<p>I'm going to the University of Rochester next year, I will be premed, and I chose the school for various reasons.
Yes, I have actually heard about such a "bridge" where you cross it and you need to be careful, all that jazz. I went to visit in the spring, and when I asked people about it, they told me to open my eyes and understand that less than a couple miles away is a major city in America. The crime in Rochester, and the bridge is no more than say, walking outside your campus and walking into urban settings; the same rules apply with safety in numbers, and not to be stupid about it, like wandering past midnight by yourself. </p>
<p>On a more important note...the SOCIAL SCENE!! Rochester is very interesting in this aspect because it has a very different social scene that you can only find in a select few other colleges across the nation. Rochester, a couple years back, had a very big problem with a poor social scene in that everyone would be all academic and bored, with very much else going on. I was told that in the past few years, the administration has put in a lot of time, effort, and money into making a very communicative class with a lot of activities. They are doing a lot of links with the city of Rochester, as well as Toronto (recently a very expensive ferry was bought by Rochester to transport Rochesterians to Toronto and vica versa; the ferry includes movie theaters, etc kinda crazzzyy). Because I have not currently had the pleasure of being a student on campus yet, I will not comment much further but just give you my own experience so far. Honestly, when I came on campus to visit in the spring, I absolutely loved the way the social scene was set up. The campus was very...bubbly, like there was always something that was going on, some club meeting, some party, some weird activity, or just hanging out on campus at the tons of cafes or in the city with all the clubs and attractions. The one thing that I found out immediately was the deep connection that was made between students.. everyone seemed to be very curtious and on the same level i guess you can say, like conversations were abundant, chilling in each others rooms, inside jokes with Rochester students all that stuff - like the school newspaper was so vibrant. </p>
<p>I just want to stress that a social life is DEFINITELY there, and many times described as an indoor social life, present in a very bubble-type campus. I grew up in Princeton, and I would compare it to Princeton's social life also, without the city of Rochester near it and just some small suburb. It's something you need to see and experience for yourself when you visit, and although i promise that the social life is present, I cannot promise that you will fit in with the social life. Everyone I talked to at rochester, or going to rochester, or even looking at rochester has found that this type of social life truly does fit their personality. </p>
<p>The only issue I feel semi scared about is the cold, I like the cold better than the heat, but I hear that the winters, by the end of the winter, can start to chip away at you and get unbearable. My host joked that it is okay in that in that moment where you start to lose it from the abundance of snow, it gets better with the spring just before you lose ur mind....But the cold isnt like a MAJOR factor. I believe that it's one of the last things to look at in deciding for or against Rochester, the snow is fixed by all the tunnels, the cold is in most North east schools during the winter, etc etc. Summers/springs are beautiful up at Rochester though.</p>
<p>Good luck, if you have any other questions, feel free to holler.</p>