<p>Applicannot,
Sorry to read your comment on Texas and how that is stopping you from applying to Rice. For starters, Rice is its own community and displays many qualities that you would likely find attractive, eg, the race/integration issue that is the subject of this thread.</p>
<p>Second, I wonder if you’ve ever been to Texas or spent much time there. Frequently when I hear or read such comments, they often come from someone who gets their news from the NY Times/Washington Post/Boston Globe and/or CBS/NBC/ABC News. The mischaracterizations of Texas by the mainstream media are about as accurate as calling all of California the land of fruits and nuts or considering all of New York state as arrogant, greedy Wall Streeters. </p>
<p>Third, Rice’s hometown of Houston is a truly international city with a rich variety of experiences on offer and lots of warm, friendly, proud people who will gladly show it to you.</p>
<p>Well, for starters, Texas requires women to pay for their own rape kits after being raped. If your son is murdered, are you required to pay for the investigation!? That’s ridiculous. It might be a small thing, but it’s a huge deterrent to me. Coming from the general liberal Northeast, I can’t imagine living somewhere with that kind of double standard view of women. I’m sure the people in Texas are fine - especially in Houston, which I’ve only heard good things about - but I just can’t imagine living there. It’s a huge deterimental factor. Rice would have to be unbelievably perfect for me to apply there. I know it seems petty, but I’m all about fit. Fit is the most important thing for me.</p>
<p>That said, that’s not really why I’m not looking at Rice. I’m really not looking at schools that are more than 2-8 hours from where I live. Stanford was a momentary interest (not perfect enough to be that far!) and WUSTL is just about perfect in every other aspect, so I’ve given it leeway. </p>
<p>Texas is also hot. Really hot. All year round.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, since you and the other poster have said such good things about Rice, I WILL check it out. Do you go to Rice?</p>
<p>It took me about one minute using google to get this info.</p>
<p>I’ve grown up around northeast liberals and spend most of my working days in close contact with them. They are the most open minded people you would ever want to meet except when it comes to Catholics, southerners (especially Texans) and conservatives. They generally open up to me because they think I’m one of them. I dress and look the part, have the same tastes, and grew up in their neighborhoods and went to their schools. I could spend all night telling stories about how difficult it is for them to deal with facts, to accept that there really are conservatives who know how to read, that three of the ten largest cities in the US are in Texas, that a disproportionate share of the best 20th century writers came from the South, etc.</p>
<p>What can you say to someone who rejects Rice University because it’s in Texas? How does this sound? I won’t consider MIT because it’s in Massachusetts. Pretty sophisticated, huh?</p>
<p>you want to pick a school where the administration cares about all of its students, where administration tries to create an open/safe atmosphere where everyone’s comfortable at the school. there’s more to people than meets the eye, i don’t think one should go to a cafeteria see a bunch of white people sitting together with a few black kids, asian kids and hispanic kids and automatically assume that’s integration. When I went to college, I hung out with cool people, didn’t matter what color their skin was. I’m chinese, I had a lot of asian friends because I liked them, not because they were asian, I made very few black friends but I don’t go around trying to find a black friend so I can feel good about myself. I have a problem with the general American perception of diversity and integration.</p>
<p>My go-to feminist resource didn’t post their own recant? I’m appalled. I had no idea this was bogus. If they never posted anything about this being bogus, it’s probably time for me to switch feminist resources. So, I totally reposition my stance there - I stand corrected. No big deal. Thanks for pointing out the facts. Knowing this does help me rethink my aversion to Texas, as that was a huge factor (especially because Rice is in Houston, which is well-regarded).</p>
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<p>Wait… what? Why not? I’m doing everything I can NOT to go to school in Maryland. I also wouldn’t go to school in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, North or South Dakota, Montana, Michigan, Vermont, Maine, Georgia, Florida, Delaware, New Hampshire… etc. etc. If you’re directing this at me, I also specifically stated that the primary reason I wasn’t considering Rice was because I was looking at schools 2-8 hours from my home. Is it unsophisticated not to look at MIT because it’s a technical school or Amherst because it’s an LAC? If so, then “sophistication” isn’t really important to me.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I ****ed you off, but I didn’t mean to. If Rice was in Alaska, I would have said the same thing and for the same reasons (other than the rape kit thing and, as I said, I stand corrected). If it was in New Mexico, North Dakota, Kansas, California, Maine, or Florida, I would have said the same thing - Death by location. Money, comfort, familiarity, and ease dictate that I stay close to home. If this isn’t a factor for you, you can go on your merry way. It IS a factor to me, no matter WHAT far away state we’re talking about.</p>
<p>I’ve looked at Rice like I said I would and I like the sound of it so far - definitely. I wish it were larger (expansion impending) and I wish it were closer to home (I’d have to get a tremendously good financial aid package, which is likely because it’s a 100% need / no loans school). I’ll have to add it to my list of schools to research beyond a primary glance, so thanks to the posters who have been helpful about it.</p>
<p>Look…everyone should back off applicannot. If he/she dudnt want to come to Rice because it’s in Texas, then that’s their opinion that theyre entitled too. We already have way too many Yankees in Texas anyways.</p>
Could y’all make an exception for my son? He really likes Rice and UT and has watched every episode of Friday Night Lights and would fit in just fine. :)</p>
<p>Applicanot could be one of the few honest people on this board. Nothing wrong with saying you won’t go to school in a certain state. I call that honesty. A lot more honest than people who only apply to colleges in the northeast but won’t admit they have zero interest in schools in other regions of the country, in part because they believe the only schools worth attending are in the northeast but won’t say it. </p>
<p>The earth would have to move off its axis to get me to live in the South (and that includes places like Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma) for college or a job. I admit that I can neither relate to nor do I care for Southern culture. It does not matter that the most prestigious southern institutions of higher learning have abundant numbers of students from elsewhere. My body would still be IN the SOUTH, and the region and its ugly history and flag give me the creeps.</p>
<p>So let’s cut the crap and be honest We all have biases and preferences. I prefer the Midwest, West Coast and Northeast, in that order. Oh yeah, I grew up in the Northeast and have real issues with the region’s culture, but not enough to put the South ahead of it.</p>
<p>I was happy to see your chance thread in the Rice forum applicannot :)</p>
<p>And Plainsman… whatever floats your boat I guess. Personally, I think a region’s history is a horrible reason to dislike a place. Bad things have happened EVERYWHERE. Same thing goes for the culture. The culture of an area is something you have to experience, and something that can vary wildly from one area to the next. Your blanket statements are unfounded, the South does not have one single culture, except for the stereotypical one that others put on it.</p>
<p>I think Plainsman and I agree on a lot of what s/he said. But unlike Plainsman (and Plainsman, I am NOT saying you’re wrong - I’m just saying we’re different), there are some factors that, for me, outweigh geographic location. Like WashU, Rice is one of those schools where, as I’m finding, the potential positives outweigh living in the South. Also, I will probably never live anywhere but the east coast (my dream city is DC, anyway). So spending four years in a completely different geographical location COULD be an experience for me to have and enjoy. To be honest (don’t yell at me!) spending four years in Texas would be the equivalent of spending four years ABROAD! Look, I have a lot of preconcieved notions and like Plainsman, I don’t and don’t want to let go of them easily. But if the school is good enough, it’s a good opportunity for new exposure.</p>
<p>Also, schee410, students like you are one of the reasons that I’m seriously looking at Rice. Even though I explicitly and WRONGLY degraded Texas in my former posts, you’ve still been welcoming. Even though I’m a probably a Yank, you’ve still been welcoming. I mean, I have a LOT to learn from people like you. And from what I’ve seen here, Rice is full of people like that. It could be a learning experience in many more ways than one.</p>
<p>St. Louis, Wash U’s location, is by no means the South, at all. There’s very little southern about it. It’s a midwestern city, not a southern one.</p>
<p>As for the comment upthread:
</p>
<p>The Northeast has the largest concentration of Catholics in the country. It’s not the Northeast where they don’t consider Catholics to be Christians! Personally, as someone who grew up in the Northeast, I was used to plenty of Catholics, plenty of Jewish people, and then people who identified their religion by a specific denomination – Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, etc. No one called themselves “Christian” - Christian was just the word that identified what you have when you put Catholics and Protestants together.</p>
<p>“I’ve grown up around northeast liberals and spend most of my working days in close contact with them. They are the most open minded people you would ever want to meet except when it comes to Catholics, southerners (especially Texans) and conservatives.”</p>
<p>I would also add midwesterners to that list, especially people who live around cornfields. The constant “shock” about Iowa, for example is annoying, i.e. "how did IOWA become the first state to go for Obama and legalize gay marriage? It is insulting and close minded. How do they know what midwesterners are like if they most likely haven’t even been in “fly over country”?</p>
<p>Thanks for your post bird rock, I laughed out loud.</p>
<p>That’s one of the students I chose Rice over Emory and Duke… the students were a lot nicer and collaborative at Rice than at the other schools (although all the schools tend to have a collaborative/friendly/laid back atmosphere, I thought Rice had it to a greater degree). Plus, I feel that everyone at Rice will be interesting; we are all quirky in our own ways (I’m very quirky, so hopefully that means I will fit in well).</p>
<p>Got it, applicannot. Sorry for my misreading.</p>
<p>Agree with the “shock” over Iowa. Nothing shocking to those who live in the midwest. Wisconsin and Minnesota have quite progressive histories, and Iowa is an extremely tolerant state IMO. They have that Hindu city there (the name escapes me) plus the Orthodox Jewish area in Postville. I think the stereotype of small-town people who aren’t tolerant of anything other than small-town America doesn’t describe the upper midwest, at all.</p>
<p>BTW… my previous post was directed at applicannot and was supposed to start off as follows: “That’s one of the reasons I chose Rice over Emory and Duke…”</p>