University of Rochester (NY) Higher Ed program- Thoughts?

[JBums1028]

Hello! So I know there are a few people on here who are from New York so I figured that they might be able to weigh in on this question. Since I'm still (for the most part) in the process of forming the final list of schools I'm going to apply to, I happened to stumble upon the University of Rochester's higher education program. Based on what I've seen of their curriculum, I really like their program and I'm thinking of applying.

 

However their website didn't seem to say a lot about the type of financial aid opportunities available (like assistantships/on campus employment, scholarships, etc). I plan on contacting someone in the program for more info, but I was wondering if anyone on these boards would happen to know what they offer? Also, I wasn't familiar with this university until a few days ago, so I was wondering if anyone knew about the university and the city it is located in? Is Rochester, NY a fairly nice and safe place to live, what's the cost of living like, etc? Thanks in advance for any advice you have to offer!

[hesadork]

I don't know the HE program or the aid offerings, but I grew up outside of Rochester and took classes at U of R for two summers.  It is the dominant private research university in Western NY, with several very highly ranked graduate programs (medicine, music, political science, business, etc.).

 

Rochester is a great small city - easily the most vibrant of the major Upstate NY cities (Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany being the others).  Safe, clean, accessible.  Good culture (esp music), good restaurant scene.  Also quite accessible to the Finger Lakes region of the state, which is fun.  Cost of living is average, I'd say.  There's a decent sized airport, and the Buffalo airport (which is larger) is just about an hour away.

 

A few things - winters can be brutal.  You'd definitely need a car. It is a small city, for sure, but things can be spread out outside of the downtown and off campus.  And U of R dominates the higher ed space there, so opportunities for local networking may be limited (if that even matters).

[JBums1028]

I don't know the HE program or the aid offerings, but I grew up outside of Rochester and took classes at U of R for two summers.  It is the dominant private research university in Western NY, with several very highly ranked graduate programs (medicine, music, political science, business, etc.).

 

Rochester is a great small city - easily the most vibrant of the major Upstate NY cities (Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany being the others).  Safe, clean, accessible.  Good culture (esp music), good restaurant scene.  Also quite accessible to the Finger Lakes region of the state, which is fun.  Cost of living is average, I'd say.  There's a decent sized airport, and the Buffalo airport (which is larger) is just about an hour away.

 

A few things - winters can be brutal.  You'd definitely need a car. It is a small city, for sure, but things can be spread out outside of the downtown and off campus.  And U of R dominates the higher ed space there, so opportunities for local networking may be limited (if that even matters).

 

That was helpful thanks! I sent out an email last night so hopefully I'll get an answer regarding financial aid soon (one of my "deal breakers" is if the university doesn't offer master's level assistantships and they don't offer some type of paid employment opportunity instead- i.e. the required internship is paid or something like that). The website was kind of vague. But we'll see...

[sdt13]

 

I'm not too familiar with the financial aspects, but I did just graduated from UR and have a few friends at the Warner School. I know a few of them received at least half off tuition and most programs seem to be set up where classes are offered in the evening, as there are quite a few students who are already in the field in some way (e.g., teachers furthering their education, etc.) or have some sort of other job. However, I am not sure if the internships are paid but I don't see why they wouldn't be.

[sdt13]

As far as the program, I would recommend it. I took one class on human motivation with Martin Lynch who, I believe, is in the counseling program and I really enjoyed it. It was also pretty common for Warner students to take psychology classes (if that's your interest), which I thought was pretty cool...we had a few Warner students in my HLM class and I know a few others joined a research seminar in motivation.