a double major might be tricky with all the requirements) and cluster in music if he wants to take his trumpet to the next level. One no would find that combination weird at all!!</p>
<p>True the financial decision is a personal one-but the more we can find out about a school the more it helps to make that decision. If a school is really “worth it” is a decision every family has to make-but the things I am finding out here make a pretty compelling argument that Rochester indeed is worth the additional cost. </p>
<p>It seems like an outstanding school. It also seems like, as I have said before, a school that is far broader than I thought-based mostly upon information from my husband from the school visit.</p>
<p>I am reading this with great interest.</p>
<p>If it helps any… Rochester was recently ranked as one of the best values in education, and our students are in the top few schools in terms of the rate at which students pay back student loans after graduation. I have to assume that this is indicative of the success that students have finding employment after college. Between need-based and merit-based aid, the cost of a Rochester education is often comparable to the cost of a SUNY.</p>
<p>I hadn’t seen that particular ranking-there are so many it makes your head spin!</p>
<p>I’ll have to check that out.</p>
<p>Still on the top of his list with a couple of other schools.</p>
<p>He no longer wants to major in engineering which I agree with-I think he was picking a major just to have a major-but the more college visits we go to the more comfortable he is going in undeclared or with some type of Humanities major. </p>
<p>I want to go visit the school while it is in session. My husband still has the strong impression the school is too science oriented-funny how these tours can leave lasting and perhaps incorrect impressions. He also told me the dorms “looked like prison cells”. I can’t imagine any dorm in early August looks very good though-they are empty.</p>
<p>I would like to add that regarding financial aid Rochester is one of the few schools at this level that gives Merit Aid-which I find incredibly refreshing. We are one of the legion of middle-class families that are told by the FA forms we can afford 50K+ a year. I don’t want to get into a debate here about that-there are plenty of other threads to discuss that. I view it this way-if a school really wants my son they will work with us to make it something we can handle financially-if they can’t then we will move on-and my son understands this.</p>
<p>My goal is to help him find a school that wants him as much as he wants it-and that school is out there. I have a good feeling this may well be the one-who knows?</p>
<p>If anyone would like to PM me with any additional info that would be great.</p>
<p>Pepper03: Surprising that your husband thinks the dorms look like prisons. Compared to the other colleges we visited, UR’s dorms are much more spacious and maintained. My D lucked out 2 years in a row; has a room that is for triple roommates, but she has had only 1 roommate each year. UR was the only college who gave our D a merit scholarship as well. It’s nice to see that and makes the student feel that good grades really count in getting into a good college.</p>
<p>The dorm rooms are larger than at most schools. The ones in SueB are positively spacious. </p>
<p>As for appearance, the campus looks a lot like Brown, with the same brick and traditional buildings and courtyards. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.</p>