<p>Being a Houstonian and wanting to get away from my hometown, I didn't really consider Rice. But after hearing how happy its students are, I'm starting to reconsider, since the #1 thing I'm looking for in a school is how happy I would be, and that includes being surrounded by people with a melting pot of interests. I'm probably gonna be a bit of an undecided person, so a pre-pro. feel isn't for me at all. I just want someone to clarify if it is or not.</p>
<p>Go spend some time on campus. The students are serious, but fun. Rice’s programs aren’t technically what you would call “pre-professional”, but generally, any bachelor’s degree esentially is “pre-professional”. </p>
<p>If you have schoolmates who currently attend Rice, talk to them about their experiences.</p>
<p>If you are a generally happy person, you likely will be happy at any school that you choose.</p>
<p>Crazymom, I’m not sure what you mean by stating that “Rice’s programs aren’t technically what you would call ‘pre-professional’” since Rice obviously has a great record of sending kids off to medical/dental school as well as law school.</p>
<p>I think it depends on what exactly the OP means by “pre-pro.” True, a lot of Rice students go on to med/law/business school, and while Rice does have specific clubs etc for these students I wouldn’t define it as pre-professional in the same way somewhere like, say, Emory is. Rice has more of a focus on getting a degree for the sake of learning than on getting a degree for the sake of getting into another degree program.</p>
<p>^exactly what I meant.</p>