So...URochester?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Rochester
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<p>Good morning all! In my search for schools for son (senior in HS), UofR was suggested as a possible fit. I have scoured its website, youtube videos and two years of CC threads. It does look like a really great school. I do have a couple of questions and would love to hear your insight.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Son is interested in double majoring in French/International Relations and my research seems to indicate a leaning toward math/science at UofR. Are the non-math/science areas as vibrant and funded as the others? Also, son's math SAT score is quite low when compared to the SAT on the common data set. Should he be worried? He is planning on retaking in Oct; but you know what they say about blood and turnips. :D</p></li>
<li><p>What is the housing like? Are there learning communities? Do most students live on campus all four years?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there practice rooms that non music majors can use for piano practice?</p></li>
<li><p>Can someone describe clusters a little bit and how they work. Son says it seems too good to be true.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

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<ol>
<li>Yes. The largest majors are not science. </li>
<li>I would say housing is a strong point: larger rooms and a number of options after freshman year. Not all students live on campus, but most do. It’s cheap to live off campus, but commuting/walking, etc. in the winter is a drag. There are a bunch of learning communities - like special floors in dorms - but really the whole school is sort of geek/normal, meaning normal people who have intellectual interests and who pursue them.</li>
<li>Yes. Not sure how that works but there have been posts about it.</li>
<li>The Rochester Curriculum is set up not only to enable students to do more but to give teachers more satisfaction by making sure kids take only the classes they actually want to take. See, e.g., the discussion in a nearby thread about triple majors. Double majors are common, as are multiple minors. Clusters are 3 related courses. How it works exactly depends on your major; some engineering majors, for instance, require so many classes they have fewer cluster reqs. But yes it really works. Kids take classes they want, professors teach what they want - on the whole, of course, because there are still entry level classes in each field and so on.</li>
</ol>

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<p>1) Can’t speak to French (because none of D’s friends were language majors), but the IR students are an interesting and active group.</p>

<p>2) Housing comes is a wide variety: traditional dorms with shared bathrooms, dorm suites of 2-5 bedrooms with private bathrooms, independent apartments, frat houses and Drama House. (Sororities get a floor in a dorm due partially to NY’s antiquated definition of a “brothel”. Some frats also have dorm floor housing.) </p>

<p>Freshmen live in traditional dorms. </p>

<p>There are a variety of learning communities–some open to freshmen </p>

<p>The list is here:
[Special</a> Interest Housing : Upperclass Housing](<a href=“http://www.rochester.edu/reslife/upperclass/special-interest.html]Special”>http://www.rochester.edu/reslife/upperclass/special-interest.html)</p>

<p>Students are required to live on campus for their first 2 years. The vast majority of students live on campus for all 4.</p>

<p>3) Yes (Students are required to reserve rooms in advance.)</p>

<p>4) Instead of requiring general education distribution classes, UR has clusters. A cluster is a group of 3 related classes that permit a students to more deeply explore a single topic or subject. Every student (except those in engineering majors) is required to complete a major and 2 clusters. UR classifies all fields into one of 3 areas: humanities; social sciences and natural sciences. A student must complete a cluster in the two divisions which does NOT include his major. </p>

<p>For example, a student who majors in French (a humanity) must complete one cluster each in the social sciences and the natural sciences. A student who majors in mathematics (a natural science) must complete a cluster in the humanities and in social sciences. If a students has a double major (or a major and a minor) in two different divisions, then only one additional cluster is required–in the division not already covered by his majors/minors.</p>

<p>[Clusters</a> : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester](<a href=“Students : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester”>Students : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester)</p>

<p>A searchable database of clusters is here:</p>

<p><a href=“https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/CSE/index.php[/url]”>https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/CSE/index.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>In additional to the clusters, all students are required to complete 2 semesters of writing instruction. The first semester is typically one of the many freshman writing seminars; the second is often taken thru a student’s major dept.</p>

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<p>One additional point about clusters: One of the three related courses that form the cluster may also count towards the major. For example, a psych major (social sciences) must take a statistics course as part of the major. That statistics course can also count towards a math cluster (natural sciences).</p>

<p>Several of my d’s friends were French majors - it was also a vibrant and active group of students.</p>

5

<p>I don’t believe music practice rooms are available to students not studying music in some capacity. D was a double major in music and there is a hierarchy in how music practice rooms are assigned beginning with senior music majors through freshman majors, followed by music minors, beginning with seniors through sophomores. You pay a rental fee for your music room and you are given a key for that specific room. Theoretically anyone with a key can lend their specific room to someone else, however you are responsible for the space for the academic year and liable for any damages and so on. That said a year of piano is required for any music major and any student can study piano as an elective course as well. Unless things have changed, senior and junior practice rooms are in Strong and sophomore/freshman are in Spurrier, next to Sue B.</p>

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<p>Re: Practice rooms
The information in posts above may have been true at one point, but not in the past 5+ years.
Currently there are several practice room options with pianos. Any student can get a key to the Spurrier practice rooms (which contain uprights) for a $5-10 deposit. You don’t need to be taking music lessons or classes or have any involvement in the music department. You do not need to reserve a room.
There are also practice rooms in several dorms that have pianos - Sue B has one in the Solarium, Gilbert I believe, a few other quad dorms. The Music Interest Floor maintains a practice room as well that is open to all students.
Declared music majors and large instrument students (bass, cello) have access to three practice rooms in Strong, each of which have a baby grand. </p>

<p>So your son will have many options to practice piano. Hope this helps.</p>

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<p>Glad that there has been some additional options. My d graduated in 2010 and those were the facts at that time,your practice room was yours and yours only for that time period. The annual rental was I believe $10 or $20. You return your key and you got your deposit back in May. She lived in Gilbert her freshman year and there weren’t any pianos in that building at that time.
The Strong practice rooms are as nice as any at any music school we toured.
By the way, you are also free to bring a keyboard with you for your own dorm room… she had a friend who was a pianist who kept his own keyboard wherever he lived, either on or off campus.</p>