My in-laws live in Rochester. It’s cold. A lot. Coming from FL, it’s going to be an adjustment. Definitely visit in February to get a taste.

I went there for graduate school. Plenty of smart, nice people. Dingy, has-been city but still more than enough things to do, and lots of natural beauty not far away. The long, gray winters are not a joke, but people there just deal with the gray and the snow as part of life and you get used to that mode. Very pretty campus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest visiting the school first.

Snow aside, the location (Rochester) is less than desireable to put it kindly. It is a dirty, depressed, former industrial town that had its heyday in the post WW2 era and has been declining ever since. The crime is not good. The city was once pretty but is empty and a shell of itself.

My kid was accepted there and was offered a ton of merit, almost full pay. But they couldn't get past the dinginess of the town and the crime. For example, we saw a homeless guy threatening to kill someone they blocked into a bus shelter, at around noon on the perimeter of campus. It is unfortunate that the town of Rochester is such a disappointment, because if it had been any other location with that program and the amount of merit given, my kid would have loved to attend the school.

You might not mind the town, but for us it was a deal breaker.

I really recommend visiting this school before putting it on your list, especially coming from a well run state like Florida.

The city sucks. But this won't matter to most college kids. But college kids who want to be in a place like NYC or Boston, Rochester is unlikely to work.

My kid's summarary was that Rochester was all of the bad things about NYC or Chicago with none of the good things, but much smaller and hours away from everything.

Accurate but still a very good school.

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest visiting the school first.

Snow aside, the location (Rochester) is less than desireable to put it kindly. It is a dirty, depressed, former industrial town that had its heyday in the post WW2 era and has been declining ever since. The crime is not good. The city was once pretty but is empty and a shell of itself.

My kid was accepted there and was offered a ton of merit, almost full pay. But they couldn't get past the dinginess of the town and the crime. For example, we saw a homeless guy threatening to kill someone they blocked into a bus shelter, at around noon on the perimeter of campus. It is unfortunate that the town of Rochester is such a disappointment, because if it had been any other location with that program and the amount of merit given, my kid would have loved to attend the school.

You might not mind the town, but for us it was a deal breaker.

I really recommend visiting this school before putting it on your list, especially coming from a well run state like Florida.

See we thought rochester was better than we expected. My kid loves it there. Yes, it's a gritty town but the crime is not worse than most cities that size. Yes, you need to know that one of the "bad sections of town"/higher poverty is across the river from campus.

Perhaps it helps that my older kid attended a Jesuit university---those are located in urban areas, typically not the nicest areas as they are near the areas that need their help the most. So relatively speaking, Rochester was a lot safer than my older kid's campus.
Also, we live in a city, so we are used to what living in a city means.

Campus is beautiful, and it's basically a contained campus, with the river on one side, a cemetery on another side and the hospital on the other side (with a main road between them). So it's not a Boston U smack in middle of city with no campus borders really

And yes, rochester is not Boston---but it's not Ithaca or Troy either---both of those are extremely depressing cities and under no circumstances did my kid want to spend a minute there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest visiting the school first.

Snow aside, the location (Rochester) is less than desireable to put it kindly. It is a dirty, depressed, former industrial town that had its heyday in the post WW2 era and has been declining ever since. The crime is not good. The city was once pretty but is empty and a shell of itself.

My kid was accepted there and was offered a ton of merit, almost full pay. But they couldn't get past the dinginess of the town and the crime. For example, we saw a homeless guy threatening to kill someone they blocked into a bus shelter, at around noon on the perimeter of campus. It is unfortunate that the town of Rochester is such a disappointment, because if it had been any other location with that program and the amount of merit given, my kid would have loved to attend the school.

You might not mind the town, but for us it was a deal breaker.

I really recommend visiting this school before putting it on your list, especially coming from a well run state like Florida.

The city sucks. But this won't matter to most college kids. But college kids who want to be in a place like NYC or Boston, Rochester is unlikely to work.

My kid's summarary was that Rochester was all of the bad things about NYC or Chicago with none of the good things, but much smaller and hours away from everything.

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest visiting the school first.

Snow aside, the location (Rochester) is less than desireable to put it kindly. It is a dirty, depressed, former industrial town that had its heyday in the post WW2 era and has been declining ever since. The crime is not good. The city was once pretty but is empty and a shell of itself.

My kid was accepted there and was offered a ton of merit, almost full pay. But they couldn't get past the dinginess of the town and the crime. For example, we saw a homeless guy threatening to kill someone they blocked into a bus shelter, at around noon on the perimeter of campus. It is unfortunate that the town of Rochester is such a disappointment, because if it had been any other location with that program and the amount of merit given, my kid would have loved to attend the school.

You might not mind the town, but for us it was a deal breaker.

I really recommend visiting this school before putting it on your list, especially coming from a well run state like Florida.

The city sucks. But this won't matter to most college kids. But college kids who want to be in a place like NYC or Boston, Rochester is unlikely to work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lake effect snow is no joke. Average snowfall in Rochester is 102 inches. I live in Western PA and our average snowfall is 44 inches. Weather aside, it’s a good academic school.

U Rochester itself actually does not get that much "lake effect snow". That is Buffalo.
In the last 2 years, while buffalo gets 7 ft, Rochester gets a dusting. They haven't had more than 3-4 in at a time in last 2 years on campus---maybe 12-20 in total. They are 10-15 miles from the lake (where the 120 in might occur).

I was just coming on here to say this. The past few winters have been pretty mild. We've had snow this year but only a few inches at a time.

I keep warning my Junior that one of these years they will see a true Rochester Winter. It also hasn't been that cold the past 2 years

It's a wonderful school -- that music school is top-notch.

Rochester's heyday is long gone, but I still think it's a decent city. Only your DC can make the call on whether they could handle the weather. The nice thing about upstate NY is that when it finally warms up, the mood is SO high! Fall and late spring are great.

Anonymous wrote:It's a highly underrated school with top notch academics. But if your kid is coming from Florida, it'll be cold AF, not to mention gray and dreary for most of the school year. I think that's the one thing holding it back from being even more elite and selective than it is. On academics alone, there's no way it should be below Northeastern, for instance.

They have tunnels, which should tell you everything you need to know about the weather. That said, we visited and I heard that they have been getting fewer storms. It's top of the list for my kid. They like the size and the open curriculum. The campus is also beautiful.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s great if you can handle the weather. It’s the rare medium sized school and is also an R1. Motivated and smart students but not cutthroat (and a relatively sedate party scene which may be a pro or con depending on the kid. The openish curriculum is also a big draw.

Only 3% of all universities are R1, so it is a big deal and something to consider when looking at schools. R1 designation is a huge indicator of the intellectual quality and rigor of the school. However, being a medium sized school that is an R1 is not rare per se. Many of the R1 universities have under 10,000 students: Rice, Notre Dame, Tulane, Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, Brown, Boston College, University of Chicago, Princeton, Northwestern, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Emory, Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia, CIT, Case Western, Harvard & Yale.

I would suggest visiting the school first.

Snow aside, the location (Rochester) is less than desireable to put it kindly. It is a dirty, depressed, former industrial town that had its heyday in the post WW2 era and has been declining ever since. The crime is not good. The city was once pretty but is empty and a shell of itself.

My kid was accepted there and was offered a ton of merit, almost full pay. But they couldn't get past the dinginess of the town and the crime. For example, we saw a homeless guy threatening to kill someone they blocked into a bus shelter, at around noon on the perimeter of campus. It is unfortunate that the town of Rochester is such a disappointment, because if it had been any other location with that program and the amount of merit given, my kid would have loved to attend the school.

You might not mind the town, but for us it was a deal breaker.

I really recommend visiting this school before putting it on your list, especially coming from a well run state like Florida.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great school. Not cutthroat. All the kids I know there are very smart and super friendly. Nice campus. Eastman School of Music opportunities. Very flexible curriculum. Gives out some merit(used to give out more). Was my kids ED2 choice if they hadn’t gotten into their ED1 choice.

Congrats to your kid, what was their ED1 choice?

Boston University

Nice choice!

College experience in the Boston area is awesome. Great school too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lake effect snow is no joke. Average snowfall in Rochester is 102 inches. I live in Western PA and our average snowfall is 44 inches. Weather aside, it’s a good academic school.

Snowfall doesn't matter when you're a college underclassman. You'll never shovel. It's the cold and gray and long winters. Winters there are serious.

It's a good school with a lot of smart kids.

oh yeah.... the grey winters. that is so true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lake effect snow is no joke. Average snowfall in Rochester is 102 inches. I live in Western PA and our average snowfall is 44 inches. Weather aside, it’s a good academic school.

U Rochester itself actually does not get that much "lake effect snow". That is Buffalo.
In the last 2 years, while buffalo gets 7 ft, Rochester gets a dusting. They haven't had more than 3-4 in at a time in last 2 years on campus---maybe 12-20 in total. They are 10-15 miles from the lake (where the 120 in might occur).

I was just coming on here to say this. The past few winters have been pretty mild. We've had snow this year but only a few inches at a time.

Anonymous wrote:Lake effect snow is no joke. Average snowfall in Rochester is 102 inches. I live in Western PA and our average snowfall is 44 inches. Weather aside, it’s a good academic school.

Snowfall doesn't matter when you're a college underclassman. You'll never shovel. It's the cold and gray and long winters. Winters there are serious.

It's a good school with a lot of smart kids.