<p>hey mom, thanks for clearing that up for me!</p>
<p>I think that you need to add another option to your selections: Hamilton. It may answer all of your questions.</p>
<p>For some safety type schools in this vein, look at Wheaton, Goucher, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence. More in the Oberlin/Skidmore/Connecticut Coll group. schools more like Colgate are Dickenson, Gettysburg, Elon, Susquehanna, Ursinus, St Lawrence.</p>
<p>"Small, resort town for Skidmore, urban for Rochester. Strong focus on arts at Skidmore, strong focus on science at Rochester. Emphasis on the liberal arts tradition at Skidmore, emphasis on research university perspective for Rochester."
I would have to disagree with both of those points...
The University is far from being urban... Although it may not be a Bucknell or a Dartmouth, it is definately not urban. I would say colleges like NYU and Columbia are urban. You have to drive to get to the city from UR.
Secondly I would not compare the two in terms of a liberal arts education/research perspective. I have always said this, "Rochester is a university trying to be like a liberal arts college". Many aspects of Rochester make it very liberal artsy...
UR is a wonderful school :) I'm glad to see it is becoming "hotter"... Also the acceptance rate will go wayyyy down this year... I believe they have accepted half of the class this year early compared to last year's fifth...</p>
<p>Skidmore and Rochester are more alike than not -- I'd choose Rochester for the sciences, though Skidmore is no slacker in that area(!) -- and its hard to beat Saratoga as home for four years. For English, theater, and social sciences, S is excellent.</p>
<p>U of R is in the city of Rochester and not a very nice part of the city at that. You might have to drive to other parts of the city, but clearly it is in the Rochester urban section. The Admissions people at Rochester do not characterize their school as a LAC and if you look at their departments, majors, graduate offerings, research efforts and whole approach to distribution/core offerings it is clearly not trying to be an LAC. One very impressive thing about Rochester is that they have truth in advertising--a small national research university. This is not Skidmore's approach at all. Different schools, different approaches, both excellent instituitions.</p>
<p>the more i think about it, the more im into a double major of english/philosophy. Since grad school will definately be in store, and money is not unlimited, would u reccomend a place like skidmore where double majoring is encouraged and academic freedom is prevalent, or a state school (binghamton or geneseo), where ill have alot more money left over for grad school?</p>
<p>Class size and individual attention to scholarship and writing will likely be better at Skidmore and if you are looking at becoming a professor, polishing these skills will be necessary. The difficulty with Skidmore is cost and not great financial aid. Geneseo and Binghamton (particularly the honors program) provide lower cost alternatives but you will probably sacrifice some of the faculty attention you would get at a place like Skidmore. Depending on your stats you could look at some other private schools which offer merit aid (assuming from your last post that you are not sure how much financial aid you will be eligible for based on "need"). Villanova has a solid philosophy program and a unique interdisciplinary sequence combining literature and philosophy during the first year for their honor's students and has a presidential scholarship which covers all tuition if you qualify.</p>
<p>hey mol, thanks alot for the advice!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many PhD programs are fully funded through fellowships -- the mantra in my department was always "If it isn't paid for, then don't go."</p>
<p>newonk, can u explain a little more about what you mean?</p>
<p>mol10e, what in the world are you thinking??? Rochester is not in the city! Have you ever even been there? If you say that Rochester is in the city (and a bad part), then you just might as well say that Bucknell is in the city. You have to drive to get to the city as I said before...
<a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=&city=Rochester&state=NY&zipcode=%5B/url%5D">http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=&city=Rochester&state=NY&zipcode=</a>
The University of Rochester is located in the grey on the bottom of the map right below 383... FAR from the city. Once you get to the map, go one blue bar above what is already there. I don't call it a city when there is a cemetary on one side and a river on the other as well as rows of houses (on the outside of campus) with trees all around...
Also, just zoom out of this map to look at the surroundings...
<a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=internal&addtohistory=&latitude=NJTMfrn5vEg%3d&longitude=eIP%2bjef9P7s%3d&name=University%20of%20Rochester&country=US&address=601%20Elmwood%20Ave%20%23%2028155&city=Rochester&state=NY&zipcode=14642&phone=585%2d275%2d2100&spurl=0&searchtype=search&cat=Colleges%20%26%20Universities%5B/url%5D">http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=internal&addtohistory=&latitude=NJTMfrn5vEg%3d&longitude=eIP%2bjef9P7s%3d&name=University%20of%20Rochester&country=US&address=601%20Elmwood%20Ave%20%23%2028155&city=Rochester&state=NY&zipcode=14642&phone=585%2d275%2d2100&spurl=0&searchtype=search&cat=Colleges%20%26%20Universities</a></p>
<p>Lived there, worked there, went to school there. It is not in the suburbs, It is surrounded on most sides by a very impoverished part of the south part of Rochester. In fact if you tour Rochester you may notice that they take some pains to talk about how they are making the campus safe. There is a nice suburb about five miles to the east called Brighton, but no one in rochester would confuse the univeristy section with Brighton.</p>
<p>The cemetery is small, the river is polluted but you are right there are trees. I have never been to Bucknell but last I looked it is not within a metro area of 400,000 or so.</p>
<p>Many PhD programs in the sciences and humanities give all or most accepted students living stipends and teaching assistantships. Most friends I have who have pursued doctorates have paid little or no tuition, securing funding either through the department or through private/federal sources. I was always told, never pay tuition for a PhD. Even if you do end up paying for it, it will only be for the portion where you are taking courses, which is 2-3 years -- there is generally no tuition for the part where you're writing your dissertation, and you can often get living expenses funding during this time. This is NOT true for law/medical school usually, where people primarily take out loans, and fellowships are not often offered to masters' students.</p>
<p>newonk,
thanks for clarifying. so this is something i need only concern myself with a few years down the road, right?</p>
<p>My point was that you needn't go to a cheaper school necessarily to save for grad school if you plan to get a PhD, which is often funded. If you plan for law/med, you'll need some tuition money, or loans. Reasoning I think is that salaries are lower for PhDs than for law/med, so in order to attract enough students, schools have to help people pay--and in a field like philosophy or english, there might only be 5-10 PhD students per year accepted. Its quite different.</p>
<p>Getting a Ph.D. does cost money even if you get fellowships, tuition wavers and the like. Many students do wind up getting loans for living expenses and since it may take 5-7 years to get that Ph.D. and the first job, you do want to consider finances now particularly taking out loans for undergraduate study.</p>
<p>the issues never end! i think ill just go live in the woods, its easier</p>