Rochester: The Eastman "Progress and Change" Essay (Required)

250 words

The University of Rochester benefactor, entrepreneur, photography pioneer and philanthropist George Eastman said, "The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education." In what ways do you envision using the curricular flexibility and co-curricular opportunities at the University of Rochester to promote progress and change within the communities you inhabit?

What it’s really asking

Rochester wants to see three things working together: a real community you belong to, the specific Rochester resources (the open curriculum, clusters, labs, programs, organizations) you would use, and the concrete progress or change you would drive. Combined Degree Program applicants answer a separate 250-word essay, and students interested in research can add a very short optional response about their research interest.

Why they ask it

This is Rochester's signature prompt, fusing "why us" with "community impact." It tests whether you understand how Rochester's no-requirements curriculum actually works and whether you have a track record of acting on behalf of a group, not just talking about it. It also quietly screens for fit: Rochester is built for self-directed, curious students who design their own paths.

Three ways in

Start from a community you serve

Begin with a group you already belong to (a robotics team, a church choir, a family restaurant, a tutoring circle) and the one problem inside it you keep returning to. That problem is your essay's engine.

Pick one real Rochester specific

Choose a single Rochester detail you genuinely want, such as a cluster you would build across two departments or a particular lab, and explain why your goal needs that exact flexibility.

Trace one clean line

Move from this community, through this Rochester tool, to this change. Resist listing three of each. One braided thread beats a scattered inventory in 250 words.

✕ Weak opening

“Education has always been the key to changing the world, and the University of Rochester's flexible curriculum would allow me to pursue my many passions.”

✓ Strong opening

“Every Sunday I translate my grandmother's blood-pressure readings from Tagalog into numbers her doctor will accept, and every Sunday I think: there has to be a better bridge than me.”

✦ Annotated example · Repair Cafe and the open curriculum. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →

Every second Saturday, I run the fix-it table at our library's Repair Cafe. People bring broken lamps, a sewing machine that jams, once a child's music box that had stopped mid-note. ¹I have learned that repair is rarely only technical. The man with the lamp wanted someone to sit with him while he talked about his late wife, who had bought it. So I learned to solder and to listen, often in the same hour. ²That overlap is exactly why Rochester's open curriculum draws me. I do not want to choose between the soldering and the listening. ³I plan to build a cluster in electrical engineering and a second in psychology, threading them with a Take Five course on the ethics of repair versus replacement. I want to ask why we throw away what could be mended, and whether the same impulse shapes how we treat people. ⁴On campus I would bring the Repair Cafe to the Rettner Hall makerspace, pairing engineering students with neighbors in the 19th Ward whose appliances outlive the warranties no one will honor. ⁵Progress, Eastman said, depends on education. I think it also depends on refusing to discard things, or people, too quickly. Rochester is where I would learn to do both at once.⁶

1Opens on a concrete, recurring scene instead of an abstract thesis. The specific objects (a music box mid-note) make the applicant memorable and signal that 'community' is something they already do, not just admire.
2This is the 'community as a verb' move Rochester rewards. The applicant reframes a hands-on hobby as relational work, showing they understand service as connection rather than resume-building.
3Pivots from anecdote to genuine fit with the open curriculum, and crucially ties it back to the specific tension just established. The curriculum becomes the answer to a real personal need, not a generic compliment.
4Names real Rochester structures (clusters, Take Five) accurately, proving the applicant did genuine homework rather than swapping in a school name. The intellectual question shows research curiosity.
5Extends impact outward to a named local community (Rochester's 19th Ward), showing the applicant sees the city, not just the campus, as a place to promote change.
6Closes by engaging Eastman's quote directly and reframing it through the essay's own argument, leaving a resonant thesis. Lands near the 250-word limit without padding.

Stuck? Start here

What is one community I actually belong to, and what is the single problem inside it I notice again and again?
Which exact Rochester resource (a cluster across two departments, a specific lab, a program) would let me act on that problem, and why could nowhere generic do the same?
What would 'progress' look like in a small, concrete, almost photographable way, rather than as a sweeping claim?

Before you submit

I named at least one Rochester-specific resource that could not be copy-pasted into another school's essay.
My essay centers on a real community I inhabit, not an abstract group I admire from afar.
My vision of change is concrete and human-scaled, and the whole thing is comfortably under 250 words.

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