<p>@ JohnAdams: Yes, Rice did have the highest suicide rate in the 1970s, but those were different times. Men and women lived in separate dorms, the residential college system was not as established, and the classes were simply brutal at the time (supposedly, almost 50 percent of incoming students, who were all bright, failed introductory calculus because the grading standards were too tough).</p>
<p>However, Rice is a totally different place now. Rice students are closely engaged in the residential college system, the grading standards became more reasonable (through hard work, any one can do well at Rice), all the dorms are coed (I’m sure this reduced the suicide rate tremendously), and most Rice professors are now more focused on undergraduate teaching than before. Princeton Review ranked us #1 for Best Quality of Life and #8 for Happiest Students this past year. These rankings are based on student satisfaction surveys given at each university by Princeton Review. The Daily Beast ranked us #4 for Happiest Students, behind Pomona, Scripps College, and some other school this past March.</p>
<p>JohnAdams, wake up! It is not the 70s anymore. If anything, you are misleading prospective high school students by giving information from what you read in the 1970s. I’ve spent the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010 at Rice, and I know plenty of future engineers, scientists, architects, etc. at Rice. Almost all agree that Rice students are laid-back in that they are not going to care what grades you get or what clothes you wear. They also make sure they have time to party and to have fun. Also, if Rice was so intense full of unhappy, cutthroat students, it would not have a 97% retention rate for freshmen and it would not have ranked #1 for Best Quality of Life last year.</p>
<p>slik nik, tell us more how you cotinue to claim that Rice students are laid back because they work together in groups, particularly for the intense science and engineering classes, for which Rice is well known.</p>
<p>@ John Adams: First off, I think you misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying Rice students are lazy. They don’t just sit around and chill all day. Rice academics (especially in the sciences and engineering) are tough, just like at the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Pomona, etc. Rice students are definitely hard workers, especially in their studies. This isn’t Podunk State U here. Being a hard worker and being laid back, in my opinion, is not mutually exclusive. Rice students are laid back in the sense that they BALANCE their academics with a social life. They make time to party, hang out with friends, play intermural sports, get involved in plays, etc. They are laid back in the sense that they are not so concerned about the curve that they will not study or work together with you. On the surface, a typical Rice student is calm, friendly, down-to-earth, and non-judgmental… at least that is what I discovered. Clearly, Rice students are busy with academics and extracurriculars but they don’t show it. Some call it the “floating duck syndrome,” which Stanford is also known for. All these qualities encompass a laid-back student. Anyway, you can disagree with me, but being that you haven’t even spent nearly as much time as I have on Rice’s campus or classes at Rice, I don’t think you are qualified to comment on Rice being laid back or not. Stop ■■■■■■■■ around. Both blackeyedsusan and I only gave a suggestion, and it is up for the OP to visit or talk to current students to see if Rice, as well as all the other schools, is laid back or not.</p>
<p>I’m not going to derail this thread any further. I think the OP gets the point that Rice has many laid back, non-judgmental students. I think its time for more suggestions, instead of beating up on Rice for no reason.</p>
<p>New College of Florida. Very smart kids and intense academics but the open curriculum and environment offer opportunity for a less rigid and structured education and living than other top colleges.
Kinda counter-culture though, so maybe “too laid-back” in a sense.</p>
<p>slik nik, let me see if I can understand this.</p>
<p>So now your definition of “laid back” is a student that balances his academics with a social life. Is that it?</p>
<p>What happened to your old definition of a “laid back” student as one that works together with other students in the class assignments?</p>
<p>by your definition, then just about every university in the country should be defined as “laid back”, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, USC, Williams, Amherst, Penn, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Pepperdine, Tulane, Cornell, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Pomona, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Northwestern, Wisconsin, etc etc</p>
<p>Just to let you know, the students that balance their academics at the high level and intense schools with their social life are many times described as “work hard party hard” students, which by the way, are anything but “laid back”.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m going to step in now and say that although Rice looks like a great school, I’m not interested in it because of its location and smaller size.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions,everyone! Some of the colleges posted by changeinentropy look interesting to me…anymore ideas though?</p>