I may join Rice University next year but I have some questions that are decisive to me:
-Which colleges have a bathroom inside the dorm/suite?
-Do athletes have any priviledge for choosing a college or get better dorms?
-Is there any choice to earn a better dorm?
-How are the “public bathrooms”?
College assignments are random unless you are a legacy. Legacies have the option to choose the legacy College.
All the dorms have access to “good bathrooms” - clean, well maintained. Majority of the dorm rooms have private bath that are provided with toilet paper and trash removal and one per week cleaning. Communal baths are cleaned regularly.
You can look up the various residential college layouts online. Example http://www.martel.rice.edu/new-students/rooms-at-martel/
The residential colleges are all unique and were built at different times. My D was randomly assigned to Martel, one of the relatively new residential colleges. Athletes are dispersed throughout the residential colleges. Residents of each residential college think theirs is the best college. Martel has suites for freshmen-- either 4 students to a suite with a private bath or 6 students to a suite with a private bath. Some upperclassmen have singles. My freshman D is in a 6 person suite that has a common living room, 3 bedrooms and a bath–2 stall toilets, 2 showers and 2 sinks. The college cleans the bathrooms. Students fill out a very extensive questionnaire before they are assigned to a dorm/roommate. Some of the questions ask whether you want an in suite or hall bath or have no preference. My D wanted in suite and got it. The public bathrooms that I have visited at the Student Center, the Shepherd School, and near the dining hall are clean and modern. The ones in the football stadium stands are very old and need a refresh.
I think that, generally, if you want “better” dorms in the US (larger, more privacy, better bath), you pay for it. I don’t really think there’s a way for most students to “earn” it? What would they do to qualify?
At my son’s college some students were put in triples while renovations were underway in other dorms. Students who wanted a double or a single, or a suite type set up instead of a standard dorm, paid more.
If a student desired access to a kitchen, is that the kind of thing one could request?
At Rice all the dorms cost the same. Once you are assigned to a college they pay close attention to your preferences so if you express a desire to be located close to the communal kitchen you’ll likely get your wish.
@prodesse All residential colleges have at least one kitchen that’s open to student use, so that’s not something that would affect which college you’re in (although, as was mentioned, perhaps it might affect where you’re living inside your college’s building).
My daughter has probably the worst possible bathroom arrangement – in the Old Dorm of Will Rice, on a floor where the communal bathroom is for men, so you have to go to a different floor for the women’s communal bathroom. There’s a single women’s bathroom on the floor, so you don’t have to go to a different floor any time you need to, ah, go. Anyway – she’s as happy as a clam and could not care less about the bathroom arrangement. Our kids are adaptable and resilient.