I am a high school senior who is planning on applying to Rice within the next month. I visited Rice this past July and I really enjoyed everything I heard on the campus tour and information session, along with the overall atmosphere of campus.
However, a few people I know that have attended Rice have told me some things about the college that worried me. One of my friends who recently graduated was a pre-med student, and another studied business/finance at Rice. They both told me that while they thought Rice was a great school, the student body was very cutthroat and hyper-competitive, which they had not expected when they decided to go. They also said it is too STEM focused (I have no idea if this is true), and I’m very much a humanities person and I am applying as a social sciences major, so if true, it might not be the right school for me.
This is completely opposite to what I was told on my tour, and when I did an on campus interview. My tour guide talked about how collaborative the student body is and how everyone is willing to help each other, and the admissions officer I interviewed with told me the same thing.
So, my question is, for everyone who is a current Rice student, alum, or parent of a student, which of these perspectives do you think is more accurate? One of my biggest things I’m looking for is a student body that isn’t cutthroat and is very collaborative and is not only STEM focused. Do you think Rice fits that?
Hi there! I am a current Rice freshman and I can assure you, it is not cutthroat or competitive at all. As a new student, I’ve been given SO much help by upperclassmen who are always willing to offer help/advise with academics, social issues, etc. A lot of students also willingly volunteer to give up 2 or 3 hours a day to serve as tutors for any subject. It is STEM based and you will find almost everyone here is doing something STEM-related, but I don’t feel awkward or insecure at all as a social science major. There’s still a LOT of support, resources, and flexibility for non-STEM majors, and you’ll get a lot of help from all kinds of students and professors. Rice is honestly as great as it claims itself to be and I am in no way just saying that because I attend it - I say it because it is true.
The student body is definitely not cutthroat or hyper competitive as you've heard--there is so much collaboration that happens that I'm not to sure where to begin to describe :) Basically, the college system allows for a lot of shared work, and there's a very strong sense of community. Beyond the colleges, there are countless groups and organizations that focus on various topics--I don't think you'll experience any sort of cutthroat behavior. I certainly never felt that.
I was a humanities and social science double major, and I never felt alone or out of place. Rice is currently about 25% Natural Sciences, 23% Engineering, 23% Social Sciences (inc. Architecture), and 19% Humanities (inc. Music). So while there's definitely a (slight) STEM bias, Rice is in no way a STEM-only school. On the one hand, it's great having many friends in STEM fields (makes your conversations more interesting!), and on the other hand, you still have a very strong community of humanities/social sciences people. Professors are excellent and are very accessible. Rice has invested a lot recently especially in its School of Social Sciences, and with the new dean there are further exciting things on the horizon :)
I’m sure others can add more, and please feel free to ask anything further! Good luck!
I have a current student attending Rice and she has commented that it’s not nearly as competitive as other schools such as some that she has friends attending. She has gotten a tremendous amount of support from faculty and fellow students.
My daughter is a sophomore at Rice in social science. One of the perks of social science being slightly off the beaten track is there is a lot of great opportunities and the student and faculty are very close knit. My daughter got a paid, not work study, research position as a freshman. Rice is far less cut-throat then any of the other elite universities in part because it is the smallest. Remember rated number one happiest students. That being said people do study a lot.
Rice is not a cut-throat competitive environment at all, far from it. I can’t believe anyone who has attended Rice would say that. Very supportive atmosphere
There is some truth to the idea that it is stem-focused, while there are plenty of social science and humanities students, STEM is a big part of Rice. You shouldn’t let that put you off if you aren’t STEM though.
Another current student here: I can vouch for Rice definitely NOT being cutthroat or super competitive. Everyone is supportive and no one is out to get you. We all want each other to do well!