<p>I've been told that Rice employs some sort of residential college affiliation system (similar to Yale's). Can someone explain in detail what this system entails to me? What are its advantages and disadvantages? Does it seem to be working well or poorly? I heard that one of the goals of such models is to build college community and increase inter-class interaction. Has the res-college model done this? If not, has it done anything else (either positive or negative for the school?).</p>
<p>I would, of course, be more curious to hear what current students have to say, but I'd appreciate any feedback on this aspect of Rice life from anyone who has knowledge about the school. </p>
<p>Hi Jenskate, I am from Long Island too. You seem to know a lot about Rice. Do you know when the decisions will be available online? Also, I would like to know what other schools you turned down for Rice. I originally applied ED to Penn and got deferred but Rice remains a top choice for me. It just seems that many people haven't heard of the school. I would like your input on that. Thanks</p>
<p>I am actually from the North Shore part of Long Island near Great Neck-Manhasset-Roslynn, idk if you this town, but it seems pretty well known. We send some really top kids all over the country to some of the best schools--all the ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc and none to Rice in the last 4 years. We had two perfect 1600s this year and over 15 kids scored in the 1500s, I only had a 1450, which is considered "decent" in my crazy school.</p>
<p>OK, I will now answer these questions - then more reading :(</p>
<p>My personal thoughts on residential colleges:
They really enable students to meet and interact with students from different backgrounds, with different interests and opinions, and of different ages/majors/etc. Which is good. You can learn a lot by being with and living with people who are differnt from you. We do have a great sense of community within your college, and your college does become part of your identity. When you meet someone, you very often ask where they are from - and you mean college, not hometown. I like that the freshmen aren't segregated from the rest of the school - being with the upperclassmen means that you will have plenty of other students to show you the ropes. I like having college masters - they are like surrogate parents who drink a little to much. lol. maybe that's just my college. It's also really nice to have a dining facility at your college so that you don't have to walk all the way across campus for meals. This makes meals a little more family-like than schools that just have one huge food court. So those are some of the main advantages of the college system.
Some disadvantages are that it's a little harder (though not by any means impossible) to make friends from the other colleges. Also, it's difficult to switch colleges if you are less than thrilled with yours - no one really switches. A lot of events are based in the colleges - this is not to say that there aren't campus wide events, because there certainly are, but they aren't as well attended as college based events, so it tends to make the campus a little fractured. Overall though, I think the college system is really great, and something that really makes Rice distinctive.</p>
<p>I applied ED to Rice. It offers a lot more, in my opinion than most of the Ivies (none of which I liked when I visited - too graduate focused, too many TAs, large classes, too expensive and you weren't getting anything for the extra money). If I hadn't gotten accepted to Rice, I planned to apply to 7 other schools - Pomona, Stanford, Wellesley, Northwestern, Emory, University of Rochester, and Stony Brook University.
It's true that a lot of people on LI (and in the northeast in general) haven't heard of Rice - which frustrates me to no end. However, the new president of Rice is a New Yorker, and he is committed to changing Rice's lack of repuation in the northeast and in other parts of the country. You should realize though, that among people "in the know" - grad school admissions offices, large companies looking to hire recent college grads, people knowledgeable about higher education in general - have by and large heard of and respect Rice.</p>
<p>yeah UR is like that, basically no one has heard of it, but it seems well known among the science/medical community, and slowly on the rise...i mean we are safe as long as the intellectual community has heard of it.</p>
<p>In fall 2003, there were 1,484 male undergrads and 1,338 female undergrads. (53:47 ratio) It's pretty close. There used to be colleges that were single sex, but all of them are now coed.</p>
<p>Jen, do you ever feel claustrophobic at Rice?
I've always considered Rice's small size to be an advantage until I imagined what it would be like to see the same people every day. By no means am I interested in attending a school that is over 10,000 students, but I wouldn't want to feel as if I'm back in high school (student body is nearly 700). </p>
<p>P.S. How is the food at Rice? I haven't read positive things about it, so I'm just wondering.</p>
<p>I don't feel claustrophobic. Nope. The thing is, you are with the same 750 kids in your class the whole time, but there are also 750 new kids to meet every year, which is good. Yes, you do see the same people every day, especially because of the college system, but I don't mind that. There are always plenty of people on campus that I have never met, and if I want to meet them, all I have to do is sit down next to them in class or at a club meeting, sporting event, etc. My high school was about 1800 students and this feels a lot bigger.</p>
<p>The food at rice depends a lot on where you live - generally the bigger the servery, the better. But you can eat at any of them, so you aren't limited. The servery food is actually pretty good i think, and food at lovett is ok...my advice is not to go to will rice. i did that once, and only once.</p>
<p>to get back to Ricemom, more info on all female colleges: The last college to go coed was Brown in 1987.</p>
<p>ooh!! li fulk ^0^ <-- from eastport/commack area ^^* eheh.
applied to rice rd.. read about the running naked w/ shaving cream thing 0_0
..scary
..they really do that? twice a month!? omg ahahah WOW
and i thought rice was full of focused (nerdy) kids....
..is that a good thing or a bad thing?</p>
<p>Cool, my dad went to commack hs and my grandparents still live in that area.
They really do run baker 13, and they rarely miss a night. However, it's generally like 4 guys, so it's not really a huge deal. The only times that it's a lot of people is halloween and the last one before graduation.</p>
<p>woww i woulda gone to commack hs had i still lived in ny.. still have friends there ^_^ that's so cool!
..small world..
rofl i have got to see this :-P</p>
<p>Double rooms:
Pros:
Hallway rooms are conducive to meeting people
Only one roommate to deal with (sharing, talking too loud on the phone, bad music, etc)</p>
<p>Cons:
Hallway bathrooms (ew)
If you don't get along with your roommate there isn't anyone else there to talk to.</p>
<p>Suite:
Pros:
More selection so you'll probably have at least one other cool person in your suite.
Suite Bathrooms!
Usually you'll have a common room (good for "entertaining")</p>
<p>Cons: When other people are in the bathroom you generally have to stay out, and people who shower at weird times might wake you.
What if your suitemates get along with each other but not with you. That doesn't really ever happen, but I worried about that when I was picking.</p>
<p>Anyway, i don't think your stated preference counts for much.</p>