Would she be challenged at UROC?

Lergnom
Tue, 29 Jul 2014 03:09:49 +0000

As to the environment, it’s not MIT. It’s much more “nerd normal” - not my own phrase but one I’ve heard used by UR kids - meaning bright kids who work, who care about learning, but are generally normal. It was a good environment for my kid, who is not heavy science/math but who is relatively quiet and very industrious. The social environment is heavily shaped by interests, meaning clubs and organizations for people who share interests. Clubs cross lines of dorm, where you’re from, major, etc.

I can also speak about a few other kids who I know. One for example was a math major, now working in data analysis. Another was in compsci, now working for a tech company. Also had enjoyable experiences socially that were relatively easy to balance with school, meaning without heavy pressures to party or to work all the time. One of these kids really got involved in the school’s life, the other less.

I think one factor is the school’s size relative to its resources, meaning it is a first tier research university but is small in number of students. It’s large enough that there’s a significant community with a lot of variation but small enough that sheer scale does not intimidate or draw boundaries.

As for grad schools, I have no experience with math/physics grad schools but I know that doing well at UR (or equivalent) and scoring well on the applicable tests is clearly good enough. That’s all you can ever say. As an aside, I’ve had this argument with friends about law school admissions, which is something we know about: is it better to go to Harvard or somewhere else? We agree that if you get into Harvard, that means (in general) you have the test scoring ability to do very well on the LSAT, but there is no other actual advantage beyond admission being a market that you test well. We disagree about whether it’s actually better to go somewhere else, do very well and score just as high, with some favoring yes and some no depending on personal views about the level of competition at various schools.

Also, my kid is an example that real research opportunities are available. WOWM’s kids are more so. I don’t think our families’ experiences are really unusual.