<p>I fell in love with Rice and was so sure that I was destined to be there. I also loved it when I visited, but I also felt like something was missing.</p>
<p>I'm a very right-brained, creative, artsy person and I'd like to major in psychology and graphic design. I love fashion and I like to dress up a bit. Sometimes I get a few looks from my fellow homogenous prep school friends, and I want to break free from the social mold. I love vintage, 80s movies, classic rock music. My ideal guy would be cute, quirky, silly, and not afraid to dress a little weird. I love to talk intellectually and philosophize. I DO NOT drink or do drugs due to personal reasons. What I love about Rice is the residential college system because I feel like it is a built-in family. However, I am worried that being surrounded by engineers and science and math majors will get overwhelming. And to be honest, I want to date a bit in college too.</p>
<p>Right now I'm leaning towards Wesleyan based on my preferences. However, there are so many things that Rice has and Wesleyan doesn't have: residential college system is a big one, but drug use is not very apparent at all at Rice and I've heard that the people are friendlier. I don't know which one to choose!</p>
<p>I'd also like some clarification some rumors about Wes. I'm also a bit concerned that the people at Wesleyan are a little willy-nilly when it comes to sex. I want to have sex in college, but I don't want multiple partners. I also don't want to be around close-minded, overly liberal individuals. Last of all, I don't want to smoke or drink now and I can't see myself doing much of it in college. Will this be rough?</p>
<p>One of my sons attended Wes, the other son attended Rice. Wes son did not smoke or drink and had no pressure from friends at Wes to do so. He loved Wes, it was perfect fit for him.
Rice son wound up majoring in fine arts and was disappointed in the lack of funding for the dept. and the limited class offerings. He did make many friends and the campus is spectacular. There is much drinking at Rice, which he did not participate in, but a few of his friends had some trouble keeping up with the workload while over-partying. You can message me if you’d like more details.</p>
<p>Jacdad’s post is an ideal response to Aerobug, and since I have never been to Rice, but am a Wesleyan alum whose son is a current sophomore, let me comment on a few questions that you raised. First, my son has NO pressure to drink or use drugs, and he is in a very steady, monogamous relationship with a young woman he met there last year. Regarding “closed-minded, liberal individuals”, well, my son is a liberal politically, but one of his best friends there is a conservative Republican. While Wesleyan gives students a lot of freedom, the other side of that is that freedom extends to everybody, including the substance free and politically agnostic students. I have written at length on another thread about the wonderful, fairly unique intellectual atmosphere at Wesleyan, which is partly the result of innovative major programs like the College of Letters and College of Social Studies, as well as the incredible array of lecturers who come to campus and the unusual variety of art and music exhibitions there. Finally, while Wesleyan no longer has residential colleges, they do have a wide variety of Program Houses that you could choose:</p>
<p>Hello!I do not know which to choose between Rice and Wes, either. I am an international student. Could you give me some advice about the atmosphere in both places?
Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Another alternative would be either Vassar or Skidmore. "Creativity matters’ is/was a Skidmore slogan. Also, there is no social mold at Vassar - the school is a mix of very creative individuals who are very accepting of each other. The freshman fellows program at Vassar works well and you bond with your ‘fellow group’ during freshman year. Your fellow group are freshmen who live on your floor. Since there are mixed upperclassmen and freshmen in dorms, it helps ‘ground’ the freshman experience. Since I have no experience with Rice, I can’t comment but Wesleyan is probably more similar to Vassar. You may want to look at a few more schools to have more options in the spring.</p>