<p>Can someone please give a perspective on strength of the humanities programs at Rice, namely Romance Languages, History, English, Literature, etc. Who would be Rice's peer group in these areas? Would Rice compare favorably to say Princeton and Stanford in these fields?</p>
<p>Also what is the arts scene like at Rice, namely ballet and modern dance?</p>
<p>Many thanks.</p>
<p>My interviewer told me that the English department was pretty strong- supposedly there are some really awesome teachers.</p>
<p>Humanities at Rice are strong for the most part (including the ones you mentioned, and also philosophy and religious studies). I think we would compete fairly against Duke and Penn and schools like that; Princeton and Stanford are clearly top-notch, but we are at the worst only slightly less "prestigious" than them, and that says nothing about how our teaching quality compares (if anything, our professors do a better job teaching, from what I've heard and witnessed). Of course, this is such a broad area that anything I said is completely debatable.</p>
<p>As for dance, we honestly aren't the artistic powerhouse that some of the ivies have. We have a "dance team" that performs at football games (basically pop-music dancing, if that makes sense) and a "dance theatre" that does more standard dances, maybe ballet and/or modern dance (I've never actually seen them), but they aren't as noticeable on campus as they would be at Princeton, most likely. About half of the LPAPs (kind of like miniature PE requirements -- need two semesters worth to graduate) are of the dance genre, but if you're a skilled dancer, they won't be very useful to you. Other arts are popular around Rice (visual art, music, especially theatre), but I don't think our strong dance activities should be a reason to attend Rice, I'm sorry to say.</p>
<p>Clendenanator,</p>
<p>Thank you. This is very helpful. It is good to here that the Humanities are strong and don't play second fiddle to the sciences and engineering. It is also nice to hear about the teaching quality.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>I'm a English/Poli Sci major, and I love my classes. I could elaborate, but I don't really feel like it right now.</p>
<p>The only thing about being a social sciences/humanities major at Rice is that you get a lot of crap from the science and engineering majors who constantly tell you that they have more work than you do. Then you come into their room at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday and they've been playing Super Smash Bros. for three hours straight, while you've been sitting in your room reading Philip Roth the entire time. More work, indeed.</p>
<p>If you go to Youtube and search by "rice university dance", you will see clips of some of the dance theater's productions. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dd6gsjcJr8%5B/url%5D">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dd6gsjcJr8</a> :)</p>
<p>
Then you come into their room at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday and they've been playing Super Smash Bros. for three hours straight
Yeah, but we pay for that later.</p>
<p>
But my point is that they complain that they don't ever get any sleep, while I get at least a semi-reasonable amount of sleep every night. That could easily be combatted if they worked during the day.</p>
<p>Oh, well, I didn't want to spur an Academs vs. S/Es argument here. Forget it.</p>
<p>Plus, you're generalizing, and generalizations are always bad.</p>
<p>
You want me to be specific? On Sunday night I had to defend myself against three engineers who were telling me how much more work than me they do and how they never get any sleep. Tuesday afternoon, I walked into my next-door neighbors' room to find those same three people playing Smash at 4:30 in the afternoon. They had been playing for three hours.</p>
<p>Specific enough for you?</p>
<p>I was actually joking (hence my "generalizations are always bad" silliness), but I would like to point out that giving a specific example does not mean you can then assume that it holds true for the rest of the S/E's at Rice.</p>
<p>Oh, I missed that little bit of irony. I should know better; I'm an English major.</p>
<p>And I wasn't applying that behavior to all S/Es...I was just going on a rant because I was angry about having to defend myself against bitter S/Es. At least I like my major.</p>
<p>I'm a math major, which is technically "S/E", and I like my major. Plus I don't complain that I have too much work; I'd die if I had all that reading to do (I read ridiculously slowly). BUT, this is way off topic.</p>
<p>Okay, back on topic. Humanities and social sciences at Rice are awesome.</p>