My child is deciding between Case Western and the University of Rochester. He is being recruited at both schools. Any insights?
Some points to think on:
Both very good schools. You didnāt mention major, but he should do a deep dive in to the curricula at both schools. Which āfitsā him better?
Did he visit both schools as an athletic recruit and spend some time with potential future teammates? These are the people that he will be spending most of his outside of class time with for the next four years.
Did he have a good rapport with both sets of coaches? What is his possible role on the team?
How far away from home is each school? Will you be able to see him play?
Lastly, since they are D3, there are no athletic scholarships. Are both schools similar in total cost of attendance?
Iām sure others will chime in, but these are some of the things to think about.
3 Likes
These are both popular schools in my circles. The conventional wisdom is there is a bit of a student culture/vibe difference, some people prefer the setting of Cleveland or Rochester respectively, and Rochester has a relatively flexible curriculum structure. Otherwise, it can come down to specific departments, and not unusually one or the other will be a better deal financially.
5 Likes
One of the things that I had my daughter do when she was comparing schools was to draft out a hypothetical 4 year course progression. Hypothetical of course but it really helped her see that she wanted a more flexible curriculum.
4 Likes
Thanks for the responses. He visited both schools and liked them both. Academically, he is interested in Business. I think they are both very similar from an academic point of view for Business. The biggest difference would be in the student culture. If your child has attended either of these schools, I would love to hear about their experiences. It would be very helpful :).
1 Like
My son was also recruited by both schools and toured both and picked UoR. It was an easy decision for him as he really didnāt love the vibe at Case. Too urban, weird placement of sophomore dorms and students didnāt seem happy (that was his 17 year old impression of visit so take with a giant grain of salt). Graduating in May from UoR and has had a great experience. Really blossomed there and has made great friends. Feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions.
4 Likes
Unfortunately my S24 is not attending either school. We know such kids (including one playing a varsity sport at Case), but that is definitely not so useful for present purposes.
I also think Business kids often kinda have their own culture anyway (often in a good way in the sense they help each other in all sorts of ways outside of just classes).
So one idea is to ask to be put into contact with a current undergrad Business student for a chat. If a coach is recruiting your kid, that may be one way to do it, but you can also trying contacting Admissions directly.
1 Like
Try posting in the CWRU and Uof R subforums.
One unique thing about Case is the single-door admissions policyā¦once you are admitted you can major in anything you want (except for things like music)ā¦so if he wanted to change majors he is not restricted from not being in the ābusiness schoolā or āengineering schoolā.
Case is also very good with housingā¦ when I went there back in the 80ās you had to be on campus all 4 yearsā¦now there is more flexibility but there is a lot of housing (dorms and apartments).
I would also think about where he wants to end upā¦like if he wants east coast then U of R might be better or if he wants mid west Case might be better.
Also which one is cheaper?
1 Like
University of Rochesterās Business majors pursue an āopenā curriculum. CWRU Weatherhead School of Management students do not. Take your pick.
This is not particularly unique to CWRU, except that CWRU has a catchy name for this and markets it. For example, Rochesterās web site does not mention any limitations on declaring majors like business, mechanical engineering, or computer science beyond completion of prerequisite course work and sometimes GPA at least 2.0. Music is restricted, however.
Are business majors exempt from the divisional cluster (distribution) requirements listed at Degree Requirements (BA and BS) : Advising Handbook : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester ?
Are they?
It does not look like business majors are exempt from cluster (distribution) requirements at Rochester from what I can tell from their web pages. But since you claimed that Rochester has an āopenā curriculum for business majors, perhaps you know of such an exemption.
Please list the requirements youāre referencing.
Itās not my claim that Rochester has an open curriculum. Itās the university itself who says they have an open curriculum. Are you disputing that?
I donāt see the word āopenā on this curriculum page, link below. Regardless, if Rochester calls a curriculum with cluster requirements āopenā, thenā¦many other schools have an āopenā curriculum. AFAIK, business majors have to satisfy the requirements as listed at ucbalumnusā link and the link below.
Degree Requirements (BA and BS) : Advising Handbook : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester says that āStudents must complete one divisional cluster in each of the two divisions outside the area of the major with an average grade of āCā or better.ā
Business is in the social science division, so a three course cluster in humanities and a three course cluster in natural science and/or engineering are required for business majors.
Iāve seen third parties put Rochester on the list of colleges with an āopen curriculumā, but that is not really accurate.
That said, I personally really like their curriculum structure, as it is very loose and encourages exploration in related courses, what they call clusters, which can easily turn into minors.
Our experience is that UoRās curriculum is extremely flexible. It may not be truly āopenā but the cluster requirements are pretty easy to customize to your interests and are not very extensive. One the spectrum of completely open to extremely regimented, UoR is definitely on the more flexible side with limited requirements.
2 Likes
Son is a student and athlete at CWRU and absolutely loves it. He is an engineering major, so I donāt know how helpful that is.
Team is close. Professors have been very supportive. He takes advantage of all the extra tutoring and office hours. Likes the urban setting. Never seems to be bored, even out of season.
1 Like
Trueā¦but I know at say Rutgers you have to get admitted to the Engineering school to do engineering or to the Business School to take business classesā¦or at TCNJ you have to get admitted to a major. Just something to keep in account.
I think that is more of an issue in public schools where admitting into a particular major and difficulty switching into different majors is much more common. You donāt declare a major at University of Rochester until Sophomore year and there is no difficulty in switching majors (my son did it twice!). So while certainly something to consider in comparing CWRU to publics, not so helpful in comparing CWRU to UoR.
3 Likes