<p>Putturani, your friend is presenting a very skewed view of downtown Rochester. Thousands of people work downtown everyday without the need for a gun. Are there areas of Rochester to avoid? Of course, just as there are for every other city in the country, but I’ve never seen the city as one to be avoided in all areas, and I visit often.</p>
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<p>I always wonder what it is that kids are looking to do when they make a comment like this. Rochester has museums, theatre, concerts, good places to eat and drink, professional sports, good shopping, the Finger Lakes and skiing less than an hour away, etc., in addition to college related events and activities. What exactly is it that they want that can’t be done there?</p>
<p>Again, the bad area of Rochester is northwest of downtown. The only other area you might avoid is part of the 19 Ward across the river, but the area nearest the school is pretty safe. The area around UR has almost no crime at all.</p>
<p>Downtown Rochester has little crime. It is mixed, like most American cities, with unfortunate lousy stuff near nicer stuff. The downtown is home to 3 very large companies and one nice thing about Rochester is that a person can be an executive and live maybe 5 or 10 minutes from work in a beautiful neighborhood. </p>
<p>I hate to pick on a kid, but not knowing you have a TA is impossible because you have to go through advising to get any schedule and they literally push all that information on you. You really have to work at screwing up something as basic as saying that you don’t know you had a TA. I mean the stuff is literally printed for you, is online, is all there. Sounds like the kid made a bad choice for him and then made it worse. </p>
<p>As for stuff to do, this is college and UR is a demanding school where kids work hard. It’s a major research university with lots of academic stuff going on. That is your life. I would say the only issue UR has in terms of location is that it’s so protected, with the river on one side, the medical complex and research facilities on the other, so there is no college town with bars next door. I suppose that’s something to complain about, but UR has 5000 undergrads so there is more there, with such a large community, than at almost any liberal arts college.</p>
<p>I live in Rochester and love it, make sure you visit Park ave! There are tons of activities in Rochester visit the Memorial art gallery or the many museums that are all over.</p>
<p>The Country Inn and Suites used to be a Hampton Inn, right? If so I can recommend this location, easy 10 minute trip up 15 to River Campus, good eats like Brazil right there. Every place I stayed during D’s 2002-2006 time at U of R was in the area by Monroe CC, but I wasn’t crazy about the Wellesley Inn nearby and the Marriott Courtyard was a little further from eats. Make Tripadvisor your friend…</p>
<p>Funny in that I was going to write the same thing, but sort of the opposite logic. I think UR is an absolutely fabulous school that is currently way underrated. I can not figure out why its not recognized for the true level of quality that it is…except possibly that the location must deter some people (based on premature beliefs that may not be substantiated by those that actually end up going there and loving it).</p>
<p>He was perhaps talking about some of the bad areas and said that it was liveable but the bad areas had to be given a WIDE berth. Maybe his ideas are skewed because he comes from such a really safe place.</p>
<p>As a personal list, UR is less well known because:</p>
<ol>
<li>They barely have cooperated with USNWR. They come right out and tell you that and are upfront about their dislike of the ratings game. This has real impact on recognition.</li>
<li>The name confuses people, much like Washington University was at a few years ago. Who knew it was in St. Louis? I’ve had people ask if UR is a public school.</li>
<li>People look up the snow totals and think the worst. That’s odd in a way because people go to liberal arts schools in cold places all the time. If they hear that UR has “tunnels,” they don’t realize those are actually corridors with vending machines and bathrooms, not actual tunnels like rats would use. </li>
<li>People are totally unaware of the size of the university’s research money. They get something like $400M a year. That’s a lot, especially for a small university. They also don’t realize the research facilities are right at the school, not on a separate campus.</li>
<li>It’s not as large as a school like WashU. WU has 13.5k students while UR has 5k.</li>
</ol>
<p>Lol, Lergnom…I’ve heard the same concern about UB and they even have cafes in their “tunnels” for God’s sake! Tunnels are definitely wonderful things when it’s pouring out or windy and cold!</p>
<p>My son was accepted into Rochester so we visited for the first time this April. (He ended up not accepting) We stayed at the Staybridge Suites and we were impressed by how nice everything was. Turns out a few days later a friend of mine was in Rochester for her son’s hockey tournament and she did not like the city at all. So I guess it depends on what area you happen to be in!</p>
<p>My daughter and I visited UR twice in the last year. We stayed at a downtown hotel both times. The first time we rented a car and were able to drive around, up to Lake Ontario around the city a bit. The second time we just cabbed it from the airport to the hotel, to campus and back to the airport. Never felt uncomfortable. Like any city, there are parts you have no reason to go to or be in. </p>
<p>The campus was beautiful, the students very engaged and welcoming. It is not a party school, but students seemed to be involved in many different activities. </p>
<p>The second time we visited she knew within a matter of hours that it was the choice for her. She turned down several higher ranked schools, including WashU, because she felt it was the right fit. </p>
<p>I think UR is a hidden gem, and although dd always has to preface it by saying she’s going to University of Rochester in New York and answer why she wanted to go there
(because it’s a medium size research orientated university strong in the sciences), I think she made the right choice and will thrive there.</p>
<p>My daughter will be a junior at UR this fall, my husband and I are alum and he grew up in Rochester. One of the advantages of Rochester not yet mentioned is that it is a manageable city and inexpensive to live in. There are many lovely places to go in the city mentioned in the thread (ie Park ave, Little Theatre, Strong museum) and not at all difficult to avoid areas where crime is a problem. For a college student it is good to know there are cheap places to live and eat off campus, but plenty to do if you like to stay on campus. I’ve noticed with each year my daughter has ventured off campus more, this year she saw Wicked and Spring Awakening and tried restaurants my husband and I never knew about. I feel the city of Rochester is an advantage for a young adult to learn how to navigate a city.</p>
<p>I’d say this was true of my son. When I asked him why he decided against UR–which was easily the most selective and highly ranked of the schools that accepted him, and which offered him FA competitive with his other acceptances–one thing he said was that he had a negative view of the city of Rochester and felt like it would be a depressing place to live. I don’t think crime played a role in this feeling at all; climate, somewhat more so. He’s a Boston kid and no stranger to winter, but I think the idea of the tunnels freaked him out–not that they would be dark or gloomy or anything, but just that the weather could get so bad that people felt the need to use them.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, my bad. I thought of the total number, not the undergrad number. UR is about 8.5k to 13.5k total. That’s still a big difference and the size of the grad schools at WU may well mean more name recognition. </p>
<p>Also UR doesn’t have a law school. </p>
<p>BTW, the weather in Rochester isn’t particularly cold. It’s snowy because of the lake effect but the temperatures are typical of the northeast. People probably look at the snow amounts and think it must be as cold as Fairbanks, Alaska.</p>
WashU is a little larger than UR. 6K to 5K for undergrads. Here ya go. [About</a> WU](<a href=“