<p>I heard that Rice's tuition is only $20K/year and it links to Baylor Medical school. However, it's in Houston, how bad is the weather?</p>
<p>It's so hot in herre, I wanna take my clothes off ... ump - paump ump</p>
<p>It's really hot. It's like Minneapolis is really cold. Both are quite unpleasant at their worst.</p>
<p>SusieQ, If Hell is an island, Houston is on the humid side.( But Rice is worth it.)</p>
<p>Waaaay on the humid side. It's on the Gulf, you know. Between 60 and 65 percent relative humidity year-round. Check this out: <a href="http://www.cityrating.com/cityhumidity.asp?City=Houston%5B/url%5D">http://www.cityrating.com/cityhumidity.asp?City=Houston</a></p>
<p>Really hot from May to September. Check this out: <a href="http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USTX0617_f.html%5B/url%5D">http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USTX0617_f.html</a></p>
<p>August and September will be very hot. But that's what air conditioning was made for. And Rice has plenty of old oaks to provide shade.</p>
<p>Regarding the humidity, I love it. At age 45, I have no wrinkles.</p>
<p>Hot - yes (particularly Sept), Humid - you don't know humid!</p>
<p>But, unlike the well known exclusive Yankee colleges, most of the academic year is during the wonderful months - mid to late Oct through to May.</p>
<p>According to an old Wall Street Journal article, the British Civil Service used to give two days toward retirement for every single day spent by one of their people at the British Consulate in Houston. One of the few places across the world they did that.</p>
<p>But, as someone pointed out, everything in Houston is air conditioned much the way everything in Minneapolis is heated. You spend very little time outside in the worst of it, and college students in particular dress for the heat. Shorts, tee shirts and flip-flops most of the year.</p>
<p>Is it politically incorrect to say that people watching can be much, much more interesting there? Is it OK if I'm too old to remember why?</p>
<p>Having lived in Chicago and here in Houston, I can tell you that ir gets VERY hot in the summer -August and September are the worst. But that lasts only a couple months and everything is air conditioned - plus there's the beach! Whereas the gloomy miserable winter up north lasted 5 months! (And I remember those miserable days of summer in Chicago when it was very humid and over 100, it just didn't last as long).</p>
<p>I go to Rice, and let me tell you - the reputation of the weather is 1000x worse than the weather actually is.</p>
<p>Now, it can be hot and humid during the summer, and into september, but you won't be here for most of the summer! Your friends up north will be very jealous of you if you send them a picture of you in shorts in January. :)</p>
<p>Actually, in all seriousness I really like the weather I experienced this school year. Don't let the weather discourage you from taking a closer look! </p>
<p>The Rice/Baylor program is absolutely amazing. If you get into that, you owe it to yourself to take a very very good look.</p>
<p>jenskate1, I'm started to get interested in it because I heard my half- brother's daughter, whom I am not that close, graduated semi cum laude from Rice and got into Baylor Medical school. I heard that Baylor is a great medical school. We in California does not even have anything close to this quality, at least not in this price range ($20K). But my d does not like hot weather, so it might affect her grade/performance. Beside my brother lives in Houston so his d probably lives at home during college/medical school, that might explain why his d has such high GPA. What are the advantages of Rice/Baylor combo? What are the opportunities? Is Rice a hard school?
My company does have a branch in Houston that I can move to and avoid the high cost of housing in California,at the same time take advantage of a great college( that if d gets in), but the weather is something else.
Is it as hot as Austin, Tx? or as humid as New Orleans, LA? or worse! I have been to both of these places. Any tornedos or funny weather stuff(lol), we in California only have Earth Quake!
I also noticed while I was in the South that women there have amazing skin, not dry like women in California.</p>
<p>Rice is more than $20K now.</p>
<p>I just looked it up. 2005-2006 tuition is $23,310 and total estimated cost exclusive of transportation is $35,076. Still a good bit cheaper that a lot of private colleges.</p>
<p>SusieQ, the weather in Houston is very similar to that of New Orleans. Austin is just as hot, or hotter, but less humid. No funny weather stuff. It snows once every ten years or so, and then just a few flurries that melt right away. The beach 30 miles away in Galveston is big, but nasty by California standards.</p>
<p>Rice is very hard to get into for Texans, which apply there in droves for a rather small class size. BWRK's from Texas are doomed, and have much better chances at equivalent schools where they are geographically interesting. My sense is Rice's student population is definitely designed to be as diverse and interesting as possible. A west coast female would have a lot less competition for a place, depending on her indicated major. Science and engineering places are ultra-competitive. Liberal arts majors would have an easier time of getting in. The school work is very hard, but anyone with the stats to get admitted will thrive on it.</p>
<p>The weather is considered tropical. That can be both good and bad. But, unlike Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd, Rice's dorms (and all bldgs, for that matter) are air conditioned. Never got why the So. Calif dorms weren't air conditioned. My s. has commented more about the episodic significant rain dumps than the heat or humidity. Sometimes it rains hard and fast, and the ground gets saturated and has trouble absorbing it. So, you get to go puddle jumping. But, like other tropical cities, the storms blow over and it clears up again quickly. </p>
<p>Speaking of tropical, that does mean the occasional risk of hurricanes, given its proximity to the Gulf. </p>
<p>As many others have said, the heat can be strong in August and into part of September, but most of the academic year the weather is stunning. No trudging across the snow to get to class. No bitter cold winds whipping across campus. No icestorms affecting the power or causing you to slip on the stairs. No yukky residue from salt all over your shoes. No slush. Instead, lots of outdoor activities, opportunities to run into your friends sitting outside studying, feeling comfortable when watching collegiate or intramural sports, or participating in them... Need I go on ???</p>
<p>Okay, everyone turn off the flamethrowers. Rice is a fabulous school, a fabulous bargain, even now, and I would not let the weather stop a student from going there - again, students get the full benefit of the best weather, and miss some of the bad weather. Rice is not a state school, it is private, so as someone said, Texans are actually at a disadvantage for admission. Rice is also in a GREAT part of Houston,</p>
<p>Mom is talking about relocating to Houston. I live on the Gulf Coast and have family in Houston, while I live in basically the same climate, we actually get more rain, I would NOT want to live in Houston. I would suggest a prolonged visit to the brother, including a look see at your company's facilities, where they are located in Houston, etc, where you could afford to live to be convenient to work, etc. Part of my aversion is where my family lives in Houston, very flat, featureless, just one subdivision after another - may not be that different from SoCal, but would be a big change from other areas. The area around Rice though, is much more ?interesting, ?stimulating.</p>
<p>Visited campus in mid January...great weather....the area around Rice feels safe, well to do...agree with cangel re: flat,featureless in general.</p>
<p>Cangel-
I didn't read anything as a flame on this thread. Besides, no one would use flamethrowers-- its too hot :)</p>
<p>It's not the heat, it's the humidity!! And the heat--and the kingsized roaches.</p>
<p>Have lived here for 25 years, came from Chicago. And although at my age, I don't do heat very well anymore, the heat isn't that bad. Students miss the worst of it. The humidity makes it seem hotter, but everything is air conditioned - everything. It doesn't affect you that much at all. And yes, we can get deluges and hurricanes, but CA has earthquakes, and heavy rains, as well. So does FL. And the heat in Chicago can be oppressive and many places still aren't air conditioned. When it snows, we call friends, run out and take pictures. The winters up north that lasted 5 months, but seemed more like 8 are worse - they seem to go on forever! New Orleans, where I have been many times, is hotter and more humid. The heat seems more oppressive to me there. Austin has heat, too, but not as humid. But the winter is a tad more winterlike. Dallas has ice storms. San Antonio is very hot, a little less humid, and picturesque. The farther north you go, the more winter you get. But the summers can still be very hot (just as they can be in the midwest.) Yes, Galveston beaches aren't as nice as other states' but they are only about 1 hour away, and lots of kids go there. As to the Rice/Baylor program - it is very prestigious - only about 15 incoming get into it each year. Our val was just accepted into it, and he is thrilled, as we are for him! Wonderful thing - straight glide from undergrad to med school guaranteed if you maintain your grades. The med center is second to none. Lots of outstanding research. Poeple come from all over the world for treatment there.</p>
<p>barrons, oh yeah the bugs are very important too! How about snakes? Anything mean and nasty floating/roaming around Texas that I should know?
This reminds me of my time in Boston, early 80's, in the summer there were tons of caterpillars on the front porch, so gross that it prompted me to seriously consider moving back to California, where the dry heat seems to kill most things,only fruits and nuts(lol) survive.</p>