full circle: graduate recruiting weekend

The recruiting weekend, during which the departments wine-and-dine accepted students, is upon us again. It's crazy to think that a year has passed so quickly. Now those of us who were recruited last year are on the other side of the table. The following is a note I just wrote to the Graduate Secretary, who orchestrates this event.

Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 13:28:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Tobin Fricke 
To: Barbara Warren 
Cc: Kristopher Yirak,     Matthew C Lijoi 
Subject: Re: Graduate Recruiting Weekend

Hi Barbara,

I forget whether you asked for feedback about the recruiting weekend last
year, but, just in case, I thought I'd offer some comments for the
fine-tuning of the event.

The Rochester recruiting weekend was by far the best organised recruiting
weekend of all I attended.  That level of organisation definitely made a
positive difference in my opinion of the department.  It was obvious that
the department really cared.  I got the exact opposite impression at CMU,
and pretty much crossed them off my list immediately.

One comment I do have, though, is that I felt awfully cooped up in that
basement auditorium (108?) listening to all of the talks.  I was a bit
sick at the time, so that might have decreased my tolerance for being
cooped up.  I think it would be much improved to hold the talks in a room
with windows, and/or mix up the series of talks with something that
involves walking around and/or sunlight, fresh air, etc.

The other thing about the talks is that they felt very rushed, since each
professor tried to squeeze a complete introduction to their field into 40
minutes.  All of the talks went over time, and most of the professors were
cut off before describing their particular thrust of research.  I would
have preferred them to skip the overview with which all admits were
probably already well familiar (e.g., "There are six quarks, three
neutrinos, ...")  and instead concentrate on describing succinctly their
particular area of research and what it is like to work in their group.
(It might be interesting to ask the professors giving talks to comment
briefly on their "research philosophy" or "student philosophy" in addition
to their area of research.)

Other than that (talks too rushed, room too claustrophobic), it was a
great recruiting weekend.  The many opportunities for contact with faculty
and current students were really excellent.

My biggest fear in coming to Rochester was that the city would be a
horrible place to live.  These fears were exacerbated when I asked
then-current undergraduates about exciting things to do in Rochester;
multiple students responded non-ironically by citing the semi-weekly bus
to Marketplace Mall as one of the top forms of entertainment at UR!
(Well, maybe it is--I haven't tried it.)  I asked about places open 24
hours and the response was, "You come from a real city, don't you?"  I
referred to WRUR's then-current playlist being 'bland' and the response
was, "Bland?  You're coming to Rochester? -- get used to it!"  And,
frankly, I found the title of that Rochester tourism magazine to be very
disturbing: "Visit Rochester for a weekend... or a *lifetime*!"

These fears, however, have proved to be completely unfounded.  I'm not
sure what the department could do in its recruiting to combat this
apparently pervasive defeatist attitude.  Somebody needs to emphasize that
Rochester can be not just tolerable but an awesome place to live.

What there is to do in and around Rochester is, I guess, a completely
different subject, but one component that is relevent is the issue of
housing.  During the recruiting weekend I recall being driven through
neighborhoods full of beautiful old houses only to end up at a highrise
institutional monstrosity, from which we could look down at those
beautiful neighborhoods.  To me, the ability to live in a gigantic
beautiful old house for a rent that would be considered negligible in
California is a major novelty.  If any recruits want to see housing
other than the institutional student housing, I would be glad to show
mine, although maybe those of us who find Rochester housing so novel and
attractive are a rarity.

Likewise, it seems like everyone made a big deal (in a wholly negative
way) about the winter (er, Winter), but so far I've found the winter
weather to be enjoyable and sometimes downright beautiful.

Well, that's just about all I had in mind about the weekend.  I think that
we (current first-years) have as vested an interest as anyone in the recuitment
process now, and I think that showing that Rochester is a fun place to
live in addition to a good research environment will help convince
exciting people to come here.


With the recruiting weekend upon us, it's a bit sobering to think that
we've come full circle so quickly, that there will be a new crop of
"beautiful and unique snowflakes" coming in.  In light of that, it might
be nice to have another group get-together, this time not a recruitment
but a checkup on how everyone is doing.  Morale amongst the first-years is
not high.  I may have been the one to fail all of my classes, but I think
the issues involved affect all of us.  I was completely surprised to find
out about Prof. Blackman's position, maybe because I only found out about
it after things had gone horribly awry:

   The Graduate Student Adviser is the faculty's principal point of
   contact for most first-year and second-year graduate students. You
   should feel free to consult with the Graduate Student Adviser about
   course work and schedules, research opportunities, the choice of field
   for a Ph.D. thesis, or indeed any other matter on which a professor's
   input would seem helpful.

So, the idea of getting together again in a group setting to discuss how
everything is going sounds good to me, although perhaps an equally
reasonable idea would be to just "grin and bear it".

Tobin