The William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester promotes an intimate learning experience that places emphasis on building relationships and gaining hands-on experience. The school focuses on providing a small community of students, and it limits its full-time graduating class sizes to roughly 165 full-time M.B.A. students, 75 M.S. students, and 40 executive students each year.

Students can choose the traditional, two-year full-time M.B.A. or the accelerated M.B.A., which takes about 18 months to complete and is suited for students with substantial career experience who do not need a summer internship. Joint degrees are offered in conjunction with the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine.

The school welcomes a significant number of international students annually, with roughly 40 percent of annual enrollment encompassing students from foreign countries. There are approximately 20 clubs and organizations, from business-related to social and cultural clubs, as well as a student newspaper. Students at the University of Rochester have a myriad of opportunities to experience life outside of school, with many cultural attractions, including the Rochester Museum and Science Center, dining options, and shopping opportunities, with more than 200 million square feet of indoor mall space nearby. The university provides the Rochester Alumni Exchange so that its 11,000 Simon graduates working around the globe can stay connected to the school.