Notes from Rochester visit

My son and I visited Rochester this week, so I thought I would share what we learned. We did the info session, general tour and he interviewed.

GENERAL INFO
• The vast majority of the undergraduate college is on the River Campus (music and nursing are not on the River Campus)
• While it is in a city of 1.1M people, the River Campus is well defined and largely isolated from the city, partially by a river. That said, my son said he definitely felt like he was in a city given the noise level
• Seems science, math and other tech heavy
• 30% plus international students
• 80% of students live on campus
• While you can have a car on campus, our tour guide said it was very expensive for a parking pass (like $2K per year)

CURRICULUM
• The primary reason we visited is that Rochester is one of only a handful of colleges that have a very open curriculum (i.e. it lacks any significant distribution requirements)
• Outside of a major, students must take one of 30 courses offered that focus on research, writing and argument.
• Also outside the major, student must take three course clusters in the two curriculum areas outside their major. The three areas are Humanities, Social Sciences and Science. So if you are a History major (in Social Sciences), you would need to take three course clusters of related courses in Humanities and Science. You pick the cluster theme and there are many courses available under each theme.
• Seniors can take graduate-level courses during senior year
• Generally, there are 12+ courses per major
• Free tuition fifth year / semester option – this program is for student to explore a topic they did not get to cover during their first four years. 20-70 students per year take advantage of this.
• Another free tuition fifth year option is Rochester’s E5 entrepreneurship program – students get funded by Rochester to start something in the local community
• 70-80% of students do some research
• Seems like there are lots of internship opportunities

APPLYING TO ROCHESTER
• In addition to the Common App, there is a Why Rochester supplement
• Course rigor is the most important criteria for admission
• Rochester recently went test optional
• No test scores used for scholarships
• Interviews are highly recommended. According to the admissions rep “highly recommended” really means required if you are serious about Rochester
• My son’s interview was done by a current student, but that is not always the case
• 30-33% of the class is filled from ED
• RD notifications start in February and continue through March as decisions are made
• Students accepted via ED get rooming choice priority

FINANCIAL AID AND SCHOLARSHIPS
• In financial aid packages, they expect that students will carry 7-8% of the cost as loan debt
• Expected student contribution will increase over the four years as they expect students to work more to contribute
• Merit and Grant aid do not stack – if you earn a merit scholarship via admissions and the financial aid office offer a grant, the financial aid grant will be reduced by the merit amount
• Max merit amount is $20k
• You should apply by Dec 1 to maximize merit opportunity
• No GPA minimum required to keep merit scholarship
• Interviewing increases your chances of getting a merit scholarship
• If your student got the Rochester Book award through their high school, then it makes it likely they will get $10-20K in merit, assuming your high school followed Rochester’s guidelines

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@nehiker, great summary. I will confirm that they expect more money each year. My d is transferring out due to a $20K drop in FA. While we did have an increase in income, it was not substantial, and their idea of what we could pay was about $20K more than our FAFSA EFC. And we have no big assets and low equity in our home. The majority of her friends also saw drops, one had half the FA taken away. Just something to think about. Also, her FA form shows next year’s COA to be $82K and the following year $85K.
Here’s a link to an article written about three years ago which delves into the FA situation a bit further: http://www.campustimes.org/2016/09/11/students-urs-financial-aid-theories-dont-always-match-reality/
On the plus side, it’s a great school and my d was very happy there. She went for the open curriculum as well. (Wheaton in MA less selective but great chance for merit also has a somewhat open-ish curriculum. If he’s high stats, Hamilton is great). But if I knew then what I know now, she would not have attended.

@taverngirl thanks for the heads up. If he ends up applying and getting accepted, we will be cautious. You mentioned Hamilton. As it happens, he interviewed there today!

We visited Rochester a few weeks ago. It is my S20’s Match school (so far). My oldest was born in Rochester and my husband did his post doc at Strong but we had no memory of U of R, at all. We did the Engineering tour (and the general info session). Both were well done.

I was a total sucker for how pretty and well laid-out the campus was. Our tour guide was a rising senior and represented the engjneering program very well.

My son liked it all. Not over the moon, but impressed. He was happy to hear that the engineering students only have to take one of the non-major clusters. (Although I liked they way they organize the clusters around themes).

Both husband and were concerned about how isolated the campus was. Bound by a large road, a river and a cemetery- no nearby things to walk to.

Would be an awesome place to row crew!
So, if for some reason his safety (and current front-runner) bombs out, U of R would be great. Solid school.

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@taverngirl Wow on the FA switch for you and others you know. My lad didn’t have that problem at all (any of his 4/5 years - 5 due to taking advantage of Take 5) nor did he know of anyone leaving for that reason. I wonder if their “policy” has changed since, and if so, why? When my lad attended they were very high with freshmen retention (96 or 98% if I recall correctly). I can’t imagine they’ll keep that if this is a policy they’ll keep. It’ll be difficult to recommend them if this is a policy they plan on keeping TBH.

Agree 100% with @Creekland , D graduated in 2011 and our income or assets did not change over the 4 years and her financial aid did not change much either.

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My lad graduated in 2016/17 (again, accounting for Take 5). If this is a new policy, it’s pretty recent. I feel for those it hits. It’s one thing to leave a school that’s a bad fit socially or academically. It’s totally another to have to leave a school one loves due to the school switching making it a bad financial fit!

@Creekland yes, she’s having a hard time of it. It was a great fit; she love love loved it. If it weren’t for hearing from many of her friends and reading that article, I would’ve thought it was just our bad luck. But it does seem like a “thing,” at least among her friends. I was surprised to read in the article that they expect 70% of parents $$ to go to first child and 30% to second (what??) though they’ve now reduced that to 60/40. I can’t really tell my son sorry, kid, your sister gets more of our available college money than you do!
Off topic of this thread, but maybe some here can help… d applied to six schools that were still accepting apps. She is gun shy at this point and afraid of choosing the wrong school since she doesn’t have much time for research. So she is also considering a spring transfer (working this fall and maybe taking a class) Any input on these as a decent substitute for Roch would be welcome:
-UVM
-UPitt
-St. Lawrence
-Wheaton (MA)
-Susquehanna (already accepted and affordable with merit package)
(The sixth was Quinnipiac, and she was accepted and it was affordable with merit, but they don’t have a comparable major, so that won’t work.)
She was double majoring in Health, Behavior and Society (a public health track) and Environmental Studies (or Science, wants a BS) and minoring in English. At Roch she was heavily involved in the Outdoor Club, played club softball, and joined a sorority. (She was not interested in Greek life before and isn’t in the typical Greek scene, so not sure she is looking at this in a future school.) She also likes hockey (watching and/or playing recreationally) and skiing. Anyone here think one of those would be a good option for her or can you some other options she can consider for spring? Our max OOP is $45K; for the right school, we would consider some subsidized or unsubsidized loans, so maybe $50/55K max. But if we were paying our max OOP, I’d want a school that’s worth the investment.

@taverngirl Just pondering - did you appeal the award? It’s always possible someone made a mistake. Ask why the first year award was 20K different than what this year’s is pointing out the difference in income/assets not being so different and ask point blank (nicely) letting them know she’s going to have to transfer so you want to make sure this wasn’t a mistake. If you haven’t already done this (talking to an adult - not student working in the office), do it tomorrow.

@Creekland we did appeal, and Roch came back with an add’l $10K (which was unexpected and very appreciated) but they also said that we wouldn’t be getting that the following year. And it was still more than we were willing to pay. We “could” afford the increase but can we justify it is the question. When we were deciding this last year, it was about $15K more, and we were willing to pay that because we felt it was worth it. But we don’t feel it’s worth 20-30K more. The increase has tipped the scale in the other direction.

My son graduated last past spring, and I did want to make one correction to the original post: parking passes are not as expensive as the OP’s tour guide indicated. Student passes are about $500/year. However they are not available to first-year students. Our son brought his car back with him at some point during the second semester of his freshman year, and paid for monthly parking in a garage downtown, since we live hundreds of miles away in an area where there is no public transportation. In subsequent years, he was able to get a parking pass.

We had a couple of snafus with financial aid, but found the department to be extraordinarily helpful and accommodating. We had two in college at the same time, which helped with the need-based aid.

@Taverngirl, UVM was also on my son’s list, but even with the lower cost of attendance, and even with good merit aid there, it was significantly cheaper for my son to go to U of R than UVM (where he got virtually no need-based aid). And he and his engineering peer group did quite well in the employment department after graduation.

UR was daughter’s first choice, but the financial aid offer was poor. We found out one of her other schools had miscalculated her need by assuming that one-time interest from cashing savings bonds (to purchase a bassoon!) was interest from BIG savings that we were hiding. We asked UR financial aid office if perhaps they had made the same incorrect assumption. They said they had, and as soon as we sent them proof of the one-time cashing of savings bonds, they upped the aid to the point that she could afford to attend UR! Believe it or not, several other schools said “yeah, we made the same mistake, but we’re not going to change her fin. aid offer”.
8 years later, she is well established in her career, with very fond memories of UR. As parents we are happy that she was able to attend her first choice school, and think highly of UR for their willingness to re-examine her fin. aid offer.

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Correction for OP - Rochester population is not 1.1M - its 200k +/- and even the entirety of Monroe County has only 700k +/-

Definitely a small city feel compared to other peer institutions.

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