The University of Rochester

Date: Apr 12 2005
Major: Linguistics (This Major's Salary over time)
Students like to complain, but UR isn't really as bad as people make it out to be. I was mostly worried about the weather when I considered coming here. However, it turned out that the weather was really my only beef with the school, so I came here anyway. It's really not bad. The snow is pretty, there's underground tunnels anyway, and sledding down the hill on stolen cafeteria trays is an experience you can't miss. Besides, I've gained a new appreciation for spring. Weather shouldn't be the basis for a college decision anyway.

The food is not amazing, but it's fine. Facilities are great. Parking is kind of a pain. Sporting events don't generally get much turnout. It's easy to let yourself get cut off from the outside world, but free buses downtown and to Wegmans and the mall help. There actually is plenty of stuff to do in the city of Rochester if you're motivated enough to go find it.

The music and linguistics departments are both pretty high-quality and low-stress. The professors are a little wacky, but what good teacher isn't? Premeds and engineers tend to find the workload pretty stressful, but that's true anywhere. Silly bio majors.

The only required course is the freshman writing seminar - a pain in the neck for lots of people, but it's only one course and it's easy to get over with. The cluster system is awesome, and encourages learning in a variety of disciplines without sticking you with a bunch of specific required courses. In the same vein, the Take 5 program lets you stay a 5th year tuition free to study whatever you didn't have time to study before. There are also some good scholarships available, although the University tends to stiff you in other areas.

The thing I like most about UR is the student body. Admissions gets more selective every year, and the students are truly interesting and open people. I was impressed by the friendliness of the people and the intellectual environment. Join some extracurricular groups, make some interesting friends, and you'll always have something to do. We have our share of people who hole up in their rooms playing video games all the time, but there are also always people up for some excitement at any hour of the day. It's really not a bad place to spend your college years.