As good as we are, if we want to recruit top students, faculty, scientists, and physicians to Rochester, we have to leverage our resources and partnerships to sustain our momentum and our mission.
Excellence
Rochester is one of the nation’s premier research universities and a global institution in reputation and scope. Of the more than 4,500 colleges and universities in the United States, we are identified by the Carnegie Classification as one of only 102 research intensive doctoral institutions. We are also one of 62 members of the prestigious Association of American Universities. Our faculty members address global problems of considerable scope and complexity, and many are Fulbright Scholars, MacArthur Fellows, Guggenheim Fellows, and Grammy winners.
This year’s entering first year class in the College has an average unweighted GPA of 3.8, with more than 90 percent completing full honors, International Baccalaureate diploma, A-level, or Advanced Placement programs. They have an average two-score SAT of 1408 and come from 42 states and 105 countries, with 32 percent coming from nations outside the United States.
We seek resources to sustain our commitment to excellence.
Impact
The work of our University makes a real difference in people’s lives. Adjusted for size, we rank in the top 20 for federal research and development expenditures per faculty member. We are the largest employer in Rochester and the sixth largest in New York State, with nearly 30,000 employees. Our Eastman School of Music and Memorial Art Gallery are at the center of national conversations about music and art. We care for the neediest in our community through our healthcare system and have made a substantial commitment to improve public, urban K-12 education through the East High School initiative.
We seek resources to amplify the local and global impact of our University.
Scale
With an annual operating budget of $3.3 billion, the University has the resources to make a significant impact in Western New York, the nation, and the world. Yet we are also small enough for faculty and students to work across schools and disciplines; nimble and creative enough for the brightest minds to collaborate in ways unimaginable at larger research institutions.
The University operates at a scale that is just the right size.
We seek resources to accelerate the advantages that our scale provides.
Competition
The University is engaged in a mission based global competition for the best undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty. Competitors like Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis are not resting. Neither can we.
Financial aid helps us attract the best and brightest students regardless of their economic circumstances. We provide more than $120 million in financial aid to undergraduate students, and more than $211 million to undergraduate and graduate students combined. Unlike many of our heavily endowed peer institutions and state supported public universities, our financial aid comes largely from institutional funding. While Ivy League institutions have an average endowment of $1.1 million per student, ours is $192,000 per student.