<p>I was wondering- does attending Rice (especially Freshman year at Rice) involve a lot of work? About how much does the average student study a day? I'm under the impression that it's a lot more work and more competitive high school (obviously), but you have a lot more time do the work- that how much free time you have is dependent on your time management skills.</p>
<p>I think it depends on your major.</p>
<p>The comparison to high school depends a whole lot on where you went to high school.</p>
<p>supposedly orgo is beastly</p>
<p>There is plenty of reading if you are majoring in philosophy; perhaps 500 to 600 pages a week. I have conflicting testimonies so I am unsure.</p>
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<p>isn't orgo beastly at every top university?</p>
<p>I think it depends on your major and course selection. My daughter attends and is organized and motivated because she enjoys learning things. She actually seems to have MUCH more social time than in high school, when she was stressed with school work, ECs, etc. At Rice she is frequently going out to dinner at ethnic restuarants, hanging out, playing club or intermural sports, going out for coffee, parties, etc. Granted, she's not taking org! We talked to an Engineering senior when daughter was considering Rice, and asked about workload and stress. The senior said she never felt particularly stressed until now - which was her senior year - as she realized that undergrad years were coming to an end and now she'd have to enter the "real" world and make some choices for career or more school. That was good to hear!</p>
<p>Yeah. I go to a pretty competitive high school, and although the work isn't particularly hard in itself, there's a lot of it and only a 4 hour window in which to get it done. I think college will be much easier, because there'll be a lot more time to do work.</p>
<p>By the way, what's orgo?</p>
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<p>yeah what is orgo?
ive heard the architecture programme is tough.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry, I think.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry. It's used to weed out pre-med students. I don't know if it is particularly harder than other upper level chemistry courses or whether it just takes a toll on all the pre-med students who aren't chemistry majors. My undergrad, pre-med roommate dropped orgo and took it at the community college over a summer. He is now a successful physician, so it is possible to survive it.</p>
<p>I haven't found Orgo to be that bad, I think Bio is more difficult. My mistake was taking them both at the same time. I managed a B in orgo last semester, but I was able to get two A-'s on my first two exams. It's not impossible, it just takes work.</p>
<p>is bio really that hard?</p>
<p>For me it is, but I have a more mathematical mind and am able to "reason" or "deduce" chemical mechanisms. Bio is more memorization, which is difficult since I'm slightly ADD. I wish now that my school had offered AP Bio, but I know that a lot of students are OK with Bio and find Orgo to be more difficult.</p>
<p>Although almost all science students come in with AP credit, some want to retake the courses. Although you will probably gain more knowledge from these courses, a year of Physics, Bio and Orgo (which are all required if you're pre-med) isn't fun.</p>
<p>Rice involves a lot of work. If you are an Engineer or an Architecture major, in involves even more. But you can make your Rice experience as painless or as painful as you want it to me. I was a double major, and when Rice started the BS program for biology, I decided to finish with a double degree (a BA and a BS). This means that I am taking 19 hours and am quite possibly insane. That's ok, you get used to it. What I could never handle is all the reading that my "academ" (that's basically a non-math, non-science, non-engineering person) roommate had to do for her degree, it was insane. As for being in class less, this again, depends on you. A lot of SE's (see definition of what is not an academ) work in labs. This can take up a lot of time, but you can get credit for it, or get paid. Some labs, like the infamous 7 hour protein lab, are required for a major. So while at times it feels like there is not enough time to do everything you have to do, things always get done, eventually.
What is orgo? Oh you blessedly un-tainted posters you. Even the English majors will know what orgo is, because every science major and pre-med will do nothing but complain about it for a year. It is organic chemistry. I did not find it as hard as Physics, but it just depends on how you think.</p>
<p>If you're in the humanities, Rice is not hard at all. The profs are really laid back, and probably very much into their own research that they just kind of skim your papers and give you a good grade. I've never heard of anyone getting below a B- except for one professor.</p>
<p>How are the labs in college? Even though I'm a hardcore science nerd, I hate the labs. AP Chemisty is like AP Home Economics- it's just a lot of mixing, stirring, cooking, with very little actual science involved (I mean, don't they have factories to make these chemicals?).</p>
<p>Depends on the class, what you described sounds quite a lot like gen chem lab (which is what AP tests you out of), but bio lab (211) is kind of different - you have to keep a lab notebook, and write up papers like you would for publication, kind of.</p>
<p>But if you want to do science, just find a prof and start doing independent work with him/her.</p>