My daughter is interested in visiting UoR (and applying), it is a bit of a schlep for us from CA, so had a few questions I was hoping to get some insights on before we decide on/plan a visit. D is interested in Political Science/Political Economy/Economics/International Affairs/Pre-Law, and based on her internet based research, she says UoR has strong programs in all of those areas.
Is the culture (students) at UoR competitive or collaborative ? Are the Professors accessible and helpful ?
I was a grad student at SUNY. Buffalo in the 80s, and UoR (back then, anecdotally) had a reputation of being an intense place - with a very competitive student body, inaccessible professors, ruthless grading and other policies. A lot can change in 30+ years of course, how are things now, in these dimensions ?
She attends an academically intense (but not very competitive) public high school. And I would like for her to attend a college with a collaborative student body and accessible professors - especially if I am paying private college tuition.
Thanks in advance for any input/insights !
Since you are in CA, have you looked at Occidental College’s Diplomacy and World Affairs DWA major?
Yeah. We are planning to visit Oxy soon - it is quite a popular college for students from Northern CA.
I’m sure people much more knowledgeable will chime in, but we visited in the fall and it felt collaborative from our visiting perspective. Keeping in mind, we were looking at engineering, but I can’t see why it would be very different for other areas. We saw a lot of groups of students working together in labs and the library we toured. Our tour guide really emphasized that asp day as well. We sat in on one class, and the professor seemed very friendly and accessible from what we saw.
My son is about to graduate UR with a polysci degree (and a biology degree). I’ve never heard him complain about an overly competitive environment, but I have heard him talk about collaborations with other students, both in polysci classes and his bio classes. Since so many undergrad students are involved in research and TA’ing/grading at UR, my son has found himself in various roles with his peers, as subordinate and as superior. I think those multi-role situations foster respect among students and leads to a more collaborative environment. Just an observation and I’m sure YMMV depending on the student. But, for my son, I think high school was more competitive.
Thank you both for the info.
If anyone else has info (in general or specific to the majors I mentioned), let me know, either here or by PM. I’d highly appreciate it.
Son is frosh Finance major. He is very happy at UR and seems to feel that the academic atmosphere is quite collaborative. As expected, it is pretty rigorous but manageable. First semester grades were pretty good. He also has found a nice group of like minded friends. However we do know a boy who left after first semester bc roommate situation was not a good fit and he never found his crowd. While unfortunate, we would have liked to see him stick it out because he would’ve found his crowd.
My daughter is a junior at UR, double majoring in microbiology and public health. I would describe the academic culture there as fairly intense but also collaborative. Students do take their academics seriously. On the weekend, it’s not unusual for the library to be full of students, both singly and in groups, who are studying or working on projects. The students I know there tend to smart and hardworking, but also a little more laid back than the kind of people you’d find at schools where students are described as “work hard/play hard.” (They do have fun, too, though. It’s not “all work and no play” either.)
I don’t see many differences in the overall culture among the different schools or academic departments at Rochester. Maybe it’s because of the relatively small size, the fact that most students live on campus, or its flexible curriculum that encourages multiple majors and an interdisciplinary approach to academics. D’s friends include kids who are majoring in things like optics AND economics or public health AND international affairs. So, there tends to be a campus-wide culture rather than one that varies substantially from department to department.
I would say the professors are accessible, but there also seems to be a tendency to let the student take the lead. So, if your daughter reaches out, my guess is that she will find professors approachable. They won’t, however, do a lot of handholding. They’ll probably let her make that first move. (That’s based on D’s experience. At one point I told her, “Rochester is expensive. It’s not because of the luxurious dorms or fabulous sports complex. It’s because of the academic resources. So get your tuchis down to the advising office and stop procrastinating.” The next week she called us and talked about how helpful everyone had been…once she reached out for help.) The same holds for things like taking leadership positions in clubs and finding research opportunities. They’re there, but students are expected to be proactive. It’s a good pattern to learn for the future, so I actually think it’s a good thing.
There are rumors of grade deflation at Rochester, and it’s not easy to get a 4.0 there, although D has some friends who have managed that. I’d say that her grades are pretty much the same as what she got in high school taking a rigorous all-honors course of study. So, while the grading policies are not at the “everybody gets an A” level, a good student who works hard will probably be able to maintain a decent GPA.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
Thank you both for the detailed responses. The flexible curriculum, with the “cluster” requirement (one cluster in each area) look very interesting. We took a look at the course selections, and were impressed with the variety and breadth offered. It sounds that UoR offers some of the advantages of a much larger university (in terms of resources. breadth of courses) while maintaining some of of the good aspects of a smaller liberal arts college. We plan to visit in early summer.