<p>Hey.</p>
<p>Well first off, what made you want to come to this school? And secondly, how much are you enjoying it? Elaborate about that in terms of athletics, campus, clubs, curriculum, academics, food, social life, city life, things to do, student body, professors, financial help, everything else, etc.
From your overall experience at this university, rate how much you like it on a scale from 1-10.</p>
<p>I am only a freshman, so I have only been here for a couple of months so maybe someone who has been here longer will have a different opinion. Maybe my opinion will change the longer I stay here. </p>
<ol>
<li>I decided to come to this school because of the academic reputation. Other factors that contributed were: cost, location (not because Houston is a great place to live, but because it is nearer to home [Arizona] than UVA or UNC), and campus. I didn't visit the other universities because I ran out of time and travel costs, so I wasn't able to compare the environment much to UNC or UVA. Don't choose a school based on its cost. I know that money is really important, but make sure you choose a place that you are going to be happy at for the next four years.</li>
<li>I am very happy here. Rice does an awesome job at making freshmen welcome here. O-week is awesome and is so much fun. Once you show up, you realize that you are always going to have people here to help you with anything.
I don't know if I am going to talk about all the things that were listed, but I'll try.</li>
<li>Athletics- Football is not big here, because we lose a lot, but I really enjoy going to the Volleyball games here. The Girl's soccer is good too. I don't know why I don't get into the guys' sports so much. I guess football is the only guys' sport right now (basketball is starting soon, so I'll probably go to those games). Not many people come out to the Volleyball games or the Soccer games. It isn't empty, but there are probably like three hundred people at a Volleyball game, that would be considered a good turn-out. I heard that a lot of people come out for basketball. The girls' soccer team was conference champions, so was the girls' cross country. The men's baseball team is really good too. I guess the basic message is that if you enjoy watching a sport than you can always find other people to come and watch with you and have a good time even if the stadium isn't packed.
Intramural and College sports are so much fun too. I won't go into too much detail, but you can check the intrmural website (search for it on the rice website) to see all the different sports.
There are outdoor volleyball courts nearby each college. Autry Gym is lame and ugly, but there are weight rooms and courts. There are a lot of Tennis courts, and one swimming pool (indoors) to do laps on. </li>
<li>Campus- The campus is so gorgeous. Except just this past week they cut down all the bushes around the campus, so the main quad looks really ugly now. The campus is really green and there are squirrels everywhere (not sure if that is a plus, it is for me, because they are sometimes funny to watch)</li>
<li>Clubs- Lots and Lots of clubs for anyone's interests. Look online for a list of clubs.</li>
<li>Academics- Great. Of course you are going to run into some crappy teachers that will make you scratch your head and wonder why they are teaching here, but for the most part all of my teachers are really good. Intro classes are big (Intro to Bio and Gen Chem- 250+), but a lot of people don't show up so more like 100+. </li>
<li>Food- Campus food is pretty good. If you live in one of the residential colleges you have to buy a meal plan too. The cafeterias at each college are decent. I am at Lovett and I think the food is pretty good. It fluctuates a lot though by day, one day it will be good and the next day it will be really gross. You win some you lose some. If you really can't stand your own college's food then you can visit a different college's servery. The better quality serveries are the South servery and the North Servery. These usually have a bigger budget to buy better food because they have to service two or more colleges. Breakfast is by far the worst meal here (except I have never been a fan of breakfast foods), but there is always cereal, so I get by fine. I have heard a lot of Vegetarians complain about the lack of selection here.
Social Life- Good. A lot of partying. I mean a lot. Not everyone participates, and I don't know the exact numbers that don't, but there is always some type of party on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. During O-week you will make friends fast so don't worry about not knowing anyone when you get here. Residential colleges- you kinda only get to meet people at your own college unless you make sure that you socialize with people at other colleges. I know a lot of people outside my college, so it isn't terribly hard, but you do find a lot of people that don't socialize outside their college, which is a shame. If you are a social person, you will become friends with a lot of different people all around campus.
City Life- Houston is a really big city with a lot of things to do, too bad that many Rice students never try to find out what those things are.
Things to do- There is always something to do on campus. I will say that if you aren't a partier (I am not and I don't drink) then you will have to make up something to do yourself on Fri and Sat. It isn't hard, and I don't think that the fact that there is a lot of partying should deter too many people from Rice.
Student Body- there are lots of different people here from all different backgrounds. You will encounter a lot of different political and religious beliefs.
Professors- Really good, but some that aren't so good. But even those professors have students that really like them.
Financial Help- really good. It is pretty affordable for everyone. My financial Aid was pretty good.
Everything else, etc- Texas and Houston shouldn't deter or draw people to come to school here. You are in a huge city, but it seems really small because most students don't leave the campus. This is totally up to you though. I would encourage you to go all around the city to see everything there is to do.</li>
</ol>
<p>My rating: 9 (would be a ten, but I am homesick right now and a little jaded about the amount of drinking there is on campus right now. I do have fun on my own, but I wish that there were more people that wanted to be sober and have fun)</p>
<p>torrestowers-
Glad you are really enjoying Rice. I must admit, though, I am curious about one thing. Has your opinion about the females there changed, now that you've been there a few mos?</p>
<p>HAha- I was actually considering refering to that in this post, but I decided that it was best to leave it out and hope that maybe other people wouldn't remember. I guess I am a little embarrassed about that post and that whole argument that occurred because of it. So to answer your question, yes my opinion has changed about the females since coming here. What's funny is that this weekend was homecoming and I played volleyball with some alumni from '91 and they brought up (I am going to emphasize that they brought this up) this stereotype that the girls at Rice are not good-looking. I think what he said was, "So, is the female situation here the same as it was when I went to school here?" He went further on to say that, "Female engineers and pretty didn't come together (or something to that effect)." I told him that I have met a lot of pretty girls here. So, I am going to apologize again for what I said a couple of months back about this stereotype, especially since I was making this assumption on like a 48 hour campus visit. I have met plenty of good-looking people here and I was an idiot to say what I did.</p>
<p>torrstowers-
Nice post. I remember that my s was told there is a former beauty queen in what is probably now the senior class. Unfortunately I do not know who that is. So, look at all the attractive women and see if you can pick her out :)</p>
<p>Jamie Story, Miss Texas 2004... just in case you were wondering.</p>
<p>Hey Torrestowers, You mentioned the intro classes can be huge. Does this mean that most first year classes (which I am assuming to be intro), are huge?</p>
<p>Not directed at me, but I'll take a stab at it.</p>
<p>Intro classes are generally larger than other classes at Rice. This is true. However, I would not characterize most of them as huge.</p>
<p>I have taken the official "intro" classes in Psych, Linguistics, Chemistry, Physics, and Sociology, as well as intro level (100-level) classes in Philosophy, English, and Music. These classes have ranged from 14 (Music and English) to about 100 (Chemistry), with most of the rest falling somewhere around 75.</p>
<p>So that's a much larger average class size than in the rest of the university, but not huge compared to what you would find at state schools or even other large research universities (Ivies, for instance). </p>
<p>The largest class here is differential equations, followed closely behind by organic chemistry and intro to religious studies. Those range from about 175-210.</p>
<p>Your freshman year, you are not limited to large classes by any means. Take advantage of freshman seminars, which are capped at 25 (My intro english was one of these). Look for the smaller intro classes, and take things like PHIL 103 instead of 101 to shrink the class size by half. Don't be afraid to take upper level classes either!</p>
<p>I agree with Jenskate1. I think that if you were to take any intro Math or Science course, it will probably be large. Intro Bio was large and so was Chem. My Math class had over fifty kids. I also have a Nutrition class that was probably nearing 100. My Spanish class only had 12 students and my Pilates LPAP had about twenty. There are some classes that have to be small, like the language courses and LPAPs and probably most English classes. If you you are a science or engineering major, I think you can expect for most of those intro courses to be large. If you are an academ, I think you will find that most of your courses will be smaller. I know that this isn't true in every case.</p>
<p>I'm a Math. Econ major and my Calc. and Econ classes were extremely small. They broke them up into sections and so the calc. class had 15 and the econ. class had like 6 (that actually came). I also took a 300-level English class (which was awesome) that had perhaps 16 people, a 300-level Spanish class that had 8 people, and an intro to comparative politics class with about 50 people (that was just for lecture, we also had discussion groups that met once a week; mine was only like 10 people). So yes, if you are taking intro to science classes then it will most likely be a bigger-than-normal class size. But overall the class size is small.</p>
<p>Intro Foreign language classes are normally 25 or fewer.</p>
<p>sreis, hezekiah, torrestowers and jenskate1 - thank you for your comments! Please confirm that I would be correct in concluding that the intro classes in science and engineering, tend to be "large" (say 100 or more people). I would be most interested in these areas (rather than say, foreign languages or English) hence, wanted an idea of what to expect for the first two years(?), should I be admitted.</p>
<p>Going back to another question: does anybody know anything about Rose Hulman?</p>
<p>This is directed to torrestowers (or anyone else who knows). </p>
<p>You said that if you don't drink you have to "make up something to do yourself" on Friday and Saturday. I don't drink either, and am definitely not a partier. </p>
<p>Are there people like me at Rice? And how does partying/drinking (or not partying/drinking) at Rice compare to your friends' experiences at other schools? Thanks.</p>
<p>Ria215, I am like you and I am at Rice! There are definitely people like you here. Sometimes they are hard to find though. I don't do the parties every week or every two weeks for that matter. I haven't gone to a party in awhile and I don't drink when I do go. I do go to the big public parties though (with the exception of NOD- google it if you don't already know what it is), but I went to 80's party and Pirate Booty and they were both so much fun. It is great to dance and be a goofball without worrying about it. </p>
<p>For the other Friday nights.... Hmmmm I am trying to figure out what I do. I have a good friend here that doesn't party either and he and I watch movies and recently we have decided to "explore Houston" as we call it. That is, we go around driving trying to find a place that is like a hidden treasure. I find myself watching movies a lot on Friday nights, playing pool, hanging out with friends that are drunk, but still cool, and other stuff. Sorry I can't really think of other stuff at the top of my head because these past couple weeks I have busy on the weekends with other things like hw and studying that I haven't had time to just hang out. You will definitely find other people who aren't into the whole partying scene. A lot of times you might find yourself just relaxing. That might sound lame right now, but you are going to love those times where you can just stop and sit in your room and listen to music or read a magazine or book.</p>
<p>In response to how this compare's to my friends at other schools, all of my friends stayed in Tucson and went to the U of A. There is a lot of partying and all of them were shocked at how widespread it was. All of us from my highschool kinda had a reality check when we went to college. I didn't know it at the time, but apparently my highschool had very little partiers and very little drinking. Everyone knew who the partiers were and they were frowned upon. It was a large public highschool (2100+) in the suburbs. When I came to college and realized how many people drink I was surprised. I asked them if they partied like this in HS and a lot said they did, which surprised me because at my HS none of the "smart" kids were in the partying crowd. So I asked my friends back home and they had the same response. </p>
<p>Drinking is going to be popular at most universities. I think the difference at Rice is that you aren't going to feel pressured to drink. Which is great. If you decide to go to parties and the hosts asks if you want something to drink and you tell them that you don't drink, they will often offer other drinks. It is really weird, but cool. If the hosts knows that I don't drink, they offer me a soda or water. I have been struggling with the decision of whether I should drink because there is still the pressure. People don't pressure me, I pressure myself because I see these other people having fun and I want to let loose a little. I still haven't done it and I don't think that I am going to drink until I am 21. I am fine with that. Don't drink if you don't want to. I know that I was worried when I found out how big partying was here, but there really is not a lot to worry about. I was put in the biggest partier college (Lovett) and I feel comfortable not drinking. If you decide to come to Rice to visit or for some Owl weekend type thing, and you want to meet some non-drinkers we can hang out. At least you will know two people who don't drink (and there are defiinitely a lot more).</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Good question. Compared to my other friends' experiences (at state schools), Rice is undeniably lame when it comes to parties. To say Rice is lukewarm would be a bit of an overstatement. I have trouble finding some friendly action at my college, and typically have to travel abroad. Don't get me wrong, I don't drink much, but I like to be surrounded by people who do (don't ask me why). I am a little disappointed because I expected to see a lot of intimate parties, but it's either a huge public party or boredom. If you like disney movies, boardgames, and cupcakes, you will be at home here.</p>
<p>I don't know if I agree with that last post. Maybe I haven't see much yet. "If you like disney movies, boardgames, and cupcakes, you will be at home here"- which college are you at. I might want to visit one weekend. I haven't experienced any of these things here (exception is the cupcakes- I just had one today at lunch for someone's birthday and I know a girl who likes to bake sweets)</p>
<p>As a sophomore, I would say that there's a lot of both. Definitely people who get trashed every weekend, but also plenty of sporting events, orchestra concerts, movies, TV watching, chilling, club meetings, religious groups, and homework to keep you busy.</p>
<p>I hate to admit it, but I met my boyfriend playing uno. lol.</p>
<p>What in the world? Cupcakes? Boardgames? I haven't stumbled across those yet. I don't drink either, but there is no pressure at all here to drink, in my opinion (unless you pressure yourself). My friends and I have a lot of fun...there is the Galleria, tons of places to eat, or we can hang out in a friend's room and watch movies, have random strobe-light dance parties, etc. So I would say that while it's by no means a wild party school, there's definitely things to do.</p>
<p>"If you like disney movies, boardgames, and cupcakes, you will be at home here"</p>
<p>I'm ashamed to admit it, but that only further proves how perfect Rice is for me. Thanks for all your responses.</p>
<p>What's important to remember is that the "disney movies, boardgames, and cupcakes" statement can be true at Rice IF you want it to be - I think the best part of the Rice experience is that you can shape it into just about anything you want. There are people who play boardgames, watch movies, drive around and explore Houston, go to both public and private parties (without drinking), and anything else you can think of. About once a month during the past semester, my roommate and I (we both don't drink) had board game parties where we got a lot of people together and just played games until really really late, and that was a lot of fun.</p>
<p>As others have said, there's not a lot of pressure to drink here - you can if you want to, but it's fine if you don't. Also, there isn't a huge divide between the people that drink and the people who don't. Some of my friends are drinkers and others aren't, but both groups hang out together.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>