<p>to anybody at Rice (or really ANYONE that has experience with the program) how would you rank the policy studies major? I'm looking at the major (it would be a second major, the first being either history or sociology) and I would like to have a concentration in international relations. How does the program stack up? are the profs open and willing to do research w/ the students? are there many speakers? chances for internships? Also, are Rice grads. getting into the top law schools? thanks.</p>
<p>anyone majoring in a social science at Rice? I'm also kind of interested in Sociology. Any input is great, thanks</p>
<p>DD is an anth major (now..) - she really enjoys her anth classes, and has close ties with some profs.... someone else chime in here! There is the center for civic engagement (or something like that) and leadership rice, etc - where you can get paid internships and ops to do things... peruse the rice website! :)</p>
<p>I'm a sociology major (although I'm pre-med). Sociology faculty have won the most teaching awards per capita of any rice dept. I think there are several really outstanding profs in the department.</p>
<p>The policy studies major is perhaps the loosest major requirement ever. (It's my second major - as it cannot be your only major, my first major is econ.) The requirements are basically 2 policy studies classes (both two of my favorite classes I've had at Rice) an intro econ class, and then for the other 7 classes, you basically find classes from anywhere in the social sciences department having something to do with your concentration and get them approved by the major advisor.<br>
With a major as loose as that, you can do one of two things - find the easiest classes in the university and treat it as a total blow-off, or find some really good classes and actually learn something that really interests you. So there's a lot of potential, you just have to seek it out.<br>
With all of the social science departments to draw from, you definitely have a lot of good resources. There aren't really any policy studies professors (aside from the one who teaches the two required courses and is director of the program) so you would probably be drawing on profs from your first major to do research (especially if you're somthing like sociology which has a lot of overlap). I don't know how easy it actually is to line up professors for research projects (I'm working on finding profs for my senior research projects right now for econ and it seems to be going well, but I can't say for sure yet) but I do know several people who did a senior thesis for history and had no problem getting faculty support.
The Baker Institute has a lot of great events going on throughout the year. Check out <a href="http://bakerinstitute.org/Event_List.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://bakerinstitute.org/Event_List.cfm</a> to see some of their past events to get an idea. Also, a lot of their events are actually initiated through the student forum, so you can get involved and actually create an event/invite a speaker that really interests you.</p>
<p>Bumping this up… I haven’t heard much from students about how pre-law is at Rice. I’m pretty much down to 24 hours to make a decision. Any insights about pre-law and law school admission at Rice?</p>
<p>Law school admission is something like 95%</p>
<p>Which schools are you deciding between/among besides Rice?</p>
<p>Rice does extremely well at top law schools. Here’s a sample of how Rice stacks up against other schools regarding Harvard Law School:</p>
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</p>
<p>17 Rice students were enrolled at Harvard Law School in 2005-2006.</p>
<p>Harvard Law School Per Capita Numbers, Top 20 (2006):</p>
<p>Rank Name Ratio
1 Harvard University 6.80
2 Yale University 11.69
3 Stanford University 20.67
4 Amherst College 22.68
5 Princeton University 22.76
6 Swarthmore College 28.90
7 Brown University 29.98
8 Dartmouth College 30.69
9 Williams College 31.47
10 Columbia University 36.07
11 Rice University 40.11
12 Duke University 42.05
13 Pomona College 42.56
14 University of Pennsylvania 44.77
15 Georgetown University 48.47
16 Brandeis University 67.18
17 Cornell University 69.07
18 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 71.14
19 University of California-Berkeley 85.44
20 Emory University 89.93</p>
<p>Sorry about accidentally repeating hotasice’s info …
I’ve also heard that Stanford Law really likes Rice students, but don’t have any numbers.</p>
<p>Baker Institute (non-partisan think tank) has a wonderful student forum where students can do research or work on events… [James</a> A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Rice University | Students | The Baker Institute Student Forum](<a href=“http://www.bakerinstitute.org/students/student_forum.cfm]James”>http://www.bakerinstitute.org/students/student_forum.cfm)</p>
<p>Also, lots of majors serve well … history, philosophy, poli sci, sociology, etc.</p>
<p>I’m pre-law. Before you get to college, it’s important to realize that most pre-professional “tracks” at top schools don’t mean much. You may know this, but I’ll go over it anyway because I didn’t when I was in your position and a lot of prospies on this forum may be equally unaware. There’s plenty of advising available for students who want to go to med/law/business school, but beyond that you can pretty much do what you want. Law school admissions are almost entirely based on LSAT scores and your GPA. Little consideration is given for ECs and specific coursework. Unlike the pre-med track, “pre-law” doesn’t have a specific set of courses that you should take for law school admission. If you’re a chemistry major with a solid GPA and you do well on the LSAT, you have just as good of a chance of getting into the same law schools as a political science major with similar stats.</p>
<p>That being said, although everyone is always talking about the Texas Medical Center and pre-med at Rice, we have extremely solid law school admissions. I had never seen what hotasice posted before this, but that definitely made me happy. Also, we have a lot of lawyers floating around campus. President Leebron graduated from Harvard Law and was the Dean of Columbia Law School for eight years before coming to Rice. And compared to most college presidents, the guy is fairly accessible. One of my friends has talked to him about his days at Harvard Law.</p>
<p>You can also check out this website. It should answer most of your questions: [Rice</a> University | Pre Law](<a href=“http://www.studentjudicialprograms.rice.edu/prelaw/ThePrelawMajor.html]Rice”>http://www.studentjudicialprograms.rice.edu/prelaw/ThePrelawMajor.html)</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision, and feel free to post on here or send me a private message if you have any specific questions!</p>