<p>Hello to all, I don't know much about Universities rankings or prestige in the USA, so we have this dilemma I hope you can shred some light upon.</p>
<p>D was accepted at U Rochester and UT at Austin at the English/Theater major-departments.
FA is a big issue for us, she is being offered very generous FA packages in both but still not enough to cover the costs without incurring in some loans.</p>
<p>She would have to get around $12K a year in loans to go to Rochester Vs $8K a year for UT (mostly for Room and board due to state's budget problems)</p>
<p>Is UR worth the $16,000 total difference in loans? Is a degree from Rochester that much better than a degree from UTAustin in terms of prestige and/or quality of education?</p>
<p>Both places have their pros and cons from my D point of view (weather, distance from home, private vs public, etc.) that is why I am very interested in learning about people's perception of both universities.</p>
<p>I'll greatly appreciate your kind help!</p>
<p>Is your daughter’s interest in theater more academically oriented or performance oriented?</p>
<p>As a smaller school, UR will have fewer productions than UT and she will be working with a smaller core group of fellow performers and directors (both of which has its own pros & cons).</p>
<p>D2 has a friend who is a senior theater major at UR and he’s looking towards a performance career. He has generally been pleased with the UR program, but friend says you need to be very pro-active in seeking out performance opportunities beyond the school in order to garner wider exposure to casting agents and broaden your resume. (I can PM you some examples of what this fellow is doing/has done if you’re interested.) </p>
<p>I’m not sure how much attention UT students get from the same–perhaps more because they are a bigger school and Austin/Dallas have their own theater circuit? </p>
<p>One other consideration, breaking into the arts is often a long, slow process. Even those who are successful in being regularly employed often aren’t making much money when they are starting out. This is as true for directors and tech people as it is for actors. </p>
<p>If your D is headed in that direction, she will need to minimize her debt load. Debt means she may need to take non-theater jobs she doesn’t want or which limit her performance opportunities so she can pay off her loans.</p>
<p>WOWM: Thanks you very much for your time and sharing your knowledge! </p>
<p>D is more interested in performance, but I believe we (parents) have managed to convince her to major in English with emphasis in communications with a minor in theater in order to have a broader field of work (she loves English too and is a very good writer) in case she decides to go do UR.</p>
<p>In Austin she would have to stay in the theater major but could double major with BFA in theater (theater teacher certification). We are very aware of the limited opportunities in the acting field, the great competitiveness and the not so good perspectives of income unless you are super successful…sadly =)</p>
<p>She just loves Rochester and the idea of being near Broadway and maybe later on have an opportunity over there, she also likes the theater program at UR from what she could get from their website.</p>
<p>If it was solely up to her, I am certain that she would go to Rochester without a second thought, that is why I would like to know if people out there considers Rochester a much better University than UT and why? (in general terms). If in the real world a diploma from Rochester would have more weight than one from UT as to grant her better opportunities later in life.</p>
<p>Your input is very interesting and I would definitely appreciate if you could tell me more about your D’s friend work and accomplishments, I think that would be very helpful for my daughter. It is very comforting to have someone as knowledgeable as you about UR helping out…</p>
<p>Totally personal opinion, but I don’t think $16-20k total is that much. </p>
<p>I’d read the material for the theatre program, if you haven’t. I just did and found it interesting because the program is somewhat different than I expected.</p>
<p>One of my kids went to film school and insisted on a production-oriented program, not an artsy program or film studies. We wanted her to have a complete education and she ended up with a BS not a BFA, which we thought was great. She minored in anthropology. This is personal, but I see value in a liberal education, mostly because it fills out the mind and that is what you are creative with. I don’t see it as “something to fall back on,” but as a set of experiences that shape you.</p>
<p>My feeling, having supported my kid’s choice and then her decision to go it alone on the coast - where she’s supporting herself - is that talent and ambition and drive mean far more than training. Far more than training; you learn from doing, from being on sets, in plays, from auditioning, from being rejected lots and lots and lots of times. To be a working actor or a working crafts person in one of the film / tv trades is different from being cast in a TV show at age 19 because you look the part and have enough talent that you can learn. </p>
<p>I’m sure Texas has a nice program. I’m sure UR would do fine as well. There is some advantage of being able to get into NYC, to see shows, to meet people, to audition - if your kid actually does that. I’d say the choice is personal.</p>
<p>Thanks Lergnom!</p>
<p>I agree totally with you regarding the fact that talent, ambition and drive are far more important than training and I also agree with WayOutWestMom’s other posts stating that the student’s quality is more important than the school (in general terms). </p>
<p>I appreciate a lot your comments and also think that 16+ K of difference between one school or the other is not much IF THE OTHER SCHOOL IS WORTH IT (independently of the student’s quality) but I get now that my question is a very difficult one to answer, and it depends a lot of any particular situation…nevertheless I would like to know your and WayOutWestMom’s OPINION on which University between the 2 in question is best in terms of prestige, in the understanding that it’s a very subjective issue, and only a matter opinions; I have been following your posts and comments for some time and have come to think very highly of both of you, so your opinion is important to me.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>As a UT alum, I need to step in and note that the University of Texas is an amazing institution of higher education with exceptional facilities and a gorgeous campus. And Austin is a college town with few peers. That’s not to take anything away from the University of Rochester (which I just visited a week ago) or the town of Rochester. There may be good reasons to go to the University of Rochester for theatre (I don’t know anything about its theatre program though I do know the one at UT is great; for sure the communications school is topnotch). But I can’t imagine many people thinking the U. of Rochester’s reputation eclipses UT’s. As far as reputation goes, they are, to all intents and purposes, on the same plane. However, they are VERY different schools. Thinking back to my time at UT, I can tell you there were days when having nearly 40K undergrads underfoot (I went to UT as a grad student) was exceedingly annoying. Compare that to Rochester with just under 6K undergrads. Some people would find the size of UT an enticement–not my child. But if the size of the student body isn’t a deterrent, I would recommend doing some research on Austin as a city. It is a great place to live. Rochester seems like a great town, but Austin is special. The music, the food, the laidback vibe, the endless summer … It really has a mystique.</p>
<p>Thanks absweetmarie!</p>
<p>I know UT very well, my D1 goes there as a sophomore and she is immensely happy about it. I love everything about Austin city and I am aware of the great reputation UT has in Texas and how difficult is to get in…I just don’t know how people around the country perceives UT compared to other schools and particularly compared to URoc.
I appreciate you taking the time for this input and it is a comfort to know that for you UT and Rochester are on the same level!<br>
Did you like the atmosphere at URoc? Coming from a mid-low economic level I am afraid that my daughter could feel out of place there…</p>
<p>Dear Lightseeker,</p>
<p>We absolutely loved the feel of the University of Rochester. The people in the admissions office were friendly, and our tour guides were very down to earth, but also quite informative. The campus is beautiful but comfortable. The campus’s location along the Genesee River (and the river walkway) is a nice bonus. We liked the fact that there are buses to take the kids to other parts of the Rochester campus (to Eastman School downtown and to the medical center campus). Rochester the city looks like the kind of place you’d have to get to know. There are parts near the campus that are nice and other parts that are a bit grittier than I expected. But coming from Chicago, one learns that such is the case in most cities. </p>
<p>for what it’s worth, I think many, many people have a sense of what a great school UT Austin is. The school and the city both have a cachet, in my experience. Many people I know are jealous of me for the time I spent in Austin. Seriously!</p>
<p>You know your kid. Example: my brother was a junior year phi beta kappa at Michigan, which means he had one of the top 10 gpa’s out of many thousands, but he is uncomfortable sending his youngest kid there because he thinks that kid would do better in a smaller school. </p>
<p>As for prestige, that’s not a bother because both are good schools. Since you know UT, the point is that UR is a small university, not a college, so the choice is between a large university and a small one. UR has 5k undergrads - not 6k - versus 38k. The size of UR means you know everyone by sight but the school is large enough that you don’t get sick of the same small group. The school I went to also had 5k undergrads and my opinion is that’s an ideal size because it provides a large enough and small enough community. The difference is that groups form quite easily in that size community; there isn’t the intimidation factor of size and impersonality. Groups also form across boundaries because people know each other well enough that they see past labels. Classes tend to be of the same quality because the student body isn’t so large that you see really wide variations in ability and effort. Those are my observations from a variety of personal and family experiences.</p>
<p>BTW, a poster in a thread about UR English has a kid who did theatre. You might want to contact that person.</p>
<p>Thanks again absweetmarie! Your input is very helpful!</p>
<p>D1, the one at UT also gets a lot of congratulations and envy looks from our family’s kids for being able to go there and at least in our country UT has a great reputation (Mexico).</p>
<p>I guess I am just trying to convince myself that Rochester would be a better choice for my D2 since she is so in love with the idea of going there, and trying to justify the extra $ it would cost…and it is working, the more I learn about Rochester the more I like it.</p>
<p>Anyway, there is a lot of things to consider before making the decision and I am really glad that my D2 has this 2 great opportunities to choose from.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the comments to my post and thank you all for your time and good will.</p>
<p>By the way absweetmarie, what are your D’s options? I see you went to Oberlin and Rochester, has she (you) made a decision yet? I wish you the best!</p>
<p>Thanks Lergnom! I really wanted to know your opinion on both schools!</p>
<p>You have a very good point regarding the size of the school, and that also is a point on favor of UR since for my D2 is very important to have a lot of friend (contrary to D1 who just doesn’t care) and I guess it would be easier for her in a smaller university.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on the UR English tread, I am definitely going to look into it.</p>
<p>Lightseeker,</p>
<p>Thanks for asking. My D is a junior so we are in the final stages of exploring. Right now, she has Kalamazoo College (close to home and a real gem of a school) near the top of her list, but there’s no real order. She also likes U. of Rochester quite a bit, Rhodes College in Memphis, Denison U. in Ohio and Oberlin (but that’s based mostly on looking at the campus and the town; will be interested to see if she feels she can fit into the campus when/if she spends more time among the students). We’ve got a few more liberal arts colleges and some nearby state schools on the list as financial safeties. She really enjoyed visiting UT Austin with me last spring, and if UT were not so expensive for out-of-state (or so big) I would have suggested it for her.</p>
<p>That’s a nice list. </p>
<p>I hope you two enjoy the admissions procedure and she gets accepted to all of them!</p>
<p>You are totally right about UT’s high cost for out of state, it’s a shame…</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your daughter!</p>