<ol>
<li><p>Is there a debate program? I'm an avid debater looking to perhaps pursue parliamentary debate or policy debate in college</p></li>
<li><p>How is the science program? Specifically biology? I know it's a good college for research, but I've been having trouble finding anything specifically about biology. I'm interested in biomedical engineering, biotechnology, microbiology, and evolutionary biology. </p></li>
<li><p>How is the international studies/relations program?</p></li>
<li><p>Economics?</p></li>
<li><p>What's the typical student at Rochester? Is it even possible to pidgeonhole one?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>EDIT: as a caveat to 3 and 4, I'm most interested in developmental economics or the history of development - I like to know what makes things go.</p>
<p>Rochester is well known for debate, for all the sciences and for their strong economics and political sciences departments. You can visit their website and look at each departments requirements for majors/minors and course offerings and get a good idea. As with most colleges, there isn’t a specific profile of a Rochester student. There are students who intensely focus on research and the sciences and the hospital. There are students who focus on political science and those who focus on creative writing. There are athletes, musicians, actors, writers, debators, student gov’t participants and many who cross over into many areas. There are local students and many from upstate NY. There are international students and from many states in the U.S. There are students into frats and sororities and others who are not…there are students who study abroad and others who barely leave campus. What I can say as a parent of a Rochester grad and another who considered Rochester but chose to attend elsewhere is that it is friendly campus, open and welcoming, not very preppy and not very rah-rah/Saturday football big event kind of place.There is lots to do both on-campus and off-campus.</p>
<p>I second what bookmama said. It’s really hard to typify a UR student–you will find UR students come from all over the world and have a wide variety of interests and backgrounds.</p>
<p>My D is a junior bio and math major at UR. If you have specific questions about the bio dept, I’ll do my best to answer them. </p>
<p>The Bio dept offers 6 different bio tracks (biochemistry, microbiology, developmental bio, molecular genetics, environmental bio and neuroscience) in addition to a general bio track. There is also a biotechnology certificate option (a interdisciplinary program with requirements in genetics, micro & computer science).</p>
<p>Research in biology is plentiful and available to nearly any student who wants to get involved.</p>
<p>As a note, biomed is an engineering program. In my experience, it’s that way at all schools. </p>
<p>BTW, I use as asee.org’s online resources to see engineering school strengths - at profiles.asee.org. They get reports on faculty listings, areas of expertise and, if you dig into the research expenditures, you can see how each area is funded. So for example, UR gets a fairly substantial sum for biomed. Not one of the largest programs but very credible. </p>
<p>I recommend asee.org to people interested in finding a good engineering fit because you can see how areas inside engineering schools are funded rather than be misled by a total number.</p>
<p>Also remember that until recently (the past 10 years), biomedical engineering was a graduate program only nearly everywhere and many biomed jobs still require a master’s degree. </p>
<p>BTW, you can enter a graduate program in biomed without being an engineering undergrad.</p>
<p>With a bio BS, you’ll have the biology, chemistry and physics required for biomedical engineering, but you will need to take extra math (at least through linear algebra plus statistics) and some comp sci (basic C++/Java programming and MatLab). The engineering type stuff (systems, processes, etc) you can take at the grad level without first having had them at the undergrad.</p>
<p>The real issue with biomed is the curriculum is huge. It’s something that attracts a lot of interest among high school students but I always suggest they dig into the requirements because you’re adding science classes on top of engineering and that’s a lot.</p>
<p>My DD is planning to apply to Rochester for molecular genetics track in Bio, so we looked at the NIH funding, and Rochester gets good grants for biology. Check out the NIH funding website, you can see how much research $ each university gets.</p>
<p>I’m missing some great discussion while I’m out on the road. Sorry I have been away from this one - it seems things are under control, thanks to some of CC’s most frequent posters, but let me know if you have any other questions!</p>