Located in
Rochester, NY. A small, private
college with about 3,600
undergraduates and another thousand or so
grad students. While students and administrators do not always see
eye to eye, that is not to say it's an awful place. It's even
rumored that some students are quite
happy. Lots of liberal arts people, but also lots of engineers,
pre-med students (three fourths of the incoming class is always pre-med. By the end of
freshman year, it's about one in ten), and a rapidly growing number of
computer science majors.
Some interesting facts about the U of R:
- When a student says he walks uphill through waist high snow, believe him. The main dining hall is at the top of a hill.
- When he says he walks uphill both ways, believe him. The academic quad is on top of another hill, and some of the dorms are on yet another hill.
- We have the biggest we're-not-Ivy-league complex I've ever seen. We're also completely apathetic, and there's never any press about us, and while that bothers us, we don't do anything about it.
- Three-fourths of every freshman class is pre-med. About one in ten sophomores is pre-med.
- Despite the weather, and more or less being a bunch of nerds, we still know how to have fun.
- We drink a lot (see previous point). Some blame this on the weather. I blame it on college.
- Our football team sucks. But it's still fun to go to the game with a bunch of friends.
- There are tunnels connecting the main academic quad. There are also tunnels connecting many of the dorms, but they have been closed because (legend has it) people would hide in them. Legend has it there are actually tunnels connecting every building on campus, Strong Memorial Hospital, and even one going to the president's mansion on McLean Street. These tunnels were supposedly built during the 60s when the president was afraid of student riots, and wanted to make sure he (and others, I suppose) could move around campus and get away in secret. I have yet to see any proof. (Steam tunnels don't count).
- Every college has "that diner." It's the one diner that everybody goes to because even though the food's not so great, the service sucks, and it looks like a dungeon, it's always open, it's cheap, and when it's 4 am and you're drunk, there's just nothing better. Unfortunately, they just tore ours down, and they're rebuilding it as a 50s diner. This leaves us with Nick Tahoe's, which is a whole other animal. The garbage plate, however, is not something to be messed with.
- We have the worst location on earth for a campus. While it's absolutely gorgeous, and being kind of secluded does have its advantages, we have the Genessee river on one side and Mount Hope Cemetary on the other. Very quiet neighbors. Very hard to get anywhere without a car. And, it means we have no room to expand. On the other hand, we don't need security desks in the front lobby of each building.
When really pressed, most U of R students will admit that even though it was their
safety school when applying to colleges, they're actually pretty happy where they are. Bashing the place is just the trendy thing to do.