University of Rochester Top Questions

I was on the Dive team, and it was really overwhelming. I found I was spending 30+ hours doing something for the team. Since U of R is a D-III school, i thought it was a bit extreme. I felt really comfortable around my dorm, and if i was in my room the door was always open. (I had a very social floor)

Steven Colbert is coming this fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 20{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students are involved with Greek life.

There really is an endless amount of activities/clubs to join or participate in. There is always something going on on campus. Athletic events are fairly popular, espescially our men's basketball, however theater, speaker, and entertainment are just as prevalent and popular on campus.

THE BIGGEST THING ABOUT COLLEGE, your social life. Yeah, everyone goes to school to get a good education and graduate, but theres much more time than you think to do, SOMETHING other than study and go to classes. (MAKE SURE YOU GO TO YOUR CLASSES AND STUDY THOUGH). "You will learn so much more outside of the classroom, on day to day interactions with other people,than you will ever learn in a classroom while your in college". Humans are social beings, and college is one of the quintessential aspects of a young adults social life. Everyone likes to have fun, and everyone likes to have friends. Simply put, if you want to drink in college, You WILL drink much more than you ever thought you could or should. If you want to hook up with someone, play your cards right the opportunity is there. Mommy and Daddy are no longer around watching your every move. You want go to church and worship you can. Basically you can do anything you want to, just know that every action has a consequence whether good or bad. But if your in this University you already know that or will definitely find out soon enough, but we are all adults so have fun, take care of your business and enjoy the ride. Its time to see who you really are, and who you will shape out to be. COLLEGE IS GREAT, just find you niche, whether it be with a mate, a sport, a club, a group of friends, a combination of different things. Whatever, you find your niche' and you'll have the time of your life! FOR REAL

Since I've covered a lot of these topics in my other answers, I guess I will cover the dating scene. I made a big mistake. I went to the same college as my high school sweetheart. This can work out once in a great while--I've seen it work! However, as a result, I spent most of my freshman year sheltered and bored. So, if you do happen to be single, I can only give you advice about dating from your sophomore year onward. First, being single is usually a good thing in college. Unless you meet the perfect person that treats you the way you deserve to be treated, don't get into a relationship. That being said, do not be promiscuous either. UR is a smaller school than many, and word travels fast. You will probably end up hooking up with or dating so-and-so's ex, and you will probably run into so-and-so on campus more than you like. You will see your past hookups almost daily--or maybe not at all, depending on your schedule. Here's how hookups often happen. You are at a party, you're reallllly drunk, and you and a classmate from writing class end up dancing. You end up making out, you go back to the room...you get the picture. It might become more than a one-time thing, but probably not. Men at UR do not take girls on a lot of dates. If they do, it is probably because they needed a date to their frat formal.

There is always so much to do on friday and saturday nights... student preformances are probably the number one thing happening, and if that's not happening you will find something to do... whether it be hanging out with friends on or off campus or doing the stereotypical college party.

Usually the most popular events on campus are basketball games and fraternity parties. Our basketball program was ranked number one in the nation for D3 sports this year. Although our girls and boys teams had the exact same record this year, mostly everyone just shows up for the boys games, which is normal. I myself played on JV this year and went to pretty much all of the games that I could make- boys and girls. A lot of students leave their doors open in the halls; pretty much the only time I did though was to have dance parties with myself and blast the music. Pretty much everyone dates on campus, not so much dates but hooks up even if they really never did before. Its just such a chance to be free. Like if you want to go out and meet up with someone at 3 am on a Monday.. you can do it.. and you don't have to tell anyone where you're going. My closest friends are all from basketball or are a couple girls in my hall.. my roommate in particular. I didn't really like her much at first but now she's actually the best friend I've ever had. I'm going back to Rochester next weekend to visit her and stay with her. I would suggest rooming randomly and not with a friend or someone you met online. Everyone who got a roommate randomly wound up having a great time while the others usually had more problems. If I'm awake at 2 am on a Tuesday, it's probably because me and my roommate were going crazy and just talking all night. The biggest tradition each year is D-Day. It's basically a day where you wake up and start drinking. Pretty much everyone is passed out by like 4 pm. It's really awesome, but we actually almost lost it this year, but we got it back. People party pretty much only the weekends, although by the end of the year more people party during the week. Saturday nights you can still go out and not drink, there is always music and dancing so it would never really be weird. Off campus there are bar parties that are hosted by frats or sororities and you can get in over or under.

Everyone at Rochester is friendly and you can always find someone to hang out with. In dorms, the doors are always open and people always smile and want to meet new people. Anything you could want to do, we have a club for and if we don't, it is easy to make one. Athletics are not very popular to watch except for our basketball games because those teams are actually good! Guest speakers (like Bill Nye!!) are always well attended and so are our performance (theater, singing, dancing, etc.) groups. Every year we have various festivals like Yellow Jacket Weekend (carnival rides, free food, cool free stuff, bands, etc.), Meliora Weekend (homecoming, alumni, and parents weekend all in one), and Dandelion Day (carnival rides, bands, free food, and drinking starting at 8am). They are all lots of fun and great traditions. There are parties every week. The frat quad is usually open with free beer (at some schools you have to buy cups at parties or are charged an entrance fee, etc. but at our frat quad and off campus frats, the drinks, music, and fun are all free!) and bar parties at clubs for 18 and older are thrown by groups and sororities weekly. You can always take a bus or taxi out to a bar or club if you want. There are things to do if you don't want to party too. There are performances, guest speakers, big bands, $2 movies, and the city to go into (restaurants, college coffee cafes, the Eastman School of Music and all of their performances, the Museum of Play, concerts/events in the city, etc.)

Sports teams are as close-knit as sororities. D-day is the biggest tradition of the year, so much so that even though the university tried to do away with it in 2008, the student organizations raised money and volunteer support to make it happen. From ballet to breakdancing to ocapella groups to improv comedy to juggling, students can get involved in pretty much any activity that interests them.

there are a lot of different groups and activities to get involved with and thats really the way that i have found the most friends. like i have said MIF is really my social life and friend group so i can only really speak of the floor that i live on. that being said, everyone on mif leaves their doors open and is in the lounges watching tv, hanging out, playing videogames or doing homework. we have lots of events and traditions through our organization that happen. theres never a boring weekend on MIF and there is always stuff to do or people to hang out with. however, other places people live do not seem to hold the same sense of community as mif especially living places that are not an interest house or a frat/sorority.

greek life is big (i'm in a frat), dorms are not party-able, bar parties are big (about 1 a week), there's a bunch of dating drama

Students leave the dorm doors open as the campus has a very neighbourly and safe feeling. Athletic events are very popular as soon as a team starts to do well, and the d3 teams are all ranked as some of the best in the country. Study hard through the week, relax on the weekend days and party hard at night. Off campus there are nearby malls, movie theatres, restaurants, all easy to get to by the school's shuttle bus system.

There's something for everyone socially. There are about 200 clubs although maybe 40 of those are noticeable on campus. There is the greek life party scene that goes strong from thursday through saturday night(probably about 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the campus is involved in this on a regular basis). There are academic councils, there are sports-but nobody really comes to Rochester if being an athlete is important to them, it's more like students who really like a sport and maybe played a year or two in high school and decide to play in college because they like it. There are only a few traditions that happen each year like Yellowjacket weekend, Meliora weekend, Winterfest, and D-day. and the only games people go to are basketball although there has been increased attendance at games over the past few years. Most people study during the week and have one night to party during the weekend. Most of the social scene revolves around drinking after 10pm. Before that there are activities and events going on but it's still college. The difference is people just work really really really hard and then let loose like one night a week and drink really really really hard. Only strong, smart, tough students will survive the academic stress. About 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students transfer after the first year and a lot of students switch majors.

Plenty of things to do. Interested in something? it's probably there. If you want to drink / party. Thursday - Saturday there's bound for something to happen. Just want to chill? We have two coffee places open at night a Starbucks and a smaller brand coffee place (the smaller one has fruit smoothies...starbucks does not...) Classical music buff? RPO has concerts usually every week. Internationally well known musicians come every year too (Yo-Yo Ma, Ishtak Perlman...etc) Metal? Well there's Waterstreet music hall and they cater to a variety of types of rock. They have a mash pit too if you're into that sort of thing. Plenty of varieties of food at varying prices / quality within 10 minutes from UR. Basically, despite the rumors, there are always things to do if you're willing to look a little bit. That and on a freshman hall, someone's bound to have a PS3 / Xbox360 / Wii if you're feeling lazy. Just make nice to them. Or....find the Rich kid who has the 60 inch plasma HDTV and make nice. =P (Trust me...there's always one...I should know...as a D'lion and Freshman Fellow on move in day we move in all the stuff for the freshman and a 60 inch TV is one of the heaviest things I had to carry.)

Im in a fraternity, good bad whatever, the partying at U of R dissapears in the winter, no one wants to go out or do anything, when its nice out some people come out but mainly just friends of people in my fraternity. There is a no drinking games policy...no beirut/beer pong, but thats fairly loosly enforced, but on campus there is a ban on kegs, so that really limits the ability of a fraternity to provide alcohol, and attract party goers. Kids leave their rooms unlocked alot, and occasionally get stuff stolen. No one really goes to athletic events other then maybe basketball games, but then its just mainly the baseball/football team there and then some sorority girls. The school brings in some D list speakers who no one really goes to see, the arts program here is flat out pathetic espetially the preforming arts. Im nocturnal, so I stay up late all the time, I like to play video games and watch sports center late at night, often with my buddies. This past year the school decided to stop funding our only school wide event , d-day, citing some rediculous reasons, but really they just want us all to be robots. The fraternities on campus that dont completly comply to rules get in trouble and get removed, one of the 8 frats that had been there for atleast 100 years lost their charter last year and cant rejoin campus, the beginning of the end...

there are a great number of student groups on campus, and generally, most of students' social lives revolve around the groups that they are involved with. for the most part, though this is not entirely true, the most socially active people are those that are involved in greek life or those that are on a sports team. of course this is just a sweeping generalization and i have friends that love to go out as much as i do that are not involved in either of those groups. over the past few years, fraternity popularity has gone down for some reason (new membership went down significantly this past year compared to other years... it could be due to people finding other social avenues or just the types of people being admitted to rochester have changed over the years/gotten more competitive). the administration is definitely cracking down on fraternities, and i keep hearing stories about "how much better this event used to be before the administration started being so strict about it." i am a new fraternity member and i really enjoy it. it has helped me meet new people and is continually a source of fun. sorority popularity/numbers are still relatively high. greeks are not exclusive at all; many of my friends are not involved with greek life and it doesn't hold me back from making new friends outside of the frat house. if people "go out," its usually to the frat quad or to bar nights ("bar nights" take place at bars/clubs, are hosted by some campus organization, and are usually over/under. these are usually very popular and there is 1 or 2 per week during the week on a tuesday or thursday). the social life is not fantastic compared to other huge party schools, but if i wanted a huge party school, i wouldn't be at rochester in he first place. the social life is what you make of it, and i manage to have a good time just about all the time. one great thing about rochester that i really liked is that adjusting to college early freshman year was not as hard as it could have been because all of the freshman live in the same freshman-only buildings and the school makes an effort to force you to meet other people. my best friends are from my freshman floor and in the fraternity that i joined, and i spend a lot of time with both.

It is what you make of it. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved and plenty of things to do - just find something you're interested in and try it out! There's something for everybody.

At Rochester, people study hard and party even harder. Even if people were out all night, they're usually up early the next day getting over their hangover in Danforth with their books ready to head to the library. There are also plenty of groups and organizations that people are involved with that have nothing to do with academics or drinking. And it's fairly easy to create more with free support from the University. As for traditions, nothing is bigger than D-Day (Dandelion Day). This day is the definition of the "study hard, party harder" motto. On the last weekend before the end of classes, just as the April rains begin to depart Rochester, everyone heads out to celebrate the arrival of spring. The day's activities have been undergoing some reconsideration in the last few years, but the tradition will continue on in way or another.

Sports teams don't receive very much attention on campus, though this has been changing recently. All the standard college type clubs, singing groups, dancing groups, club sports, martial arts, political interest groups, volunteer networks, etc...

There are so many clubs and organizations on campus, and more are forming every semester. I could not tell you which is the most popular. Athletics are not very popular at our school, or at least, few people go to games. There is a Greek scene on campus, but it isn't the only scene. There are also many fraternities and sororities that do not have on-campus housing so are less accessible to students. D'Day is the biggest tradition at UR, and it involves alot of drunk people. I'm not really sure what the original tradition was, but now, it's to wake up at seven in the morning and have a "power hour."