<p>The website is quite blunt in saying "Managerial studies is not the equivalent of an undergraduate business major at other universities." What is the closest equivalent? Or is there none?</p>
<p>No equivalent, unless you want to study economics. The managerial studies "major" is not a stand-alone major - you must tack it on to an existing major (and some students do rather interesting combos with it - I know a few biochemistry and managerial studies majors).</p>
<p>They're starting to offer a business minor this year, I'm pretty sure.</p>
<p>Is that the "prebusiness" option on the application? But as a minor, I'd need to tack it on to a major--which would mean more tuition right? How is the economics program at Rice?</p>
<p>Strategist, the tuition difference would be pretty negligible. You pay by credit hour, and you need to earn 120 credits to graduate (unless you are getting a double degree, i.e. BS and BA). At the minimum you'd be taking 12 hours a semester (assuming that you come in with 30+ AP credits - you still have to take 12 to be considered a full-time student), and if you take 8 semesters at 12 credit hours each, you could certainly fit in all the classes for, say, a major in ecominics + a minor in business. I think the economics major requires about 36 credit hours, or 12 classes, and other stipulations for getting a degree are taking 36 hours of distribution and 60 hours of classes 300-level or higher (the distribution and over-300-level can overlap, and classes for your major can also work for one distribution and the 300-level requirement).</p>
<p>
[quote]
But as a minor, I'd need to tack it on to a major--which would mean more tuition right?
[/quote]
Unless you are attending Rice part-time, you do not pay by the credit hour. I believe that fulltime is anything over 12 hours a semester; most kids take 15-17 hours, and you can take up to 20. You can take more than 20 hours, but you have to petition the Dean or something like that. Full-time tuition is one price, no matter how many hours you take.</p>
<p>anxiousmom, the number of hours taken does figure into tuition (see <a href="http://www.students.rice.edu/students/Tuition_Fees.asp)%5B/url%5D">http://www.students.rice.edu/students/Tuition_Fees.asp)</a>. I know because I dropped a class midway through one semester and received some fraction of the money back (after paying the drop fee).</p>
<p>Emilia - the link doesn't work. Did you get this refund during a summer session? Tuition IS hourly in the summer, but NOT during the regular school year. During the school year undergraduate full-time tuition is the same if you take anywhere from 12 to 20+ hours. (And I even called the Rice Cashier's Office to double-check this, since the Rice guide is unclear. She verified this info.) Less than 12 hours is considered part-time, and IS charged hourly. Hope this clarifies things! :)
Edit: I got the link to work... yes, there is an hourly rate listed; it is just for those few students attending Rice part-time. HTHs</p>
<p>The class I was talking about was during the schoolyear, not the summer. And dropping it did not take me below 12 hours.</p>
<p>Then I'm flummoxed! Maybe they made a mistake with your bill or ? - but the Cashier's office answered my question very clearly, and the information in the General Announcements seems to confirm this, and my rising senior daughter has taken a variety of hours of classes different semesters and we have ALWAYS been billed for the full-tuition amount. I want to make sure that any prospective students on this forum get the correct info - which is why I double-checked this question. I encourage you to check your records again, and/or call the cashier's office, so we can give any prospective students a definitive answer here.</p>
<p>Emilia, I have never heard of anyone getting refunded for dropping a class until now. I've dropped classes before, and it hasn't affected how much I'm paying. I've taken different hours of classes each semester, and it hasn't affected how much I'm paying.</p>
<p>The link you provided does work if you remove the close-parenthesis. The cost per hour on that page is figured for 12 hours a semester. I have not had to pay more because of taking 15+ hours a semester.</p>
<p>1) adding a business major to an econ degree will not make it a stretch to graduate in four years a stretch at all. At the moment, an econ degree requires 30 credits (I believe that is the correct number, give or take 3) plus a couple more in prerequisites if you come in without any AP math. I haven't looked at the business minor yet, but I would bet it's even fewer hours. Which puts you at, tops, 60 hours of required classes for your two majors (and from econ, you'd get a lot of overlap with business) and then another 45 in distribution requirements, bringing you up to right around a hundred, at most. And you have to have 120 credits to graduate from Rice.</p>
<p>As to Rice econ: </p>
<p>The econ is one of the more popular majors at Rice, so you don't necessarily have the really intimate, force you to get to know practically every professor in the department environment of some other social sciences at Rice. That said, there are still a lot of great resources there and a lot of opportunities, you just have to actually look for them - they aren't that hard to find, but they don't necessarily fall in your lap. From my experience, with a few exceptions, the professors are really good teachers and happy to offer guidance if you go to them. The intro classes are notoriously dull, but once you make it past those, the classes are great.</p>
<p>So I mentioned this to my mom when I spoke with her earlier, and she said that a few hundred dollars was refunded to my account after dropping the class, but she doesn't remember the exact amount or anything else about the situation (though I know it wasn't any financial aid/scholarship). I looked at my Esther stuff and don't see the refund - it's just the bare minimum info on those pages with the tuition amount charged being the same as listed for the entering class of 05. This whole situation happened two years ago, so I see little point in investigating any further. So while my mom remains convinced that they charge by the hour (as she constantly chides me to not take so many...), I'm guessing you guys are probably right and that, as long as you take 12+ hours during the regular school year, you just pay the flat rate listed per your entry year.</p>