Rice University Top Questions

Even though Rice is a D1 football program, nobody goes to watch, because they stink. Rice is really great at Baseball though, and those games are well attended, as are basketball games (all sports are D1). There are tons of organizations, too many to keep track of. People tend either not to go on dates or to be in a serious relationship at Rice. I met all of my closest friends at my residential college. Most people party on weekends, and some people party all the time. There are no fraternities, but the residential colleges host parties every weekend, and most people go to those. I liked to go to Astros games off campus, as well as different restaurants and bars nearby.

There are lots of clubs on campus, but not a huge variety. I met most of my friends in classes for my major. We don't have frats/sororities.

There are social activities for anyone at Rice. If you drink there are parties. If you don't, there are social activities put on by the colleges, or you can hang out with the majority of kids that don't drink at Rice. If you smoke, there are people that smoke. Pretty much if you do anything, you can find someone else with your interest. It might take a little while to find someone sometimes, but they're out there. Any friday or saturday there is almost always a party somewhere, a social gathering, or people just playing pool in the commons.

College System. Willy's Pub. Beer Bike. Intramurals. Sand volleyball. Party. Beer Pong. Club Sports. College night. Galveston. Late night food. Got to go I'm getting lazy about this survey.

The only real parties are on weekends - the week tends to be exclusively for studying. There's an organization for almost anything on campus, and people are constantly starting new ones. I usually spend Friday afternoons and evenings in the library doing general academic reading (not class related). I made some really good friends in my research laboratory.

The student government is probably the biggest thing on campus. Club sports are quite popular. I'm in the Women's Rice Rubgy club and we raise money to travel to other texan schools to compete such as U of Texas and Texas A and M. Students leave their doors open and not many things get stolen. We're quite a safe campus with alot of security. We get alot of guest speakers such as the Dai Lai Lama and Bill Clinton. This year we had Lance Armstrong come and even celebrities such as Kelly Washington and Ryan from the OC come talk about the presidential election. Although Rice does not have its own greek system, we have our individual colleges which hosts big parties. Rice is probably one of the biggest party schools despite it's reputation for being nerdy. One of our biggest parties was on top 10 parties in Playboy magazine. If you want to get off campus, you really need to have a car or friends with cars. There are alot of restaurants to go to and downtown has the Galleria, the third largest mall in the nation.

Rice is not a very athletics-oriented school. The popular people at a college are the people who choose to be really involved in the college life, by eating at the college all the time, going to campus events, working in college government, etc. The way that residential colleges split the university up means that there's not a core group of people who are popular campus-wide. Rice parties, like most parties, tend to involve copious amounts of bad music and worse beer, but they can still be fun. They're not a meat market, and a lot of the big parties are more about goofy dancing and having fun than hooking up. That said, relationships at Rice tend to either be random hookups or very serious long-term relationships. Casual dating is not particularly common.

The one thing about social life at Rice that's difficult is how you see the same people around a lot. While that can be a comforting thing, it makes it difficult to escape drama and gossip. However, meeting the people I have met is the most exciting part of college. I look forward to going to classes and clubs to see my friends. Rice creates a warm atmosphere without engaging in sororities and fraternities. It's a very safe and welcoming environment.

Powderpuff Football is definitely a popular sport on campus, as are many other IM sports. Because of the intense nature of the College System, many students are really intent on showing their college spirit by performing in IM Sports. Doors are sometimes left open, although they're more often "carded" so that they are unlocked and anybody knocking can enter. Theater is really popular, with about 12 productions being done on campus per year; I saw at least 7 last year alone. Guest speakers, while not as popular, are prevalent; most days you can find somebody speaking somewhere. Dating-wise, most Rice students are either solid couples or anti-dating. Getting random hook-ups is somewhat difficult, unless you are at a big party. Most of my closest friends I met in the college servery, because most are from my college, Brown. Colleges are definitely a tightly-knit community. If I'm awake at 2 am on a Tuesday, I'm probably finishing up a problem set. No lies, the weeks are usually really work-filled and hard. On the weekends, however, it's a whole different story. Per capita, Rice is one of the wettest campuses in the nation, and getting drunk, even underage, is absolutely no problem. RUPD doesn't even really care, as long as you don't make it really obvious that you are drunk in front of them, and even then will rarely hurt you. There is no Greek Life; the Colleges are your sororities and fraternities. Traditions include: Beer Bike, College Night (drinking in class), Baker 13 (getting naked twice a month and running around campus), various public parties, Willy Week (a week of practical jokes leading up to Beer Bike), the Beer Bike Parade (which includes the biggest water balloon fight in history), Associate's Night (formal with all the associates of your college (see above)), and broomball.

Athletic events are very popular on campus it just does not seem that way because the student body is so small. The campus is very safe and I always leave my door unlocked. Rice students like to drink, a lot. Houston is a great town and offers a variety of bars. If you want to drink underage most mexican restaurantes have amazing margaritas and usually will not card, or you can just stay on campus and find one of the many kegs beings tapped on the wet campus that is rice.