<p>I know you had nice weather... :)</p>
<p>Yes, the weather was nice. I enjoyed Visions and was amazed at how the campus looks. My host was very helpful as well as the other Rice students who volunteered. I learned a lot about life at Rice and the academics of such a prestigous school. The classes I attended where interesting and the other "prospies" were fun to meet and get to know. Overall I was amazed with the whole program and the school and only wish we had more time there. I am counting the days to April when the regular decisions come out because Rice is definitely my top choice!</p>
<p>I loved Rice! The program was really well organized, and my host was great. Everyone was so friendly & I loved the close-knit community in the residential college I stayed in. The workshops for natural sciences & pre-med were really good, and the lab I visited was amazing. I'm going to have a really hard decision to make come April!</p>
<p>Yeah,the weather was nice, but I already live in the Houston area.</p>
<p>My host was wonderful; she was very real, although most of the time she kind of disappeared and let us do our own thing. She told me the pros and cons of being a minority at Rice (trust me there were more pros than cons!! :)...but some of the cons were slightly alarming). The other "prospies" were wonderful; I am still in contact with four of them. The alumni at the dinner was amazing! They made me want to come to Rice even more, because at that point I was kind of leaning towards a "no". </p>
<p>The reason why I was leaning towards "no" was because the classes were very dissapointing...atleast the social science classes. Even though, I attended only three of them, all three left much to be desired. Also, it's not as if I go to an elite boarding or private school; some may label my high school as underperforming; I'm not used to wonderful classes, so my expectations weren't set at an unattainable level. The social science classes that I attended (I didn't attend all of the classes on the list, so I'm not going to generalize) were not very interesting, challenging, and was full of apathetic students who seemed like they didn't want to be there. I thought it was just me who noticed the lack of intellectual excitement, but my two roomies, other prospies, also noticed the same things, and they were also on the verge of saying "no" to Rice, until the alumni dinner. I talked to one of the Rice students about the class, and he basically said "the hardest part is getting in,...humanities and social science majors are known for being less stressful than math or science, you can coast on by, all the way to graduation if you want to". He did counter that statement by pointing out that Rice has an excellent Career Center, great job placement, and multiple opportunities for research and internships within the city of Houston. If this was only one person saying this type of thing, I wouldn't have really taken note of it. Many other students that I talked to said the same thing, even my host made similar remarks.</p>
<p>On the upside, some of the other prospies that I talked to seemed to really enjoy the classes that were in the humanities, mathematics, or sciences. I'm hoping that I selected classes that were just having a bad day or weren't representative of the classes that Rice has to offer.</p>
<p>After meeting the alumni, prospies, and admissions officers, I am currently undecided on whether or not I want to go to Rice. They honestly shifted my decision from a "no" after attending those classes to a maybe leaning towards a "yes". They kind of have me thinking that maybe what I learn in class is the exact same way in how it is taught and the knowledge of it as it would be at any other university, but the quality of people and the whole college experience at Rice makes it one in a million. Half of me wants to attend because of the caring environment and friendly people, while another part of me is wary of the classes in the social sciences and the cons that multiple people pointed out about the social life (or rather lack of) for a minority on campus.</p>
<p>Overall, I am glad that I attended Visions. It was a very eye-opening experience, and it made me consider factors that I would never have considered before. I will have a very hard decision to make...</p>
<p>thesiren...I didn't attend any social science classes so I can't submit my opinion on them. I attended an Intro to Quantum Physics class, Engineering Mechanics, and Problems of Philosophy. The students in the physics class seemed fairly engaged and there was a good amount of participation in the form of questions and discussion, given it was a 300 level course so the students were obviously interested in physics. The engineering class was taught by professor who explained concepts well and, in my opinion, he was easy to follow. The philosophy course, like the physics, included students who were interested in the course. I could sense the intellectual stimulation going on and the professor seemed very interested in the subject matter. Overall my class experience was pretty good, which may be partly due to me being very interested in the subjects.</p>
<p>thesiren72102 what cons did your host mention?</p>
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<p>I wasn't saying as a whole that all Rice classes were bad, but the ones that I went to (which just happened to be in the social sciences) weren't that impressive. I heard great things about the Problems of Philosophy class, though.</p>
<p>To MenalQ: I will send you a PM.</p>
<p>what classes did you attend, thesiren? i have a feeling they pointed you guys out to a bad selection of courses. for example, my 10am philosophy course is taught by the head of the department and has great lectures and there were no prospies in there. my other philosophy course, which is taught by a GRAD STUDENT, had probably 6 prospies in a class of 15. that is just a mistake. students may have 1-2 courses out of 35 or more taught by a grad student, so this is not even close to a good representation of rice courses on that level. and further some grad students are very good. i felt pretty mad at so many prospies attending probably one of the worst courses possible to attend.</p>
<p>oh yeah, and mikeviking, i was talking about Problems of Philosophy. i honestly don't know how you sensed intellectual stimulation in that course because that is by far the worst course i have had at Rice (out of 20 courses i think). the teacher is not a professor. the students are mostly looking for an easy D1 course. that is the class i bring my laptop to so that i can look up more entertaining stuff on the internet. there is even one engineering guy in there who literally stares at the wall for 50 minutes and tries his hardest not to absorb the evil philosophical debate going on around him. i'm happy you liked it, though ;) that is fortunate for you.</p>
<p>I sent you a PM about the classes I attended. You should'nt be mad at the prospies! We just didn't know any better; my host couldn't help us out on which courses had good professors or were bad, because she had not taken any of the courses from any of the professors on the list. Also, we didn't think to check the website, where it ranks the professors and the courses based on how good or bad they are. Since you mentioned that the courses could've been taught by a graduate student...now that I think about it, that may have been the case (but I'm not sure). Will there be a chance that I will be able to attend a different set of classes before may?</p>
<p>if you are at Rice, you can attend any course you want. i was mad at prospies attending those courses (not at them) and thought it was a mistake that they were directed or recommended to go there.</p>
<p>True. I just wish that we could have attended some afternoon classes. On the bright side, the food at Jones is great!!</p>
<p>i have no idea who makes those lists. they are not popular classes and are professors that i haven't even heard of. why they would choose a class with a grad student is beyond me. must be the registrar.</p>
<p>On the list there was no indication whether or not the classes were taught by a grad. student. Even though this may sound like a stupid question, but does the guide book for classes list whether or not the person teaching the course is a professor or grad. student?</p>
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Also, we didn't think to check the website, where it ranks the professors and the courses based on how good or bad they are.
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<p>What website are you talking about, thesiren72102?</p>
<p>the schedules say who is teaching it. you can check what kind of position that person holds by looking at the department's webpage. they have course reports on the registrars website that are all numerical based on a survey and the SA's website has a course guide which are written reviews.</p>
<p>As a Social Science major, I have taken classes in 2 Social Science departments: Sociology and Psychology. I too would be interested in which classes you attended. I have, of course, liked some of my social science classes more than others, but I've thought they were good for the most part. The Sociology Department faculty have won more teaching awards per capita than any other department, and there are some really well liked profs in the other Social Sciences as well (A few Psych profs come to mind immediately).</p>
<p>To Februaryrain: There are some websites (I'm not sure if Rice has one specifically) where students rate the professors and classes at the school. Although anyone can log onto these websites not sponsered by the school specifically, if most of the comments are negative, it should give you a general warning to ask some students and find out what is up with all the bad reviews.</p>