University of Rochester Top Questions

Here's your chance: Say anything about your college!

Pamela

The Rochester Curriculum allows students to take the courses they are passionate about, without wasting time on mandatory general requirements. Every freshman takes a writing course, but the topics are fun: mine was on witchcraft! Then you take the courses in your major and 1-2 "clusters" outside your major. With the exception of Engineering students, UR students take courses in 3 areas: Natural Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences, and Humanities. For example: as a biology major, I took a cluster in French and a minor in psychology, with time for a few dance courses and a research project.

Nora

The University of Rochester is a beautiful school with a unique curriculum. The open curriculum allows students to explore all areas of their interest. Coming from high-school, many college students are undecided and unsure of a field they want to persue. The University of Rochester encourages exploration, and you will often find that students have multiple majors and minors. Each program is strong and the academic support on campus is strong.

Lin

The University of Rochester has a unique curriculum, in which we have a few requirements, and students are free to take whatever classes they want for their major. The moment I stepped on the UR campus, I knew that it was the right college for me. University of Rochester is considered a "nerdy" school, but our motto here is to study hard, party harder. There are conversations I have with other students here that I don't feel like can happen at any other campus. Where else would I discuss radiation feedback loops and time traveling?

Eric

Nick Tahou's is one of Rochester, New York's most well-renowned eating establishments. It's signature dish, the "garbage plate, " is oft-imitated and worshipped by denizens. And while the garbage plate comes in several varieties, the basic model consists of two cheeseburgers placed on a bed of homefries and macaroni salad and topped with chili. In the spirit of the city, the University of Rochester periodically concocts its own version serving it as one of the lunch options available on campus.

Travis

There is much cultural and racial diversity at my school, and it is definitely an academically-based school. Getting good grades is important, which sometimes limits social free time. Athletics are somewhat put in the background, but school spirit is still very much alive on campus.

Alice

I'll be sad to leave in May but as the administration keeps cracking down on the party scene there won't be much left. It's cold. Colder and snowier than anything you could imagine. If you haven't lived this far north you are in for a surprise. Buy boots, scarves and a good winter coat. People wear uggs for a reason here. I've known girls who went out with their cute heels on and came home with frostbite.

Erika

Rochester has a great community. If you're considering coming here, visit. Do an overnight stay. That was my deciding factor. The people are really friendly and helpful- people will hold doors for you if you have your hands full, will help you out with studying if you ask, etc. I can't really picture myself anywhere else. Everyone talks about the winters, but it really is a gorgeous campus, even in the snow. Honestly, it is hard work, but if you can get in, then you can probably handle it.

Susana

The diversity at my school and open curriculum is unique at my school. There are a variety of enthicities on campus including faculty members who work for the university. As far as open curriculum there is only one class that a student is required to take all four years of undergrad, most of the other schools had many required classes.

Leah

There was a flexible curriculum allowing you to take classes you were interested in rather than required courses. The campus was beautiful also isolated from the city with beautiful scenery and bike trails and a river for the crew team. Yet the campus was a short distance from the city's best attractions.

Timothy

Its much snowier, has better research opportunities, and the campus is an awesome balance of quirky, intellectual and fun people. Also it was a better middle size, not a tiny liberal arts college, but small enough that you don't get lost in a sea of other students.

Spencer

Flexible curriculum, helpful administration

Michael

Core curriculum requirements are very minimal.

Skylar

Graduates of Rochester public high schools who enroll at the University of Rochester stand to receive up to $100,000

Rose

It is a difficult school to adapt to if you are a social person who thrives off of open social interactions. They do a January admit for freshman, which I deeply recomend that all people avoid. It is impossible to come in during the middle of the year and quickly adjust and have a great time. It is better to start with everyone else in the fall.

Hannah

My first year at Rochester was a blast. I tried so many new activities, classes, and people, and the great thing is that the ones I haven't gotten to try yet, I can't wait to do next year. Not being a freshman anymore and therefore new to the school doesn't put any pressure on joining new groups. I love the people and the community feel of Rochester, and also the fact that everyone is really focused on learning something and going somewhere, but with the overall goal of enjoying life, not so much making a ton of money. I wish that it was a slightly bigger school, because sometimes the feeling that everyone knows everyone makes it feel less like college, but the school itself works well in the size that it is. The food I would have to say is really not so great, but you learn to manage it, and if you put the time in and get the right meal plan you will be fine. Everyone is so helpful and friendly and really bent on making sure you get a great college education and experience. There is definitely a lot of partying, however it's not out of hand. And if you're someone who doesn't really want that scene or who doesn't want to drink you will be totally fine. Everyone that parties or does the fraternity/sorority scene and everyone that doesn't are very accepting of each other. It's a challenging school but also a really fulfulling one.

Ryan

I don't condone or condemn any of this; I'm just providing information. That said, realistically, the vast majority of college students will experiment with at least alcohol, and providing information so people know what to expect can't hurt, so: Most students drink on the frat quad. It's traditional for the frats to provide free beer to partygoers, although it's usually the cheapest of the bottom-shelf stuff. Beer pong is wildly popular, and every frat I've been in on the quad has at least a few tables set up on the weekends, but there's still often a fairly long wait for a chance to play on busy nights. If you befriend some brothers, you might be able to get better beer, as they often buy small amounts of higher quality stuff for themselves. There are a fair number of cigarette smokers, as well as a vocal minority of aggressive and hostile non-smokers. For the most part, if you're respectful, people won't give you too hard a time for smoking. Be prepared to pay about 5 bucks a pack, though... The majority of students I know smoke cannabis. That's never free, of course, but it can usually be found over a night on the quad if you ask around. New York is a decriminalised state, so possession of small amounts is not a misdemeanour; it's basically a traffic ticket, $100 for first offence. Campus security doesn't have the authority to demand a search, so it's pretty rare for people to get in trouble smoking on campus, aside from those who do it in the dorms and get busted by the RA. Prices are moderately high, but so is quality, for the most part. The beginning and end of each semester and the time right before or after each break can be rough in terms of availability. As for other substances... Adderall and other stims make their way around during midterms and finals pretty consistently. There is a small subcommunity of opiate users, and actual opium pops up from time to time. From what I hear, coke is sometimes easier to find than pot. Everything else tends to be very inconsistent; hard drugs are a lot rarer on campus than in the city proper. MDMA (AKA ecstasy) has grown extremely rare in recent years, as have psychedelics. You have to know the right people and/or get pretty lucky to find such things.

Laurel

That's it! Go to Rochester, you won't regret it!

Ryan

College is about finding yourself. UR definitely helps that process, although not the biggest or craziest of places. UR is a very great place, but its not for everyone and that is ok. If you find out its not for you, move on. But one thing or suggestion to anyone considering UR or any college,, is if possible, stick out at least a year, you wont believe what a different a year makes. HAVE FUN, I'M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE., YOU SHOULD TOO

Diana

University of Rochester students are usually not attractive. If they are, they are either a jerk, taken, or psycho.

Kendall

Do not choose a roommate, get assigned one randomly.

Sandy

I honestly have loved my experience at the University of Rochester. I have made best friends, had an awesome time, joined great clubs, got published in the lit mag, and have of course learned a lot. The University isn't for everyone, so take a tour and then walk around a little bit. If you feel at home, then come. Ignore what people say about the weather or the city because it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. The city has everything a college student could need (except very good shopping. The malls are terrible. But I'm from northern Jersey where we have every store that you could possibly want and you could always venture into NYC if we don't) and the weather isn't that terrible. Snow is fun in college because you don't have to drive or shovel and you can make snowmen and forts instead of doing your work. Plus, we have a tunnel system so you don't have to venture into the cold too often. Like I said, take a tour and walk around. If you feel at home, come. If not, then that's ok. There is a school for everyone.

Allison

Senior Week rocks. Three cheers for busing seniors to and from events so there is no risk of drunk driving. Great planning on the part of the college, especially because 21+ students don't always want to be stuck on campus!

Royce

the dining services on campus sucks giant raging monkey butt. in fact it is getting worse by the year. i cant count the number of times i've been sick from campus food on two hands. the all you can eat dining hall has a number of colorful nicknames like "dansuck" and or just plain "disappointment" (its actually called danforth); as in "hey, its like 5:30, would you like to go get some disappointment with me?". personally i have sworn off of dickforth since the last time i was ill from eating salad there. also, it used to be that freshmen were forced into these huge dining plans that they never used and which force you to eat unhealthy food. however, now the meal plan is done by where you live which breaks down to being that all the freshmen still have the large meal plan and a large portion of upper classmen also are now forced to have that same meal plan. this has resulted in many people choosing to live off campus. the culprit is called the "club" all meal plans have a certain amount of "clubs" per semester and a dollar amount of declining per semester. with declining you can buy whatever you want for its dollar amount. with clubs you can buy a meal; but not just any meal... there are only a certain set of food things from each dining hall that you can get with a club and the selection is limited. your club options are as follows: 1 drink (soda fountain or milk) 1 side (bag of chips, sketchy/nasty apples or bananas, even sketchier carrots, 8 oz yogurt, fries, or soup) and a main thing which is pizza, hamburgers/grill stuff, sub sandwiches, fried things other nasty unhealthy stuff... so unless you like to eat milk, a puny yogurt and a sub sandwich everyday for every meal your kind of screwed (where is the water or juice or good veggies and fruit? healthy balanced main courses that arent gross vegan food? not to be found..). also the campus likes to serve carbs and cheese in about all the combinations i can think of and pass it off as a main dish (i wouldnt trust the beef anyways):pizza, quesadillas, breadsticks with cheese inside, roastbeef sandwiches with nacho cheese, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, other pasta with cheese, and more pizza. thats what i mostly subsist on as there really isnt too much else.

ethan

a little small for my taste, but very homey campus

Nathan

Rochester is a great school as long as you don't mind busting your ass in order to have a 3.5 The students who have much over a 3.5 or so usually are the ones that have little time for anything other than school work. Dining sucks, and on campus housing is over priced and not that great. However Rochester's reputation has been climbing and climbing and is doing well. There are a lot of interesting smart people at Rochester and only a few that you'll wonder how they go admitted. Greek life if significant around 40-50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} overall and it's still a college campus. Even the majority of talented smart nerdy students learn to let loose and have fun and drink occasionally usually by junior and senior year which is good. It's very much a study hard, and occasionally party hard school. If you get in you won't go wrong going here, but it's a lot of peoples' safety as they apply to the Ivies.

Sean

It's nice here damn it! And it ain't some stupid college for 'em dumb folks. =P

Travis

When u are considering this school you have to understand that its not a social school, its very quiet, and if thats what ur interested in great, but if u think that u would possibly want to party, this really isnt the school for u.

ben

i am very happy with my choice of schools. sure, there are some things i'd like to change, but there is room for improvement at any school.

Gene

I love this place and my experiences there.

Jenna

If you come to Rochester, get off campus! You'll get bored of events around campus after Freshmen year, but bring a car if you can, and go explore! There is a huge music scene in Rochester, from jazz to classical to punk, and many times you can find live music for free. Check out the Eastman Theater, Water St., and the Blue Cross Arena showings. Geva Theater is great for people interested in seeing great plays and the Little Theater shows only independent movies. The food in Rochester is amazing, especially if you're looking for ethnic food: for Thai, try The King and I, Mediterranean, Alexandria's, European: Cibon Cafe, and sushi, Dim Sum. There are also plenty of parks near Rochester and a lake that will provide a great weekend of hiking or just lounging around at the beach.

Josh

The meal system is horrible. It always has been and it keeps getting worse and worse by he year. Administration keeps taking things away and yet keep charging us more per semester. There are only a few places to eat on campus, and even less if you are actually trying to stay healthy or watch your weight. Blimpie is aweful, with slow service and flavorless meats, but it is the only option in "The Pit" that isn't friend or covered in grease....and that only depends on your choices. There is also "Danforth" which is an all you can eat place where i find that the food is never that good, and because of that you aren't satisfied and want to get more food. There is custom stir fry there which is really good, but you generally have to wait in like for 20 min to get it, so you have to time it right. there is also "Dougless" which has a few good stations, pasta, "mexican food" a bbq place, a salad bar, a kosher deli, and a vegan place. I neither keep kosher and i am NOT a vegan, but i generally at at the kosher place and the vegan place, as they are most likely the healthiest. There used to be a place called "The Mel Express" which was AWESOME, but they shut that down without consulting anyone. there are a few other places to eat, cafe type places, but they mostly just do greasy food that i don't want a part of. As i said, the meal system is horrible. How it used to work is each year you were given a few options of a dining plan, in which it was almost impossible to finish them without CONSTANTLY overeating or wasting money (or club meals...which are too complicated for me to feel like explaining). That sucked, cause the meals were expnsie. Every year you were given cheaper and cheaper options, so by jr. year you could maybe finish your plan if you tried not to eat off campus...ever. Then they decided, screw that lets make it worse! So now it's connected to where you live, which really makes no sence. if you live on campus, you basically have to buy an over priced meal plan that will over feed you. As someone who eats two meals a day and never snacks.....this annoys me. If you want to eat three meals a day as well as have snacks, a shake, and maybe some coffee every day, and maybe more on weekends, then you could finish these. I cant. I was looking foward to not having to pay much for my meal plan too this year. If i could live my life over, and if rochester wasn't the only school with the cluster program, i would never go here.

Cristina

I love this school. No school is perfect and I honestly found out about the University of Rochester through one of those mail flyers they send to you. If you want to meet great people and earn a great education and eat horrible food (not all of it is bad, just a lot of it is unhealthy..aka freshman 15) and watch movies on the weekends then you'll be at the right place believe me!!!

Alex

Administration seems to be trying to take the fun away from people as of late. Recently our end of year festival called "D-Day" was canceled due to a incidents in the past. Greek organizations are also receiving unfair, biased treatment, again based on past offenses that are no longer an issue.

Theresa

=)

Kristen

ROCHESTER IS AWESOME!!

Harper

I'd say 80{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the students that go here applied to some Ivy-League schools. People think that going to an Ivy-League school is everything but I personally know many students that live in Rochester that chose an Ivy instead and they are absolutely miserable. College is the time of life when a young man/woman shapes into the person they will become for the rest of their life and if you are going to spend those four years absolutely miserable, it will have an enormous impact on your life. Even the people that transfer have wasted a year or two of college that they will never get back. If you tell yourself you will deal with it for 4 years and it is worth the Ivy-League name, you are wrong. No one can last 4 years of being very unhappy and I'm not saying that is why you should come to Rochester but this is a perfect example of a school that has many Ivy-League rejects and some are so thankful that they didn't get in because they see their friends at some schools and realize what a mistake it would have been. Choose a school you will be happy at.

Cassandra

Make sure to take climate into consideration when looking for a school! I'm from New York and love snow so I didn't think it would bother me in Rochester. It's not the snow you have to worry about, it's all the cloudy days and rain/mist. It takes a toll on your mood!