<p>Sorry to take so long to answer your question - </p>
<p>Positive aspects:
So many opportunities to get involved in anything that interests you, starting almost from your first day on campus.
Location - surrounded by the TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER, museum district and rice village.
Cost - it costs half as much as the ivys, but is way better than half as good, so it makes sense. (plus baylor is also a great value)
Classmates - no one is competing with you for grades, and they really want to learn, almost without exception.
Weather - seriously, since you miss the summer, houston is quite lovely.
The administration - they treat you like adults. There are no upperclassmen RA's policing you. This is actually something that makes Rice very different from other colleges, even though it doesn't seem like a big thing now. </p>
<p>Negative aspects:
Food - it's not too bad, but being home right now, i don't really miss the food at school.
Distance - it's far from home and no one from my high school ever goes there
Drinking - there's a lot of it. And people need to learn their limits.
Lack of name recognition and major texas phobia at home.</p>
<p>Prof's interactions and class size:
My classes so far have ranged from 7 (SOCI 465 - Sociology of gender and health) and 12 (ENGL 100 - Lit and Film of the Vietnam War), to 118 (LING/ANTH 200 - Intro to the study of language) and 154 (CHEM 121 - General chem w/lab)
Professors in both the big and small classes are so available and really care about their students. My Chem professor always held late night review sessions before tests, would promptly respond to e-mails, etc. Once, she even planned to come over to our dorm one night to help a group with their homework. My psych prof arranged to meet with each of the 52 students in class individually during the first 2 weeks of classes, just so she could get to know us. And then she cried on the last day. All of the profs have office hours that you can go to, and they really care about you both in their class and outside. Every time I've gone to a prof's office hours, they ask me how my semester is going, etc. Any they really listen, too.</p>
<p>Rice is, to some extent a party school, but there is more to it. And not everyone parties. But yes, there is no shortage of alcohol on campus, and there is always something to go to, but there is no pressure to do so, and you will get an excellent education at Rice.</p>
<p>Rice has no med school, so I assume that you were asking about Baylor. It's right across the street (well, actually a couple streets) from Rice, in the Texas Medical Center. If you've never been to the Texas Medical center, I should let you know that basically, it's a city onto itself. It has 13 hospitals (which will be you classrooms, essentially), 2 medical schools, a school of public health, nursing schools, schools of pharmacy, etc. 42 institutions about, all together. To give you an idea of its size, it has more parking than shea stadium, yankee stadium, and giants stadium COMBINED. So basically, it is a pretty amazing place to go to medical school, because you get to learn about pediatrics in one of the nations premire children's hospitals, about cancer in one of the nation's premire cancer hospitals, heart surgery in the hospital where it was pioneered, etc. BCM (baylor college of medicine) is, like rice, a truly fabulous value. Go on <a href="http://www.bcm.tmc.edu%5B/url%5D">www.bcm.tmc.edu</a> and you can find out about tuition costs and compare them to other top med schools. You'll probably be pleased with what you find. One more interesting thing about BCM is that you are seeing patients from the very first week, instead of waiting 2 years. Also, your lecture-based learning is only 18 months, instead of the normal 2 years, so that's really good. And obviously they make it work, because BCM is very highly respected, and their grads get great residencies.</p>