<p>Each has its own personality, right? And all the members were chosen pretty much randomly, right? Does that work? And which house fills which niche or has which personality? It's just been kindof hard finding out! Thanksalot!</p>
<p>It's kind of hard finding out because it's not particularly set in stone...</p>
<p>Members <em>are</em> (supposedly) chosen for each residential college at random. Therefore, no college has one set personality, since it's sort of luck-of-the-draw.</p>
<p>Wiess tends to have a lot of spirit. They never have mottos, and they have the "Battle Sow", which is (used to be?) a large inflatable floating yellow pig that was... liberated... by an opposing college member one Beer Bike a few years ago</p>
<p>Sid Rich is tall. I lived there, and every Christmas, my roommate and I would get a live, full-sized Christmas tree and put it in our large bay window on the upper-fifth floor facing campus, and we'd come back to find random people sitting in our room, eating our candy canes and singing Christmas carols. Odd, but cool.</p>
<p>Lovett is shaped like a toaster and has riot-proof cladding. In recent years, it's been known as the "party college", but I'm not sure I buy into that... It's got the DIRTIEST college cheer known to mankind. It's really quite amazing.</p>
<p>Will Rice is kind of falling apart recently, but has a lot of heart and a lot of enthusiasm for Beer Bike, and it's where I was in a musical that was a Gilbert & Sullivan original adaptation of Dr. Seuss's "The Butter Battle"...</p>
<p>Hanszen has a new commons and a really good cafeteria, and it's where the other people in my cool jazzy chick band lived... I was orchestra mommy for the Hanszen production of My Fair Lady there several years ago, as my boyfriend was the orchestra conductor.</p>
<p>Baker's where they have BakerShake, which is the annual Shakespeare production. It's always really good. They've got a really neat commons, having been the first residential college. The college is named after William Marsh Rice's lawyer, Captain James Baker, who figured out that Rice's valet and other lawyer had murdered Rice and had conspired to steal all the money that was going towards the founding of the university. So... hoo-hah, Captain Baker. Thanks.</p>
<p>Jones is one of the North colleges, and so is Brown. Unfortunately, all the South college members are brainwashed to think of Jones being the same as Brown, so we can't remember a whole lot about them. Jones has the fairy fountain, which is where everyone gets dunked on their birthday, and they also have the JIBA chant (Jones is Bad-Ass). Brown... hunh.... Well, they've got a nice commons! And I've got some good friends there... My O-week advisor was from Brown. I'm sure Brown has a personality of its own, and I'm sure it's quite lovely. One thing: it's really quiet over there, which is really nice.</p>
<p>And finally, Martel! Martel is new, and their facilities are incredibly nice. I ate at Martel a lot my senior year. They sort of used to be filled with all the bitter people who didn't like their old colleges and put in for transfers, but that's gotten less true as time has gone on. They're working on new traditions all the time, and they've got a crazy Greco-thang going on, as the Martel family is from Greece, originally.</p>
<p>And......erk!!.....MARTELISNOTACOLLEGE.....!! Oh, i tried so hard not to say it, but my Sid Rich heritage comes back way too strong. ;) Apologies to Shann and Will!</p>
<p>Aibarr did a really good job on that. I had answered a similar question several months ago... here is a reprint from then:</p>
<p>Lovett - Kind of the frat house of rice - loud, drunken and throws pretty decent parties. But I live there and don't drink, so go figure.</p>
<p>Will Rice - A very sober place. Quiet, friendly, and bad food. One of Rice's oldest colleges, but very pretty.</p>
<p>Wiess - They kind of keep to themselves. They have this crazy "TeamWiess" thing going on. They think they are better than everyone, but they are just jealous. They throw NOD, one of the craziest parties of the year.</p>
<p>Baker - Beautiful commons, but it smells funny. A lot of nice traditions like freshman camping and Christmas tree hunt. The oldest college. Looks a lot like Will Rice.</p>
<p>Brown/Jones - basically the same place. Both have recently been redone so they have very nice commons, and they have good food. North colleges, so they are far from things, and people don't go to their parties as much.</p>
<p>Martel - not a college. Well, it kind of is, but since it's so new people have taken to calling it Martel Dormitory. Beautiful rooms, but not a lot of tradition (yet...) North College.</p>
<p>Hanszen - Stayed here for owl weekend. Really friendly people, but somewhat lacking in a personality of their own. They share their food service with Wiess. Nice, 2-level commons. They have this sculpture of a knight outside and they are very protective of it, I don't know why. They have lame cheers, but I love them anyway.</p>
<p>Sid Richardson - They think they are awesome because they have a very tall building, but actually they are just a colony of Lovett (Lovett used to have the land that sid is built on). They do primal scream every night at midnight during finals. They throw 80s party which is great. It has a live band and you can dance like a total idiot on a table and just tell people that these are your 80s moves.</p>
<p>Fun facts:</p>
<p>Sid Rich didn't used to have a live band for 80s party, but since we ran across Molly and the Ringwalds, we haven't looked back! ;)</p>
<p>Also, Sid isn't really a colony! Lovett just thinks it is! =)</p>
<p>sounds cool, kind of like a big wad of family. rice just moved up 3 on my list!</p>
<p>Oh, it's cool. </p>
<p>and Amy - the band was awesome! But Sid's still a colony.</p>
<p>Yeah, yeah... keep up with your "Martel is not a college" B.S... you'd think Rice students could back up their claims but the evidence is against you. :-)</p>
<p>And Amy, to be fair, how could we leave out...
"Death from behind! Sid Rich sucks!" ;-)</p>
<p>unfortunately, Jones' JIBA cheer translates to 'pussy' or 'crooked erection' in Chinese... which makes their cheer dirtier than Lovett's if you look at it from a different perspective.</p>
<p>yall should see that thing on Rice TV request called "Action Algebra Prank" from Feb. 23, 2005. this was a jack Martel did on Jones, and we basically just kept on requesting it for the whole Willy Week so the whole campus would see our little-known prank.</p>
<p>HAVE to ruin jones's party... no further comment.</p>
<p>I don't understand about these dorm stereotypes. If people are placed in there randomly, how can certain members of colleges behave in a certain way? For example, why is Lovett known as a party college if it has the same members statistically as the others?</p>
<p>well its possible that people are swayed by that "sterotype" to become that way.</p>
<p>You just have one or two years next to each other in Lovett that are full of partiers, and the following years just keep up the streak because they're used to it.</p>