Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

This week we’ve got a double-whammy featuring cross-town rivals who are also on opposite sides of the liberal arts/tech school coin. It seems like the only thing that the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of  Technology (RIT) have in common is an area code, but can one take top honors?

Quick Facts

Rochester: A private liberal arts and research university in Rochester, NY with 5,000 undergraduates.  Founded 1850.
RIT: A private technical institute in Rochester, NY with 14,000 undergraduates. Founded 1829.

1. In the News

Rochester: If Julliard or Cornell seem like your type of school but you’d rather live in a mid-size city, Rochester may be for you. In the last three years, Kaplan has named U of R as both the Hottest Music School (Eastman School of Music) and one of 25 “New Ivies.” Take that, establishment!
RIT: Remember that time that Apple released its iPhone only to AT&T customers? Yeah, those of us at networks with (ahem) better coverage are still jealous. But three years ago, a seventeen year old kid famously hacked the iPhone software to make it compatible on other networks. Now he goes to RIT.

Three credits to: RIT. Hacker dude,  rock on wherever you are! Read More »

I pored over the U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings when I was a senior in high school. How far up could I go, I wondered? What was the most-highly ranked college I could get into?

I mean, I knew I was Harvard-caliber, I just didn’t have the grades– I was above grades! I could have totally gone Ivy-League if I had wanted to, but I chose the route of a small school with a philosophy, a mission (and a respectable ranking).

My freshman year, I ended up at a small liberal arts school that was ranked #30. Not bad, considering it was ranked #25 in terms of selectivity. I figured its teeny endowment brought the main ranking down. I was satisfied, my family was satisfied, my peers were satisfied. I had landed.

But when I got to college, of course, I realized that these rankings meant absolutely nothing. What did I care about my college’s freshman retention or alumni – giving rate? And the insidiously low student to faculty ratio was moot if you were in a crappy class in which none of the other six students talked. I found myself pining for large, anonymous lecture classes. Did I wanted a lower – ranked education?

The old, corny adage rings true over and over again: college is what you make of it. Seriously. All campuses have pretty trees and old buildings. All student bodies have geniuses and idiots. Yale has a dining hall. Podunk University in Mississippi has a dining hall.

And they both have horrible food. It’s all the same. Read More »