I’m a sophomore at Rice studying Computer Science and felt that the information in that thread isn’t 100% accurate. Here are somethings about Rice that this thread hasn’t mentioned/hasn’t been completely accurate about:
- Classes
Almost all engineering departments have been severely overloaded in recent years. The core freshman CS class has grown by about 30% for the third year in a row. Next semester we have 260 kids taking the class, roughly 25% the size of the class of 2021. While it hasn’t been particularly difficult getting into classes, this is largely due to an increase in cap size of existing classes as opposed to an increase in diversity of class offerings. In fact, the diversity of classes offered at Rice is quite poor, but not unexpected due to the small university size. The CS department has been scrambling to hire more faculty, but it is still not nearly enough. In addition, the CS department isn’t very “modern” in the sense that it is behind in the field of Machine Learning and doesn’t offer many up-to-date classes.
Also, they didn’t crank up the difficulty for that class! The weeding out hasn’t been different from usual, and there has certainly been no fallout.
- Food
Food definitely varies in terms of quality depending on which one of the serveries is closest, but it’s only an additional 2-3 minute walk to walk to a servery that is better than the one that is closest to your dorm. The best serveries (West and Seibel) offer amazing food - almost restaurant grade, and even the worse serveries offer decent food. I’ve been to a couples friends campuses in the states and Rice food is way better. There are people here who genuinely look forward to the next meal. Although some people complain about having to buy a full meal plan, most people don’t mind it. People rarely complain about the quality of the food.
- Recruiting
Rice is probably a top school, but recruiting is fairly poor. There are many top companies, such as Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Apple, who don’t come to Rice to recruit.
- Housing availability
Whilst it’s true that people don’t always get to stay on campus for all 4 years (it actually happens very often. In the past, most people who want to stay all 4 years get to stay all 4 years.), everyone is guaranteed 3 years. In fact, this year has been the first year my college has had to kick people off, and thats largely due to the huge freshman class. That’s much better than a lot of other schools! In my experience, the large majority of schools will kick people off after their sophomore year.
That being said, I’ve been very happy with my choice to come to Rice! If anyone has any more questions, I’d be happy to answer them!
@hebegebe LOL, I grew up right by Wash-U in the really poor neighborhood, or as many call it the ghetto, and boy howdy do I have stories for you
@ChiGuy123 @Rice2020 Huge thanks to you guys’ thorough replies. I’m visiting Rice right now get a feel of the place and your input is very insightful…
I agree with most of what the other posters have said, with the exception of recruiting.
Take financial services, for example: unlike what an earlier poster said, Goldman Sachs does indeed recruit on campus. Even in just the two years I’ve been here, the number in the huge “bulge bracket” firms and boutiques coming to Rice has increased significantly. A lot of firms/companies, not just in the financial sector, have only just opened branches in Houston in the last 5-10 years, and some are just beginning to establish connections with us.
For computer science, I know grads heading to all of the big names: Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. Some may not recruit on-campus yet, but students certainly are able to get interviews through alum connections and school-sponsored trips to tech conferences.
For engineering and medicine, Rice’s name obviously carries a lot of weight. Consulting is perennially strong. What we’re actually weak in terms of is nonprofit/government/liberal arts recruiting, although there’s just a lack of market demand for these grads and it’s hard everywhere (I say this as a proud humanities student).
Something that most people don’t think of is that we’re the best school in Texas and definitely in the Houston area. Houston has the second largest number of Fortune 500 companies, second only to NYC, so when these places hire, they come to Rice first. That’s a huge advantage.
I think there’s a difference between being recruited and obtaining an opportunity. Rice students are generally ambitious and ambitious people tend to find a way regardless of where they are at. I still question whether Rice students have been able to succeed after Rice because of Rice or because of their own talents and accord. I’m sure if most Rice students had went to a different (e.g., lower ranked) school instead, they still would have succeeded in finding a more than respectable pathway.
The primary problem with Rice’s recruiting is perhaps associated with a bit of entitlement. We all expect to easily be handed a bunch of offers because we go to a highly ranked university. In public universities, where there are probably hundreds of employers at their career fairs, we see our peers obtain the same positions and get frustrated that we are at the same level at the end of the day.
However, there is some truth to our complaining. I had a friend literally tell me that a recruiter from Boeing, perhaps one of the most respected aerospace companies in America, had not heard of Rice. I’ve also had employers tell me, during an interview for a job, that they haven’t heard of Rice either. People say that companies who matter will know Rice’s name. But when you’re already down in the count and are trying to land a specific opportunity, every company matters. And unfortunately, not every company will recognize Rice. It’s fantastic that Rice is able to attract companies that hand out well paying jobs. Here, basically anyone of any major has a chance at a consulting career and those majoring in comp sci can basically acquire a software position in the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. But still, many common sectors, such as manufacturing, chemical, aerospace, and medical to name a few, are limited or simply missing from career expos. There have been some recent articles published in Rice’s newspaper indicative of common frustrations regarding the recruiting, specifically the career expo. Although they should always be taken with a grain of salt, the articles do represent the opinions of a significant number of students.
http://www.ricethresher.org/article/2017/09/students-perceive-inequality-in-career-fair
http://www.ricethresher.org/article/2017/09/editorial-ccd-must-address-more-student-interests
http://www.ricethresher.org/article/2017/10/students-have-the-right-to-want-more-from-the-ccd
Alright I’ve gotten ahead of myself. I didn’t want to turn this thread into a single topic argument, but this was a touchy subject that I personally had a lot of frustration with so I have a sensitive spot for it. Basically, the con about recruiting is that Rice doesn’t open up as many avenues as you expect for a top university, unless it’s consulting, oil/gas, or software, in which case they basically operate a 5 lane highway.