Odd question from today's visit

[Chicago50]

Our tour guide made a comment that concerned me. She said “Contrary to popular belief, Rochester is not a suitcase school”

I had never heard Rochester was a suitcase school. Is this a popular belief? I appreciate her dispelling the rumor, but since I wasn’t aware of the rumor, it only threw up red flags.

[brantly]

LOL. This is a perfect real-life example of a major communications mistake that so many people – politicians, executives, pundits – make. Never, ever say the message that you don’t want to send or the message of your opponent – even if you are saying it to debunk it. What she should have said was, “Our campus is very active every day of the week. On weekdays, students are involved in ABC, and on weekends students are very busy with XYZ.”

But to answer your question, I have never heard of it as a suitcase school. I know many people who have attended U of R. They are from all over the country and the world.

[cinnamon1212]

No!! Even though I attended in the dark ages, the make up of the student body hasn’t changed. 35 years ago it wasn’t a suitcase school! Just find out what proportion of students live on campus and that will show you.

[Mwfan1921]

I’ve never heard that either, DH went there long ago.

Seems it would be hard for a school with an international population around 27% (18/19 CDS), and total OOS/Intl proportion of 70% to be a suitcase school.

[Lindagaf]

Nope, not a suitcase school. Yep, probably a not very experienced guide.

[brantly]

Don’t think of elephants. Don’t think of elephants.

[RocEng]

Yeah I’m not sure why the guide said that is “popular belief” as I’ve never heard anyone ever say that. U of R, assuming that it hasn’t changed a ton in the last 7 years, is exactly the opposite of a “suitcase school”. From statistics and my own experience, I can say:

1. A huge percentage of the student body lives on campus.
2. A large percentage of the student population is international, making it unrealistic to go home on weekends.
3. Even non-international students come from all over the country.
4. Despite not having classes during the weekend, students are still very much academically engaged on Saturdays and Sundays. So even if you're not socially active on weekends, you're still spending plenty of time in libraries or working on projects with peers.
5. Plenty of on-campus parties/mixers between Greek life, sports teams, and other organizations every weekend.
6. When I was there, I knew very few people who left campus, aside from the occasional long holiday weekend once or twice a semester.

[Chicago50]

thank you all. It made no sense and I asked 2 other parents to confirm I heard it right.

It just may have been a verbal crutch. We all have them.

Very happy with the visit otherwise. I think it jumped up to near the top of her list

[MADad]

There is a segment of the population that doesn’t realize UR is a selective private university, and think, because of its name, it is a SUNY.

Maybe this is what the guide was referring to???