Rochester

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a few observations:

- "location" is basically a backdrop to (just) four years of college. No one is expecting any college student to buy property there, live there forever, or write glowing articles about their college town for travel media. Location is an obsession of this website only because so many of the commenters don't actually know much about the colleges involved or even about higher education generally, so in their ignorance they instead obsess over USNWR rankings and climate.

- for many, a mid-sized city of about one million -- like Rochester -- is the perfect location for college. More choices for entertainment and shopping than a small town setting provides, plus the diversity of an urban community and the opportunity for jobs/internships -- but not the crazy congestion, distraction or prices of being in a major metropolis. DCUM families may reasonably prefer to spend their vacation weekends in New York City than in Rochester -- but that's kind of irrelevant to where you want to go to college.

-- Rochester is a uniquely attractive mid-size city. Indeed, many non-natives who have transferred there for work or education -- ie, people who have no particular allegiance to the area -- really like it. It has a prosperous history, and a legacy of good cultural institutions and impressive architecture and charming neighborhoods, and while it's not the corporate headquarters site it once was, it's still one of the best educated metro areas in the northeast (and country). It also hosts, depending on how you count, between 50 and 80 thousand students, so the notion that "there's nothing for students to do there" is not just erroneous but suggests that the market is uniquely dysfunctional in Rochester and that demand from tens of thousands of students goes unmet.

- DCUM commenters don't merely fixate on silly, incorrect or irrelevant issues related to colleges -- but they're also biased and inconsistent in their application. Virtually no place has a perfect climate -- there are drawbacks to the climate everywhere. But for some college locations, opinionated DCUM commenters argue at length that the climate should be disqualifying, whereas for other colleges with only slightly 'better' climates, or with other entirely different climate drawbacks, it's never mentioned as a factor. Why the inconsistency? Similarly, some locations whether urban or rural "develop" a bad rep among some noisy DCUM commenters (often but not exclusively linked to race, so that's not the only possible explantion), while other equally charmless or depressed cities, or equally remote and tiny rural settings, get a pass. Again, why the inconsistency? Bottom line: what's one sees on DCUM isn't authoritative analysis but just noise, mostly by the ignorant.

I have no connection to the U of R (apart from knowing people who went there quite happily), but have been a repeated (non-native) visitor to Rochester. It's a very nice city. It would be a nice place to go to school. If your kid can't tolerate a few cold or cloudy winters while getting a great education, that's your issue -- but then don't pretend you're interested in the best possible education.

Great points!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a few observations:

- "location" is basically a backdrop to (just) four years of college. No one is expecting any college student to buy property there, live there forever, or write glowing articles about their college town for travel media. Location is an obsession of this website only because so many of the commenters don't actually know much about the colleges involved or even about higher education generally, so in their ignorance they instead obsess over USNWR rankings and climate.

- for many, a mid-sized city of about one million -- like Rochester -- is the perfect location for college. More choices for entertainment and shopping than a small town setting provides, plus the diversity of an urban community and the opportunity for jobs/internships -- but not the crazy congestion, distraction or prices of being in a major metropolis. DCUM families may reasonably prefer to spend their vacation weekends in New York City than in Rochester -- but that's kind of irrelevant to where you want to go to college.

-- Rochester is a uniquely attractive mid-size city. Indeed, many non-natives who have transferred there for work or education -- ie, people who have no particular allegiance to the area -- really like it. It has a prosperous history, and a legacy of good cultural institutions and impressive architecture and charming neighborhoods, and while it's not the corporate headquarters site it once was, it's still one of the best educated metro areas in the northeast (and country). It also hosts, depending on how you count, between 50 and 80 thousand students, so the notion that "there's nothing for students to do there" is not just erroneous but suggests that the market is uniquely dysfunctional in Rochester and that demand from tens of thousands of students goes unmet.

- DCUM commenters don't merely fixate on silly, incorrect or irrelevant issues related to colleges -- but they're also biased and inconsistent in their application. Virtually no place has a perfect climate -- there are drawbacks to the climate everywhere. But for some college locations, opinionated DCUM commenters argue at length that the climate should be disqualifying, whereas for other colleges with only slightly 'better' climates, or with other entirely different climate drawbacks, it's never mentioned as a factor. Why the inconsistency? Similarly, some locations whether urban or rural "develop" a bad rep among some noisy DCUM commenters (often but not exclusively linked to race, so that's not the only possible explantion), while other equally charmless or depressed cities, or equally remote and tiny rural settings, get a pass. Again, why the inconsistency? Bottom line: what's one sees on DCUM isn't authoritative analysis but just noise, mostly by the ignorant.

I have no connection to the U of R (apart from knowing people who went there quite happily), but have been a repeated (non-native) visitor to Rochester. It's a very nice city. It would be a nice place to go to school. If your kid can't tolerate a few cold or cloudy winters while getting a great education, that's your issue -- but then don't pretend you're interested in the best possible education.

This is so true. Too many people with unbending preconceptions about a particular college stuck in their own views when they barely know a college and have never visited but feel free to pass judgment as if it were the gospel.