Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP needs to do her own homework to figure out if any particular college is a good fit or not. UR is great for some and not for others, just like any other college (yes, even Harvard is not for everyone). Asking a bunch of random strangers on the internet (some may be helpful but its almost impossible to tease out those with their own personal agenda), doesn't seem to me to be the best way to go about this process.

+1

And Visit!!! Our College counselor had a female kid get accepted and it was their top choice at that point. So they toured on spring break. As soon as they drove thru the 19th ward from the airport towards campus the father said Nope and kid is stuck attending a safety/large state U.
Personally, that didn't bother me as I know that urban campuses are often like that, and I think UR is actually more isolated than say any campus in Boston that is integrated into the city. My kid loves the campus itself and everything about it, academics, social aspect, cluster system, etc.
It helps that their older sibling attend an urban campus/jesuit university in center of city with no boundaries between the campus and "society" (jesuit universities are typically located in some of the worst areas of a city---part of the mission to be in the area to help improve the area, etc). So in reality this is 1000x better IMO. And in reality, no campus is truly safe----crime happens everywhere

What does the child's gender have to do with whether UR was a good fit?

Gender has to do with many parents (fathers especially) are much more overprotective of their daughters than sons when considering campus safety, especially ones in an urban area/near urban area.

If you are a mom and you are not feeling extremely concerned (or “overprotective” 🙄🙄🙄) about your daughter attending a school with as much violence against women as UR, what the hell is wrong with you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The take a lot of their students via ED.

It was my DC’s first choice but she couldn’t apply ED because she needed merit aid to attend, so she applied EA. 1580 SAT, 4.8 weighted GPA from MCPS magnet. 10 APs, all 5s, good ECs including a musical instrument at a national level.

She got in but they gave her only $9k in merit aid, nowhere near enough for us to make it work. She was so disappointed.

Wow! Their loss. I hope things worked out well for your DD.

Maybe pp did this, but it's always a good idea to check out a school's common data set to see their average merit aid award. For Rochester, last time I checked, it was $13,000+, not much different than pp's kid got. Other schools are better known for their higher merit aid amounts.

Even if you check the CDS, it doesn't mean much. they break it down between engineering and rest of A&S. Engineering has 95%+ of students getting an average award of $25K. My kid got nothing and was at 80%+ for stats...they told us we didn't have to fill out fafsa to get the merit. From the CDS, I thought my kid would get at least 15-20K. Thankfully we can afford it.

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone also look at Case? They seem pretty similar with strong music and ability to double major. Case gives so much more merit aid though. Is Rochester so much better?

Both are strong schools. They were the final 2 choices for my kid.
here were the main differences we saw:
UR has a contained campus. Case is two parts of campus split by the main road---it's a long walk from one end to the other. Freshman live on one end, sophomores on the other end.

UR did not have a "nerdy vibe", Case did with both the current students and those at admitted students day. Likely due to fact that UR has more Arts/science kids than Case and many of those are premed, so still science focused.

Cluster system instead of a "core curriculum" is an amazing program! Outside of their engineering major courses, my kid has the following: 1 freshman writing class---with many topics to choose from---my kid lucked out and topic is Taylor Swift, enough said. Then as an engineer they need 3 courses (12 units) in both Humanities and Social Sciences. So my kid's remaining courses will be 12 units of Dance and 12 units of Psychology. They get to focus on what they LOVE. No history, no English lit, no philosophy, etc. is required unless that's what you want to explore in depth. UR believes in encouraging students to study what they love and it shows. Most kids do 1-2 minors and many double major. Those not in engineering are easily able to do a double major and a minor or a single major and 2-3 minors as they have less requirements for their majors. With a cluster you are 50% towards a minor already. It makes for kids who learn just to learn, rather than kids who just take the classes to check boxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why is there so much crime in Rochester?

Untrue trollery. Rochester is actually a pretty safe metro area and city.

How safe is Rochester, NY?
The metropolitan area's violent crime rate was lower than the national rate in 2020. Its rate of property crime was lower than the national rate.
8.8/10
Rochester has a lower crime rate than similarly sized metro areas, such as Pittsburgh PA and Portland OR.
https://realestate.usnews.com/places/new-york/rochester/crime

As for the city of Rochester itself, the FBI puts its violent crime rate below that of most major midwestern cities (incl Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City MO, etc) and many southern and southwestern ones (Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Tucson), and roughly the same level as (much larger) LA and Dallas.

Which isn't to dismiss that there's crime in Rochester, like anywhere. But it's dishonest to suggest it's particularly acute in Rochester when in fact the opposite is the case.

I agree. My kid is at UR, and they are just extra careful when heading off campus (yeah parties on the other side of river). They know to go in groups of at least 3-4, and to call an uber/lyft if needed.
The nearby area (19th ward) is for most people more just something most of the kids at UR are not used to going thru because they live a privileged lifestyle. But I have another kid who attended a jesuit University in heart of a city (main road thru campus is THE main road in the city. I got used to at least 1 twitter alert per week from their PD about attack, car jacking, robbery, shots fired, etc. Even had a "shots fired 5 blocks from campus and bullet bounced off car and hit the 9 story dorm on campus and went thru a study area that my kid often studies in" (and there were kids in the room, thankfully nobody injured beyond the mental trauma). Walked to see the house my kid lived in 1 block off campus on graduation day, and police were dealing with an attempted car jacking literally 20 ft from my kid's house, right next to where my kid parked their car for 2 years. And then when walking to our car, heard shots fired about 3-4 blocks away at 4pm (middle of day). It's gotten worse there during covid and this past year.

Not trollery. Glad to note that your kid is " just extra careful when heading off campus." Wise.

PP: My kid would be extra careful on and off campus wherever they attend. Crime can happen anywhere (especially violence against women). My kid wouldn't walk around most cities alone after dark, so they won't do that in Rochester either.

PP here. +1 I agree completely, yet many people on this forum think such advice is victim blaming.

WHile I agree, people (females especially) shouldn't have to worry about this, it is just prudent to protect yourself, as you can't undo the damages.
I personally would never "victim blame" but I do consider it not so smart to wander around a city or any college campus really by yourself after 9/10pm (ideally after dark). And if you must walk alone back to the dorm, take out the AirPods, put down the phone and pay attention. My one kid is at UR, and my other went to an Urban school in the heart of a city, in the not-so nice area,---THat kid learned to respond quickly if I texted "are you safe/are all your friends safe" after getting shooting/robbery/assault/etc texts from the campus police. Half the "alert texts" are during middle of day/daylight so they learned to be alert at all times. That kid knew to never let female friends walk home alone---you let them sleep on your futon/floor/or you guys walk them home at whatever time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


My dc got into two of these Boston schools and was WL at Rochester.

Anonymous wrote:URochester and Case Western are good options if you can't get into the colleges in the Boston area, BU, BC, NU, Tufts

That's not a common occurrence based on acceptance rate, student stats, and yield rate combined.

Those Boston schools are more competitive and selective

Not really


ACT and SAT Ranges:

BU:
31/34 and 1360/1520

U Rochester
31/35 and 1370/1520

Northeastern
33/35 and 1430/1550

Tufts
33/35 and 1440/1550

Yes really, because again student stats is one part of the equation.
We would look acceptance rate and yield rate together with student stats.

The Boston schools have significantly lower acceptance rate and better yield rate.

Student stats alone, Tufts and Northeastern are close to T20.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP needs to do her own homework to figure out if any particular college is a good fit or not. UR is great for some and not for others, just like any other college (yes, even Harvard is not for everyone). Asking a bunch of random strangers on the internet (some may be helpful but its almost impossible to tease out those with their own personal agenda), doesn't seem to me to be the best way to go about this process.

+1

And Visit!!! Our College counselor had a female kid get accepted and it was their top choice at that point. So they toured on spring break. As soon as they drove thru the 19th ward from the airport towards campus the father said Nope and kid is stuck attending a safety/large state U.
Personally, that didn't bother me as I know that urban campuses are often like that, and I think UR is actually more isolated than say any campus in Boston that is integrated into the city. My kid loves the campus itself and everything about it, academics, social aspect, cluster system, etc.
It helps that their older sibling attend an urban campus/jesuit university in center of city with no boundaries between the campus and "society" (jesuit universities are typically located in some of the worst areas of a city---part of the mission to be in the area to help improve the area, etc). So in reality this is 1000x better IMO. And in reality, no campus is truly safe----crime happens everywhere

What does the child's gender have to do with whether UR was a good fit?

Gender has to do with many parents (fathers especially) are much more overprotective of their daughters than sons when considering campus safety, especially ones in an urban area/near urban area.

Anonymous wrote:What percentage of rochester’s freshman class is international? Is it higher than it used to be?

I think it's about a quarter.

What percentage of rochester’s freshman class is international? Is it higher than it used to be?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


My dc got into two of these Boston schools and was WL at Rochester.

Anonymous wrote:URochester and Case Western are good options if you can't get into the colleges in the Boston area, BU, BC, NU, Tufts

That's not a common occurrence based on acceptance rate, student stats, and yield rate combined.

Those Boston schools are more competitive and selective

Not really


ACT and SAT Ranges:

BU:
31/34 and 1360/1520

U Rochester
31/35 and 1370/1520

Northeastern
33/35 and 1430/1550

Tufts
33/35 and 1440/1550

Anonymous wrote:


My dc got into two of these Boston schools and was WL at Rochester.

Anonymous wrote:URochester and Case Western are good options if you can't get into the colleges in the Boston area, BU, BC, NU, Tufts

That's not a common occurrence based on acceptance rate, student stats, and yield rate combined.

Those Boston schools are more competitive and selective

My dc got into two of these Boston schools and was WL at Rochester.

Anonymous wrote:URochester and Case Western are good options if you can't get into the colleges in the Boston area, BU, BC, NU, Tufts

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The take a lot of their students via ED.

It was my DC’s first choice but she couldn’t apply ED because she needed merit aid to attend, so she applied EA. 1580 SAT, 4.8 weighted GPA from MCPS magnet. 10 APs, all 5s, good ECs including a musical instrument at a national level.

She got in but they gave her only $9k in merit aid, nowhere near enough for us to make it work. She was so disappointed.

Wow! Their loss. I hope things worked out well for your DD.

Maybe pp did this, but it's always a good idea to check out a school's common data set to see their average merit aid award. For Rochester, last time I checked, it was $13,000+, not much different than pp's kid got. Other schools are better known for their higher merit aid amounts.

Anonymous wrote:The take a lot of their students via ED.

It was my DC’s first choice but she couldn’t apply ED because she needed merit aid to attend, so she applied EA. 1580 SAT, 4.8 weighted GPA from MCPS magnet. 10 APs, all 5s, good ECs including a musical instrument at a national level.

She got in but they gave her only $9k in merit aid, nowhere near enough for us to make it work. She was so disappointed.

Wow! Their loss. I hope things worked out well for your DD.

Or if you’re seeking merit aid. Since almost none of those Boston schools give it. (Maybe Northeastern?)