Rice University Top Questions

Not at all. There may be more fo those people here than other places, but the majority of students are active, fun-loving students that work hard but find pletny of time for fun and partying.

To some extent, yes. Rice students are smart, many are geeky, but most are also friendly, fun-loving, and very sociable people.

Mostly. The residential college system allows for free-flowing into and out of campus-wide parties and private parties, allowing anyone, no matter who you are, to join in on the activities. Rice students typically may not sound excited about what they do simply because there is so much that they have to do, but they actually like it so much that many start their own organizations and join existing clubs that involve their majors. As for freeloading, Rice sponsors many free events with free food, free prizes, and you're free to come no matter who you are, and Rice students definitely take advantage of this free-dom.

No, although we do study pretty hard we also know how to have fun. Most of my friends are regular (meaning non-athlete) students and they aren't the type of "quirky" students I was told I would find here. Everyone is different in their own way, but despite the stereotype there are very social students here.

Yes. There are tons of people who have never been social in their entire life and stay in the library on Saturday nights until it closes. These people are very socially awkward and it is difficult to carry on a conversation with them. The other stereotypical group is also accurate. These people study hard during the week, living lives similar to those described above... but then when the weekends come, they go crazy. Partying is not done casually here. All drinking is to the extreme and random hookups are rampant. I think this is because a lot of Rice social people were not social in high school and don't understand the whole "dating" scene, so it doesn't exist here. It is very unusual to be asked out on a date. Rice partiers use alcohol as a crutch to make them feel like they are more social.

They are exaggerated but oftentimes accurate. Most of them only apply to a select group of people, but on such a small scale, each stereotype is more salient and magnified.

Yes and no. There are more nerds that not but there are a handful of fun, outgoing students.

I think that science and engineering majors do have a lot more work to do, but maybe that is just my ego talking.

I think so.

In my opinion none of these stereotypes are true. As an SE turned Academ I can tell you that I work harder than I ever did as an SE and Academs are certainly not stupid. Academs tend to care more about having a job that is applicable in the real world to helping people and understanding the world. Contrary to popular belief Academs do get jobs, go to law school, become business people, get in to grad school and even med school. SE's on the other had do not work nearly as hard as they would like you to think and they really are not as nerdy or socially akward as people say. Overall, they two groups are just different and Rice has tons of both types of people and great classes and programs on both sides of the spectrum so don't think it is just science and engineering and if you come here don't think that the Academs don't do really important work too!