<p>so i live in NJ. I went to visit Rice this weekend. Before visitng, I was thinking about applying ED, but afterwards I'm not so sure. the tour guide was pretty lackluster, and there didn't seem to be anyone around at all. Granted, it was a Saturday, but it left me feelng a little underwhelmed. i didn't feel like i really got a good sense of the campus. now i don't think i'll be applying ED. is Rice usually like this on the weekends? I guess it was frustrating because I really wanted to like Rice. I really liked its happiest students ranking in the Princeton Review, but I guess I just wasn't feeling that. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Visiting on a weekend can definitely give you a different feel for a school. Rice feels totally different on weekends than during the week. I was one of the few students out and about on Saturday and I happened to see a few tour groups. Most of my friends were still asleep. Campus is just pretty dead that time of the day (especially on Sundays!).</p>
<p>Do you have specific questions about student life? It truly is an amazing place, and I’m sorry you weren’t able to experience it during the week. A few of my friends that are tour guides are so much fun to be around, but I guess they don’t give tours on Saturdays.</p>
<p>This weekend (yesterday) or last weekend? Last weekend was our fall break (4 day weekend in the middle of the semester), so LOTS of people were out of town either visiting home or going places with friends. For example, my entire residential college organized a camping trip on the beach, one group of friends camped in central texas, another group spent the weekend in New Orleans. If you meant yesterday, we’re smack in the middle of midterms! Rice’s social life is really centered in the colleges - so while people may not be chilling out in the central quad, it doesn’t mean things aren’t going on (ex. there were definitely 4 different huge parties this weekend in addition to other events).</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman at Rice and I applied ED last year. I was only able to visit the school once before applying, and I had a similarly underwhelming experience on the campus tour. The guide wasn’t as engaging as most of us on the tour would have liked, so that was disappointing. But when I was able to explore the campus with my family (on our own)–that was when I fell in love with the school. I think it’s a wise decision to choose to apply RD considering Rice doesn’t seem to be your first choice, but I also think that you should take a bit more time to reflect on your visit and possibly consider the aspects of the school that you are fond of/that do attract you. </p>
<p>Most people that I know are currently in intense study mode–it’s midterm exam time and most people were indoors (or out on the benches in front of their respective colleges, as I’ve seen a lot of people do) and studying during that time yesterday. On weekend mornings/afternoons students are for the most part either participating in/watching a sports event on campus, studying (individually or in groups), sleeping in, or taking the shopping shuttle to Fiesta or Target; it’s basically a time when most of us try to catch up on everything that we were too busy to do during the week. </p>
<p>To answer your question regarding the “Happiest Students” Ranking: I’m sure there are unhappy people here–because there are unhappy people everywhere–but whomever they are, I haven’t met them. I love Rice–the people, the campus, the location, the opportunities. I can’t imagine being anywhere else and I’m sorry that you didn’t have the greatest of experiences on your visit here, but trust me–it is THE place to be and if you are accepted and you decide to give it another chance and attend…you won’t be sorry. It is an amazing place to be–as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best place to be.</p>
<p>Weekend mornings are a little slow; everybody is sleeping in after a busy week and going to breakfast/lunch with their friends before getting themselves together and getting stuff done before the night starts. However, the campus starts to get active in the early- to mid-afternoon. The weekend nights here are so fun. This weekend there were three or four crazy parties to go to, and Hanszen had several exciting sports matches (as I’m sure every college did). There’s a lot to do on the weekend - it just may not be incredibly obvious. Did you have an overnight visit? If you didn’t, I would recommend that, as we have a plethora of great hosts that can really show you the excitement of Rice that makes us have such happy students.</p>
<p>I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like Rice, and who doesn’t love the social life here. One bad visit may have just been bad timing. I would highly recommend coming for an overnight visit if you want to be sure whether or not you want to apply ED; I like to think the other matchers and I do a good job of matching prospective students with hosts, and I know so many hosts that are amazing at showing a prospective how awesome life at Rice can be.</p>
<p>My D just had her overnight visit Thursday night and fell even more in love with Rice (I didn’t think that was possible). ED for her for sure - now the praying begins!!!</p>
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<p>No. Rice, like any other University, will appeal to a certain group of people. It is possible that Rice just isn’t the place for you. It is also possible that you visited at the wrong time, and thus had a lackluster visit.</p>
<p>The most important thing about going to college is going to a place that makes you happy. Rice is amazing and it was the perfect place for me. Think about it and then see where you really want to go.</p>
<p>Many years ago, we visited Rice on a Saturday morning around 11, and found it deserted. DD had a seriously underwhelming visit. Silly us - we were not attuned to college life schedules and didn’t realize that most folks were still sleeping. Both my kids attended Rice and loved their time there. If anything, they felt like they did not have enough time to participate in all the fun things that were happening on campus and off.</p>
<p>When my son was accepted - he had never visited the campus - he and my wife took the first plane to Houston and landed at Rice at the beginning of a four day weekend. The visit was a little more helpful than the virtual tour online. But they did love Houston.</p>
<p>He and I went back a couple of weeks later for Owl Days and the real action took place at night and indoors when he met and interacted with a lot of Rice students. That’s why he decided to attend.</p>
<p>On a similar note, the college tour season started for us when I had to go to San Francisco for a two day business trip in November of my son’s junior year. I took my son along and he visited Stanford on Friday and Berkeley on Saturday. He couldn’t believe how dull Berkeley was. In other words, there was no one out on Saturday AM.</p>
<p>I visited Rice on Columbus Day when no one was there… I fell IN LOVE.
Maybe if you didn’t like Rice, you shouldn’t go there? I personally loved everything about it and our tour guide was very bubbly and about as knowledgeable as you could expect… All in all, I reaffirmed my choice to apply there ED.</p>