My D has been accepted and will not be studying STEM. She is interested in Psych, English and art. I know that many students are ther for STEM, so what is life like for the non-STEM kids? Will she find plenty of other kids like her? Is there a lot of mingling between all kids? And I know the professors are great, but are the non-STEM profs impassioned and engaging? Any insight appreciated, thanks.
My daughter is at UR and is a semi-STEM type of person (health, behavior, and society + microbiology). She wants to work in public health, but she tends to take social-science perspective rather than a hard-core math-and-science approach to what she wants to do. While many of her friends are pre-med and engineering majors, she also has friends majoring in psychology, English, and other non-STEM fields. I don’t get the impression that there is any segregation of students by major or interests. If your daughter goes to UR, she will be in a dorm with STEM freshmen, non-STEM freshmen, and undecided freshmen, which really does encourage intermingling. And my daughter’s extracurricular activities include both STEM and non-STEM students, as well. (Lots of kids, for instance, are involved in music, dance, sports, etc. where major is irrelevant.)
Based on her experience, I’d also say that both the STEM and non-STEM professors share a common passion for what they are teaching. In fact, I think that favorite professor so far is a woman who teaches religious studies. 
That being said, UR is very research oriented, which I know can be frustrating for students who don’t have that interest. A recent op-ed in the UR newspaper spoke to the issue in a very honest and interesting way. http://www.campustimes.org/2015/11/19/knowing-what-i-know-now/
Thanks @EllieMom , very useful feedback. Interesting article too.
My guy’s Take 5 is something to the effect of “Western Influences on Global Success in Africa.” He started those classes this year to fit everything in. He loves them - and the profs. He’s also minoring in Psych and ASL and has loved those classes as well.
This past spring break he sat in on one of his brother’s classes at an LAC and in comparing the two he told us there was far more discussion in his UR class with kids already prepared by having done reading for the discussion. In his brother’s class the prof mainly taught what was in the readings - hardly any discussion at all. Kids did not have to read first to “fit in” with the class. I’m not sure about the LAC, but my guy informed me that being prepared by reading and discussing things in class is normal for many of his classes at UR.
Which type of class your D prefers might help with her thoughts about where to attend.
ps Even the non-stem students tend to be involved in some sort of research as well. Not all (as per the article), but many.
@Creekland , thanks, you are always helpful. Can you briefly explain Take 5 please?
Take Five is an opportunity URoc provides for students to have a tuition free 5th year if they want to study something just for the pure love of learning. It needs to be outside their major field(s) of study and they have to apply and get accepted into the program.
Since sometimes the classes need to be sequential, courses can begin in their (normal) senior year and some of those they need to graduate get put into the fifth year, but in order to be accepted the student has to be able to have graduated in four years without the added year.
Here’s a FAQ page I came across:
https://www.rochester.edu/college/CCAS/students/opportunities/takefive/faq.html
My guy has always loved learning - just to learn - not just “what’s on the test,” so this program appealed to him from the beginning. He just had to figure out exactly what he wanted to study as he had several options that interested him. He was very pleased when his proposal was accepted and has enjoyed the classes he’s had so far.
@Lindagaf - my non STEM kid graduated a yr ago. Your original concern is valid. It took a while for my social son to acclimate to UofR. On paper he was better suited to a LAC. During his first break home he complained that many students spent half of their time studying and the other half “building robots and peanut butter dinosaurs”. His words not mine. (I think that is a movie quote). He said he felt like he lived on the set of The Big Bang Theory.
2nd semester he joined a couple intramural teams and befriended kids from NYC to LA to Africa. And yes, even became friends with a kid who loved to watch Dr Who. Over is 4 yrs he traveled out of state several times to visit classmates during holidays, visited a classmate overseas and continues to visit others now that they are out in the “real world” or in grad school. I’m sure several of them will remain close for life.
He attended a very highly ranked HS and was used to siting in classes with high achievers, but it was great that UofR exposed him to kids from all parts of the US/world. But his HS looked and acted more like the rest of America and UR took some adjusting.
His HS friends saw the UofR a cappella group video “remember our name” and ribbed him mercilessly. One of his childhood friends (of color) in particular found it hilarious. But one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
My non STEM son landed a great job working for a global investment firm and has already progressed a step up the ladder. UR opened lots of interview doors but wasn’t much help with firms here out west of the Mississippi - “Rochester, is that a state school?”.
His gig requires lots of face to face interaction with clients. I think his success has come from a combo of what he learned in the UR classroom and from classmates. Probably also human interaction skills he learned hanging with friends, locals and RIT kids in Sheridan’s Pub on Mt Hope. Halfway through freshman year he questioned his school choice but UR was a great experience and I don’t think he’d change anything.
@123Angus thanks! That is a really comprehensive and useful answer.
My d is an alum who graduated with a double major in music and English with a concentration in theater. The majorit of her friends were all humanities majors or social science majors except for a handful. There is a lot going on at U of R that has nothing to do with STEM!
@bookmama22 Were they able to find jobs, and if you don’t mind answering, in what fields and what salary range?
Well the majority of them are probably not working in fields that had anything to do with what they studied. My d does work in the arts but it is quite a struggle financially. Some of her Rochester friends were political science majors (planned to go to law school but may go for Masters in Library Science), psychology (working in travel industry), linguistics (not certain) economics (just finishing up Masters in Accounting), fine arts (not certain), theatre (finishing up MFA), English (grad school Ph.d), film studies (chef), math (grad school for computer science/articial intelligence). Of her friends from STEM, one is doing a post-doc neurobiology program at MIT and one who couldn’t afford the application process for medical school, is in nursing and so on.
For the year in which my d and her friends graduated, under-employment is the norm. It is very challenging, also sometimes hard to find jobs that are considered fulltime and offer benefits. Even people with graduate degrees are underemployed… Luckily for her she has no loans to pay off. She has friends who attended U or R and other schools who are so burdened with debt. She does have another friend who was in the English dept at U orlso and does have a job in publishing, zero raise beyond entry level pay in 5 years. She has friends with degrees in psychology from other schools. One is a school psychologist however it is a long haul as in order to apply to grad school in psychology you need two years of internship experiences and those can either be unpaid or minimal salary. Hard to do if you are already paying off student loans. The other friend with a degree in psychology has a job in a political organization in D.C. but mostly clerical/admin/social media marketing. She has a friend with a degree in communications with a job as a receptionist/clerical work for a law firm. We have a friend with a daughter currently doing a post-doc position in psychology for the VA. So… after several internship years including working as a nursery school aide and at the NYU child study program, she is admitted to grad school, gets her Master’s and as part of her Ph.D. study, she was lucky enough to have a placement because there are not enough placements to go around nationally for all the emerging students from grad school.
Did you find UR supportive with career placement?
@porcupine98 , the student ratings on niche give the career center at Roch high marks. Also linked in has a profile in any college. Not only will it show what careers kids go into, it will show companies they work for, cities they have moved to, and more. I found those profiles quite revealing.