<p>The dorm rooms are definitely spacious. I attended Rutgers for a bit and lived in their doubles, and when I saw the size of freshman housing on my tour, I was simply astounded. Much superior!</p>
<p>So anything else? Has it snowed there yet? :)</p>
<p>How is the food?</p>
<p>How is the City itself. I have read some things about Rochester on other threads here on CC which surprise me-I always thought of Rochester as a pretty nice small city that I would feel perfectly safe in-even though I have never visited there I recall hearing it being a very safe and livable city-I mean I know no place is immune from some problems.</p>
<p>Are the kids currently attending happy with the facilities? The class sizes? The other students? I can’t get there for a visit until January so I appreciate any feedback from you.</p>
<p>No snow yet! And if the past 2-3 years have been indicative, it’s still early for snow. More typically the first snow has been around mid-December. </p>
<p>Dorm food? It’s decent and with the renovation of Wilson Commons, there are even more choices. But IMO the meal plan choices are pretty rigid and seem to be on the expensive side. </p>
<p>Off campus dining food? Rochester has a plenty of inexpensive to really posh restaurants–and most of them have surprisingly good food. </p>
<p>The city itself? Well, there are places where I wouldn’t recommend your student go walking alone at night, but all urban areas have places like that. Downtown and most of the nearby campus areas are reasonably safe. The 9th Ward (west across the river from campus) has its iffy spots, but the Riverside Apts (campus housing) and the Staybridge hotel & development on the other side of the Genesee are fine. Students learn pretty quickly where they should and shouldn’t be–and most of the places they shouldn’t be, they have reason on earth to go there. (Unless they’re looking for trouble…) D lived in South Wedge over the summer and had no problems whatsoever–and she either walked or commuted by bike everywhere–even after dark. One group of her friends had rented a house for the summer in the 9th Ward; they were burglarized and one boy who happened to be in the house when the robbery occurred was beaten–but D said everyone (including the boys themselves) knew that they had rented in a very bad area. </p>
<p>The facilities (esp labs) are good to excellent. Class sizes range from large (250+ in some freshman lecture classes) to intimate (there were just 6 people in one of D’s anthro classes). Students are generally friendly, and refreshingly cooperative and not cut-throat with one another. </p>
<p>And D is happy–just homesick for some really good, hot green chile, and the bright, high, blue Western skies right around this time of year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I had heard the school room and board was on the high side-but at least for freshman year that would be where he would live. I would imagine for a kid from NM the winter would be a tough adjustment-forgive me for forgetting but is your D a freshman?
I had heard the students were smart and hardworking but not cutthroat. That is a very important factor for my S-he wants to be pushed to him maximum academically but wants to be in an atmosphere where others feel the same-but it isn’t about him having to he “the best”-he really wants just to be the best he can be. By nature he is going to help anyone who needs it-and he needs to be at a place where that is the way it is. When I hear that the students are friendly and not cut-throat it tells me the school has done a good job picking kids who are pretty secure with who they are-very important information indeed!</p>
<p>I like Rochester, the place. Easy to get around, lots of good restaurants, even a waterfall - which is why the city is there; it was “Flour City” grinding wheat and, of course, making beer. The waterfall is north of downtown. It is one of those places where everything is 10 minutes away. South Wedge and the neighboring Swillburg are interesting, pretty safe places. The Park Avenue area is beautiful. That is the part of the city that runs from Eastman east. It includes Eastman House - his mansion, now a museum - the art museum, some very big houses and lots of restaurants.</p>
<p>The bad part of the city is northwest of downtown, literally the other side from UR. I’m subscribed to daily crime reports for the area and that’s where it all happens. Some bad stuff occurs on the other side of the river, but mostly up near the northwest side. There is a bit of an old historic district near downtown called Mayor’s Heights that has interesting old homes and a new development with restaurants and stores on the river but there is otherwise no reason to go over there unless you want to see one of the houses where Susan B. Anthony lived. </p>
<p>The food is not bad for a university. </p>
<p>Rochester is cloudy because of the Great Lakes. That’s probably the worst thing about the weather.</p>
<p>
You heard correctly. Even the pre-meds help each other. More importantly, at least to my d, is that no one sits around talking about grades or who got what.</p>
<p>D is a senior. We have enjoyed visiting the area during our visits in late August and in May.</p>
<p>the Lilac Festival in May at nearby Highland Park is stunning. The Arnold Arboretum here in Boston prides itself on Lilac Sunday, but that can’t come close to Rochester’s Lilac Festival (I’ve been to both). Even better, visit the week before–just as great, but NO crowds.</p>
<p>D is a junior this year.</p>
<p>She actually had a pretty easy adjustment. Her biggest surprise was humidity. (And the fact that crunchy foodstuffs get stale and soggy pretty quick–at least compared to home where an open box of saltines can last for months…) She does still occasionally get irritated because most UR students think that Dallas-Houston-El Paso-Albuquerque-Phoenix are all “right next” to each other. (Ummmm…no.) But ever since the New York Times make the same gaff about a month ago, she’s had a better sense of humor about it. (Rio Rancho, a suburb of Albuquerque, is no where near Arizona. Still have no idea why the reporter interviewed RR residents extensively about the possible change to Arizona’s open range laws. We’re still snickering about that one…)</p>
<p>Rochester is very beautiful in the summer and fall. Winters…not so much. Low gray skies and it gets dark really early. If you’re susceptible to SAD–Rochester is a place where you’ll get it.</p>
<p>And Chedva is right. Even the pre-meds are nice to each other. (D is an ‘maybe’ pre-med. One week she’s on the grad school train; the next she’s talking MCAT scores.)</p>
<p>That’s funny how clueless we can be about locations! I know about NM since my BIL was stationed there many years ago in the Air Force-and because I am a bit of a geography fan. I never would have thought though the humidity would be her biggest surprise-</p>
<p>He is going to apply as undeclared because he has so many interests-and I had to really work though that with him that it was OK. The advising system at the school seems to be a strong point too-he certainly will need that.</p>
<p>Kirtland, Cannon or Holloman?</p>
<p>D got really excited her freshman year when a hallmate can running up to her and told there was another student from NM. (We already knew there was one other–she and D went to middle school together. We actually flew out on the same flights for freshman orientation.) D hustled down to Sue B. only to discover that the “New Mexican” student was from Phoenix!</p>
<p>The advising for D at UR has been wonderful–esp through the math dept. The math dept goes over and above to work with their students and retain them in the major. Her advising in the bio dept by comparison has been a pretty rote.</p>
<p>WayOutWestMom… I am enjoying your posts and can empathize with your daughter. In my travels I have had to explain repeatedly that the University of Rochester is not in Minnesota, Canada, or New York City!</p>
<p>Pepper03… As a native of upstate NY I am of course biased, but I can’t overstate how impressed I have been with the city of Rochester since moving here four years ago. My wife and I love to take advantage of the performing and visual arts in Rochester, and it is usually all accessible and affordable. For instance, this weekend I made a last minute decision to go to the Eastman School of Music to grab some coffee at Java’s (a great place), search for a book that I needed for a guitar lesson, and catch some live music. I parked right across the street from ESM in downtown Rochester and paid $1 for the first two hours, and I didn’t have to fight traffic to get there. There may be weekends when students have to take a little bit of initiative to find something exciting to do, but there are always options.</p>
<p>I would agree that the toughest part about Rochester is the consistency of overcast skies come winter. The cold and the snow are not nearly as bad as what people make them out to be - in fact, people here tend to take advantage of them more than they let them inhibit their lifestyle.</p>
<p>Let’s not forget about the tunnel system at the school-major impressive point to my son.</p>
<p>I am thrilled to tell you the application was completed and sent last night. It was not for lack of interest on his part but he just couldn’t find the time for the essay-well he finally did and that is submitted!</p>
<p>My son keeps telling me Rochester is the 6th most livable city in the US so there must be many good things about it. I think it is probably a lot like Providence where I grew up.
The best thing about it is the SNOW-</p>
<p>A friend who teaches at UR and who used to live near me says, “I can get anywhere in 10 minutes and park when I’m there.” </p>
<p>Much of upstate is terribly depressed or, more exactly, the cities are in serious decline. We’ve visited where I spent some of my youth, fabulous Rome, but most of the city part, the downtown is literally gone. (My dad was stationed at Griffiss, as probably mentioned before.) Rochester has issues but its economy is by far the best in the region and is rooted in high tech, medicine, academics, etc., all things that have generated jobs. The city isn’t as dense as it was, but why should it be given that access to Lake Ontario isn’t very important any more and having a waterfall to generate power for industry means nothing. </p>
<p>Fact is that Rochester owes pretty much everything to George Eastman. I mean both the school and the city. Because of George, the city developed a specialty in optics, one of if not the original high tech. </p>
<p>Providence is very different. Providence is physically much smaller; you can walk across downtown and over the river and up Benefit Street in maybe 20 minutes while Rochester is spread out. Providence has the old Italian neighborhood - not just Caserta’s - and the beautiful historic neighborhood near RISD and Brown. As for similarities, both have really good restaurants and minor league hockey and UR looks a lot like Brown. </p>
<p>Rochester also has two streets named Henrietta that run next to each other, which is really unfair for people coming to visit. There should be signs, “Do you belong on the other Henrietta Road?”</p>
<p>Sounds like we should visit in winter to see these overcast gray skies that everyone has been telling us about. D really really liked U or R - and whenever this is mentioned to folks, people caution us about how gray winters are. We’ve lived in NH and MA - and when I tell folks this, they tell us that this doesn’t compare - we really need to see the gray skies at Rochester! And these are folks who currently live in NH/MA! The alumnus that D met also told her that if she was really serious, she should visit once in Feb before making up her mind.</p>
<p>It is perhaps slightly more gray than NH or MA. The difference is marginal and not material. Try going anywhere in New England in February; the weather is bleak and yuck, followed up north by bleak and yuck and mud. In Boston, we get that wonderful winter wind zipping off the ocean. That’s true up the coast into Maine, except it gets colder the further downeast you go. Try going to Bowdoin in February. It’s not Miami.</p>
<p>BTW, for anyone who doesn’t know, downeast refers to the prevailing wind so ships from Boston would go downwind and up and to the east along the Maine coast.</p>
<p>We’re from RI and D says it is gray at UR from Nov thru March, but she still loves UR in spite of this. If your D is planning to be a science major, she won’t have much time for being outside anyway! We visited in early April and it was a very sunny but windy cold day. We had alot of negative comments from others when we announced where our D was going to college, but UR has so much more opportunites to offer that gray skies are insignificant in our minds.</p>
<p>D is a senior and we live in MA. All three winters so far, Rochester has gotten less snow than eastern MA.</p>
<p>^^ Now that is a problem-I hope that situation reverses. I am curious as well about the negative comments skating-about the school? The city? We are also from RI-we probably know each other in real life! :)</p>
<p>We perceive in context. You’re at school from fall through the entire winter and then into spring. If you’re from anywhere warmer, the winter seems unreasonable long, but of course it’s no longer than anywhere else at roughly the same latitude. You aren’t in school much when it’s bright and sunny because you’re there in winter but not in late spring and summer. </p>
<p>When you’re in college, you are involved in your activities and may not notice or remember the bright winter days. Perception is all. </p>
<p>If you go to school in Rochester, NY and then spend your summers in Rochester, MN, you’re likely to think the former is gloomy and the latter bright.</p>
<p>I went to school at Clarkson, in Potsdam in waaaaay upstated NY. Winters were brutal. It was just part of the package, and we survived. (In those days there was the old “Downtown” campus and "the Hill, about 1 mile apart. I am guessing that UofR is more compact than that).</p>