Rice University Top Questions

Rice University is a small campus, but the size is actually quite big compared to the population; it's the perfect size for me. Everyone finds their own niche at Rice, and the fantastic residential college system helps with this. The colleges are also great because they really get the student body active and involved-- they organize so many great study breaks and fun parties for everyone to gather at. We spend the majority of our time on campus, but Houston is all around us! The city is a great resource whether you want to shop (with Rice Village a 10 minutes walk and the galleria about 15 minutes by car), eat (a plethora of restaurants EVERYWHERE), or experience the arts (Rice is a stop on the metrorail, which goes downtown in mere minutes to theaters, museums, or cinemas). The administration is very open to student input and there are many ways for you to get your voice heard here. If you make the effort, you can definitely put your ideas into work! Although you may be from the northeast where Rice University is still gaining stature, I can tell you that when I go around Houston or Texas and I tell them I go to Rice, everyone is impressed and recognizes our school with frequent sarcastic comments like "oh, so you couldn't get into a better school?"

One of the best things about Rice is the Residential College system. There are currently 9 colleges (though there will soon be 11), and there is a lot of college pride. In fact, there are many more cheers (and anti-cheers) for specific residential colleges than for Rice as a whole. Most people have a lot of college pride, which comes out the most certain times of the year: O-week and Beer Bike. O-week is our orientation week that freshmen have the week before classes start. Everyone gets put in a group of about 8 people and basically learns why their college is the best. Beer Bike is the biggest social event of the year - it involves a huge, campus-wide water balloon fight, bike relay races (that used to involve chugging beer, thus the name), and pranks (college vs. college). The college system is great because it provides a community within the university that is diverse in terms of majors, ages, and everything else. Whereas at a lot of schools, upperclassmen tend to move off campus, most people at Rice try to stay on campus all four years. Many people get kicked off each year, which is one of the downsides of the housing system, but it is nice to have a strong community on campus that people fight to be a part of. Rice is in the middle of Houston, so there is always plenty to do. Every student gets a pass to use the lightrail for free, so even if you don't have a car, you can still get around. There are always performances, shows, and concerts going on, and often free tickets are given out to Rice students. However, Rice still maintains a beautiful campus in the midst of the busy city.

First of all, as a recent graduate, I can tell you that at least in my limited experience, every time I tell someone I'm a Rice graduate, they're impressed. Rice has a strong reputation as "the Ivy League of the south". Personally, I don't think that does justice to the quality of Rice's education or experience, but then again I will openly admit that I loved virtually every aspect of my time there, so I'm probably biased. The school is both big and small. In that I mean that the undergraduate population is in the low thousands, but we have a Residential College system that makes it so that, in many ways, you are part of a well-defined and closely nit community of only a few hundred. Rice is an extremely tolerant, and in many ways apolitical campus. Everyone has their views -- and usually has them quite strongly, but if you got in to Rice, you're probably pretty smart, and so everyone recognizes that you have a right to that opinion. There are debates and arguments, but for the most part they're respectful, not argumentative per se. Probably my biggest praise of Rice comes from the fact that everyone on campus realizes that everyone else is smart. That is, there's very little academic competition. I can honestly say I don't know what my friend's GPAs were, and they certainly didn't know mine. I've heard horror stories about the competition at other schools over grades, and not once at Rice did I hear of any such issue coming up. I think that if someone at Rice acted like they cared about such things they'd get laughed at. Overall, it's an easy-going atmosphere, with lots of opportunities to learn, grow, and have fun. I recommend it to anyone who will listen.

I love Rice because you get the benefits of a large college at a small school. Rice is actually smaller than my large, public high school, but I love the intimacy. Though we miss out on some of the perks of a big school (like support of athletics), the benefits are overwhelming. The class size is smaller (average 15-30), so professors usually know your name. They are open for questions and help and are generally really understanding of college life. If you want to do research, there is always someone to do research with and the resources to do it. Rice is full of motivated, driven, smart people, so everyone is interesting. My favorite part is the residential college system - aparently something like Harry Potter. You get placed into a residential college at random and they end up being diverse in class year, major, specialty, ethnicity, hometown, etc. Then, each college has their own government (with $40,000 or more) and all sorts of committees and sports teams. In stead of an exclusive Greek system, we have an all-inclusive college system. It is truly my favorite part of Rice!

The students at Rice are absolutely top-notch! They're the reason I chose to come to the school over places like Duke and Vanderbilt. In general they aren't too preppy, too tacky, or too geeky (though they are geeky). Most of them are either super-bright and can coast through class, or super-hard workers who power through class. The worst part about Rice right now is the administration/construction -- the two are more or less inextricable right now. With fences going up everywhere, the beautiful campus I saw on my initial tour is now a field of cranes and temporary sidewalks. The administration's decision to erect the Pavilion in the center of the campus seems particularly ill-suited to students' needs. In general, President Leebron's Vision for the Second Century seems to be taking Rice in a direction most students disagree with.

Well, one thing that is unique is the Harry potter like "college system". Residential colleges are like a big co-ed frat/sor. that you get randomly placed in. It becomes your home and many of your closest friends will be from your college. Each college competes for the president's cup every year and your teammates must be from your specific college. In general, we have a small number of students on a fairly large campus (per capita) and we are in a huge city that I am still continuing to explore and learn about. I may be a gung-ho Florida girl, but Texas isn't half bad either.

Rice is an amazing place where all types of people can fit in. The school is just the right size, although they are enlarging it significantly with the addition of two new residential colleges. Rice is great because of the diversity and quality of it's academic offerings given it's size. Undergraduates have great opportunities to get involved with research (I did, and I'm shy). The residential college system is really great, and builds a really strong community. Some kids like to be a part of that community, while others don't. People in Texas and people in certain areas (like Computer Science) are wowed when you tell then you went to Rice. Most people have never heard of it, which is intensely frustrating. Almost all of my time on campus when I wasn't working was spent at my college, Brown (named after Margaret Root Brown, not the color). Houston is not a college town, but there is lots to do, especially if you like to try lots of different kinds of cheap ethnic food. There is tons of cheap food, and I love eating. Rice's administration is good overall. School pride is often eclipsed by residential college pride during your time there, but Rice pride starts to take over as an alumni.

Big Picture: -What's the best thing about Rice? I'd say two main things: how friendly and supportive the community is as a whole, and how undergraduate-focused. Rice is unique in that it's a top-tier research university that offers the close knit community of a small college at the same time. Also, everyone is just really nice. You won't get much pretentiousness or elitism here. As someone from the East Coast, I really noticed this difference. -Name one thing you'd change. Right now Rice is building two new colleges (huge dorms) and planning to gradually expand from 3,000 undergrads to 5,000. President Leebron is trying to make Rice more like an Ivy League school. I (and many others) disagree with this vision: keep it small, close-knit, and personal! Also, the new Pavilion is stupid. It's a nice space, but competes unfairly with our awesome student-run independent coffeeshop. -Too large, too small, or just right? See above. It's just right at the moment (3,000 is big enough to find your niche but small enough to be personal), but will be getting too big soon. I can never walk to class without saying hi to at least 3 or 4 people I know. Lots of undergrads do research with profs and know each other by name. -How do people react when you tell them you go to Rice? Ooh, I have a good answer for this one! I am from Pennsylvania, where Rice is fairly unknown outside of academia. "Texas?" people would say. "Are you crazy?" But here in Houston, when I first moved in to start my freshman year and opened a new bank account, the bank teller's eyes grew wide when I told him I was going to Rice. He said "You must be one of three things. Either you are very rich, a very talented athlete, or very smart." I laughed and told him none of the above. Still, it was a lesson in the regional prestige of Rice. In the South everyone thinks of Rice as Harvard; back home, it's known as a great school but kinda weird because it's in Texas. -What was the recent biggest controversy on campus? A field behind our Student Center building has a new glass study space (it's a big glass box, basically) called the Pavilion with its own coffeeshop. Many students are angry about it because it competes directly with our independent, student-run coffeeshop, which operates out of an old broom closet. Why couldn't the administration upgrade what we already have, support student entrepreneurship, instead of bringing in a corporate shop? Lame. Students are boycotting it, and Rice students in general aren't activists at all, so that tells you how big a deal it was. -What's one experience you'll always remember? Here are a few of many: the fireworks at Matriculation, the insanity that is O-week, the time a random cute guy asked me out in the library, sneaking into the Med Center at night to climb inside the new Rainbow Building skyscraper with my friends, sleeping 3 nights in a row in the library during finals. Oh, here's a good one: when I first arrived at Rice for orientation week--literally, the moment my parents left me on the curb--an older man came up to me, shook my hand, and said "Hi, I'm David." I had no idea who he was, so I just smiled and said hi and my name. Later that night at matriculation, I watched him step onto the stage and realized that he was President Leebron! Pretty good example of how personal Rice is.

Rice is a great size, being large enough to not be stifling, but small enough that you get personal attention from staff and professors. There are always things to do on-campus (especially if you love free Chipotle). However, I feel like, despite what people will say, the college system is very restricting and doesn't give you enough (or really, any) choice in your housing situation.

The most important characteristic about Rice is its college system. This is generally the reason to hate or love Rice. It definitely has it's ups and downs, but in my opinion, it has more ups then downs. Being that you're living with the relatively same group of people for your 4 years means that you're able to make some really good friendships that would be hard to keep/make at other universities. And if it turns out you don't like this group of people, you're allowed to transfer colleges. Also, it allows you to make contacts and friends with upper-classmen, much more so than at other traditional universities. This allows you to have a resource when you need help that isn't a counselor, someone who has been through what you're going through. Also, it helps create a smaller "family" inside the overall Rice community that will be there for you and support you.