Ok so UR… obviously mostly just my opinion and keep in mind that it’s the only one we really toured so far. Also, my own college experience is a small, private college…
Best:
—-mid size research university. It’s hard to find anything that isn’t huge for engineering. I like that it’s midsize because I feel like it’s a different option. I liked the research focus as well. It sounded like an overall focus for the university and something our tour guide really appreciated about it.
—- location. It’s close for us, so that’s a personal plus! Also though, there is an (decent sized) airport and a train station in the city of Rochester. I know for us, we ruled out colleges that would have had hour or more bus rides after flying to where ever. Additionally, the location within Rochester is close to the hospital it is affiliated with (Strong Hospital, part of URMC) and there are regular buses back and forth. That means opportunities not only for direct medical related jobs and research but also some interesting things that are more indirect. Social work, psychology, human services, etc. obviously other colleges other places have that, but I think they tend to be bigger colleges.
— diversity. Again, lots of colleges claim this and measuring it can be tough. But for College that isn’t huge, they have a lot of countries represented in their student body. I’m sure there is an official number somewhere on their admissions site, but what was striking was in the student union, they had flags from all the colleges represented hanging from the ceiling. It was row after row after row of countries. Financial diversity seems there too as (IIRC) they meet full need, as defined by them. Again, when we were there just from a superficial glance based on how people were dressed… there were students leading tours that all were clean and put together but some more casual and some more dressy. Our tour guide (from a more rural and economically depressed area of the state) was wearing jeans, older ugg like boots, and a UR pullover sporty type top and had some nice bright red streaks in her braided hair. The dressiest tour guide was wearing a interview type outfit and had tv teen smooth hair. Both fit in. There were people on campus a bit less dressed up and everywhere in between.
——scholarships- we don’t know if we will be able to afford it (so financials might go on the worst part too) but there is a chance. The NPC came in less than RIT (the other Rochester school with engineering) and from what I can gather, UR has some bigger merit as well.
—— curriculum- Since she is looking at engineering, she won’t be able to take advantage of the openness as much as some majors could, but she liked it. She liked that she wouldn’t need to take Spanish anymore if she didn’t want to. Or maybe she would be done with English. But if she wanted to, she still could take them. It just seemed like the students really appreciated the set up there.
—- study abroad— again lots of schools have it now. But she liked hearing about the possibility and that it’s strongly encouraged. She liked that it ranged from a two week to a year long plan. On the student panel of 3 we listened to, 2 of them had done them. One had done a year long study abroad. The one who didn’t (a chemical engineer major) said he could have done a study abroad but chose not to mostly because of a fear of flying. He said he could have done one with his major.
—— smart kids- so our tour guide was an engineering major. She told more than one story about her friends and classes and projects and she was really into it all. An example was she was biomedical engineering leaning towards the mechanical rather than chemical side so she didn’t have as much first hand info on chemical engineering. But she talked about her friend texting her all excited because he got some chemical to change color after weeks of trying and they called it the black something of death. Back when I was in school, I don’t remember friends and I really sharing the ups and downs of stuff like that. It just felt like the learning wasn’t just in classrooms or exam time. We were in one of the labs with 3D printers and they were saying how students come and 3D print stuff just for fun and just have to pay for the materials. Also, I believe they said they have 12 libraries. That was pretty interesting to a book worm like me.
—— professors- I know I said this when we had our tour, but we sat in on an intro chem class. I was really impressed that the professor knew student names when they asked questions. It wasn’t something I would have expected in a large class like that. Additionally, when we were in the chem E lab, it took a bit for us to figure out who the professor was because he was sitting at a table with students working away with them on something. It just felt like the professors were involved with students (obviously this was just s snapshot of a couple but it was a good one!). Also, I know 3 professors there and I think they are all really nice people with their own very diverse backgrounds.
—- sports. Ok so this one isn’t really a plus for my D because she isn’t sporty, so more a wash for us. But our tour guide played a sport… I wish I could remember which… anyway she was there with a scholarship but she said the coaches still recognize that academics comes first. She had some sort of big upcoming project and was missing practices to catch up. I really liked that sports are there for kids who want it, but not so dominating that people forget what college’s main goal is supposed to be.
Worst—-
—-weather. It was suuuuuper cold when we went there. Obviously, the northeast can be rough weather wise. They do have some tunnels between some buildings. My understanding though is that after freshman year, it’s a pretty long walk between dorms and academic buildings. That would stink in bad weather.
— dorms. This is really more just for d and not most of the rest of the kids here but she really wants a single. That wouldn’t happen freshmen year for sure. Also, this current freshmen class was bigger than expected and I know one freshman who was put into a forced triple. My d would haaaate that. I will say though, this was a boy and he has said his room mates are really nice, great people. He wasn’t upset about it at all and had become good friends with them. The freshmen girl I know was in a really nice, new double with a great view of the sport field (I think a football field? I saw a picture she took from her window back in the fall and that’s what I recall).
——- cars. Parking isn’t great, I think only very limited student parking on campus. When we visited, we had to park at the hospital and take a shuttle bus over to the campus. I believe it can be walked in nice weather but that’s only really going to be early fall and late spring for most.
—- cost. Unless you get good need based aid or merit, it’s an expensive place. It’s also not a place with transparent, automatic merit awards. We will really have
—— recent upheaval in administration because of sexual harrassment stuff. My own opinion is that it’s something that happens everywhere and at least it’s currently being dealt with at UR. But there is no denying that it’s currently a thing and getting negative press.
—- size. I like the mid size, but for those who want much smaller and much larger, it might not be right.
Other factors: food and things to do. I don’t know where to place them. In my experience, these are so subjective. We thought the food was good when we went to one of the two dining halls. Lots of variety in food and seating. The impression we got about things to do was that there is stuff for those who want it (ie parties, skiing, biking, clubs, etc). But there are always going to be kids who say there is nothing to do and they hate the food.
