University of Rochester
University of Rochester is located in Rochester, New York. It is a private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: The University of Rochester is a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1955. With approximately 30,000 full-time employees, the university is the largest private employer in Upstate New York and the 7th largest in all of New York State. With over 12,000 students, the university offers 160 undergraduate and 30 graduate programs across seven schools spread throughout five campuses. The College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is the largest school, and it includes the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The Eastman School of Music, founded by and named after George Eastman, is located in Downtown Rochester. The university is also home to Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a national laboratory supported by the US Department of Energy. The university is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity” and is a member of the Association of American Universities, which emphasizes academic research. The university’s sports teams, the Rochester Yellowjackets, compete in NCAA Division III.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity
Undergrad program: Arts & sciences plus professions, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, with medical/veterinary school
Enrollment profile: Majority undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $39,775 (2 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, large, primarily nonresidential
In state percentage: 26% of first year students come from New York (note that 7.8% have no residence reported)
In US percentage: 69% of first year students come from the US (note that 7.8% have no residence reported)
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 89.7% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 81.7%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 3.6%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 4.6 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 2.4 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of less than 12 weeks, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 6084 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: Yes
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 9.00 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- University of Rochester lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Brown University, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Vanderbilt University, University of Southern California, Washington University in St Louis, Boston University, Case Western Reserve University
- University of Rochester compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Yale University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University in the City of New York, Duke University, Tulane University of Louisiana, Emory University, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
- These institutions compare themselves to University of Rochester, but not vice versa: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, United States Naval Academy, University of Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, University of Virginia-Main Campus, Bowdoin College, Wellesley College, University of Miami, United States Air Force Academy, Lehigh University, George Washington University, Syracuse University, Brandeis University, Southern Methodist University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of St Thomas, Bryant University, Ithaca College, St. John’s University-New York, Berklee College of Music, Clarkson University, Roger Williams University, Wilkes University
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated. The goal is to neutrally provide information: for example, some individuals want stringent gun control in an area, some want the opposite: the categories are meant to be descriptive.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.